Can alcohol cool a pc better than the water it's self?

[polandball2]

OK I have seen a crazy video online regarding a gamer using VODKA (YES, DRINKABLE VODKA) as a way to cool his PC. this is a Gamer's request towards his majesty of tech, Mr LTT himself to do a DIY Project like this. Is this just even possible? the only item you will need is drinkable alcohol. i will put up a video from the gamer that posted it as well as JayTwoCents's video regarding beer cooling PC.

 

[lmeneses]

As JazyTwoCents said in his video, it is possible, but the beer will soon start to rot and ultimately become corroded onto the pipes leaving a disgusting mess. Also, it does not cool as efficiently as water 

[Himommies]

You can,but I would also like to point out that  in the long term alcohol will crack acrylic/petg 

[polandball2]

but would vodka work? that's my question.

[Himommies]

Just now, polandball2 said:

but would vodka work? that's my question.

in the long term no?
 

[polandball2]

but think of different tubing and main reservoir. would it work?

[PlayStation 2]

There's usually a reason why water with the proper coolant shit is used rather than alcohol like beer and vodka.

Those spoil and can really fuck up things once they start spoiling, water doesn't usually spoil and, while it can fuck up things if you don't catch it, can be worked with easier.

[Himommies]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

There's usually a reason why water with the proper coolant shit is used rather than alcohol like beer and vodka.

Those spoil and can really fuck up things once they start spoiling, water doesn't usually spoil and, while it can fuck up things if you don't catch it, can be worked with easier.

It also helps that alcohol literally melts plastic.Beer dosen't spoil and some manufactures actually recommend leaving it for a year.IDK what it is for high alcohol content drinks.Beer also dosen't really change from temperature change either(as long as your using a filtered beer)

[ARikozuM]

The boiling point of alcohols are going to be much lower than what your PC would output. This would lead to increased pressure as the liquid turns to vapor. 

 

Best thing would be water (100C) and a solute that will raise the boiling point sufficiently through colligative properties, such as what's done with antifreeze, or by utilizing another liquid's boiling point, significantly harder.

[DakVampyre]

12 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

There's usually a reason why water with the proper coolant shit is used rather than alcohol like beer and vodka.

Those spoil and can really fuck up things once they start spoiling, water doesn't usually spoil and, while it can fuck up things if you don't catch it, can be worked with easier.

You should do some more research...  only Beer will spoil due to 2 reasons.... The first would be that the alcohol content isn't high enough to keep the fluid sterile, the other reason is due to the barley. 

Vodka wouldn't spoil because of 1 major reason.. Any guesses?  

Very good class... It's high alcohol content...lol 

 

Now as for the longevity of using Vodka in a flexible line.. I agree that eventually the hose will get dried out and brittle from the alcohol in the Vodka, but with a hard plastic tube, that should last a very long while.  Any guesses  as to why? 

That's absolutely right class... If we were worried about the alcohol breaking down a hard plastic, then we wouldn't store it in plastic bottles at Liquor stores, bars, hotels, or airplane mini-fridges....etc...rofl  

 

Which means... yes you can use Vodka as the coolant in your system, if you plan on running hard plastic lines.  As far as it cooling any better or not... that is yet to be determined, but would make for a very good high school science project...lol

[Mick Naughty]

Just do it and find out. Plenty of research on it and why it isn’t a viable option. 

[ARikozuM]

I would look at motor oils before considering alcohol’s vastly lower boiling point. The loop would have to consider having a cooling coil for the alcohol to have any meaningful effect.

[DakVampyre]

12 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

The boiling point of alcohols are going to be much lower than what your PC would output. This would lead to increased pressure as the liquid turns to vapor. 

 

Best thing would be water (100C) and a solute that will raise the boiling point sufficiently through colligative properties, such as what's done with antifreeze, or by utilizing another liquid's boiling point, significantly harder.

Your assumption of the boiling point being lower in alcohol than that of water is a valid point.... However... If he assures that all hose connections don't leak, and that the unit is properly bled of all air bubbles, therefore making it a sealed system.

In a sealed system, the boiling point is marginal, and he wouldn't have to worry about vapor unless he did have a leak somewhere.  You mentioned antifreeze... Now that doesn't work for PC cooling because a few different reasons, but the main one is in the name...lmao   Automobile type ANTI-FREEZE is designed for 1 purpose and 1 purpose only... Any guesses?

 

So it could be possible to use Vodka, but we have no basis for comparison.

[DakVampyre]

II like the OP's question... He raises a very good debate topic...lol  

 

Now some of you are shouting NO NO NO... while others, are IDK, and the rest of us are like Hmmm I wonder...lol  Well the only true way to know for sure is for someone to actually say what the hell, let's try it and find out.. 

 

I saw that someone had mentioned boiling point... Which gave me an idea as well.  If it's temps, boiling points, and effectiveness of the fluid we are using in the set-up, there are a couple really effective options with a boiling point a lot higher than water.  

One such fluid we use every day if we drive a car.. NO it is NOT Ant-Freeze...lol

It's a fluid with a very high boiling point, and it's used to save peoples lives...  This fluid is "Dot 3 Brake Fluid"... Which does work a lot better than water would in the applications we use it for. 

 

So to go along with the Op's idea of trying something new....  

Could it possibly work?

Why wouldn't it work?

What would be the long term effects if any?

[Havardr]

Here is a list of different substances and their thermal conductivity. https://www.google.no/amp/s/www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amp/thermal-conductivity-liquids-d_1260.html

[porina]

Isn't one of the benefits of water is that it has a relatively high heat capacity?

 

Anti-freeze isn't a general problem. It was popular in the old old days before more dedicated products came along. It was used more for its anti-corrosion and biocide properties than improving performance though.

 

If anyone has the cash to do it, I have wondered if simply replacing water with heavy water would provide much benefit.

[ARikozuM]

@DakVampyre Colligative properties tells us that as you add solutes to a solvent the boiling point increases and the freezing point decreases. Anti-freeze is used to depress the freezing point, but by doing so elevates the boiling point of its solvent. The name “anti-freeze” is just a name given for its purpose, not all of its functions. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be adding it to vehicles in warmer climates like the southern states or Mexico. 

 

Brake fluid could work, but a stronger pump may be necessary since the viscosity of DOT3 is higher (I can’t verify if a normal pump is able to produce significant flow in DOT3).

[For Science!]

As same as the gallium cooling thread, same theory applies here. Tge coolant identity makes limited to no impact on the dissipation of energy from the system.

 

The fluid is not what is actually cooling the system. Air is cooling the radiators that has heat brought to it by the fluid+pump. Since the waterblock-->fluid-->radiator transfer steps are not the rate limiting (radiator-->air usually is the limiting step) the identity of thr coolant doesnt matter as long as it is reasonably not viscous and better than air. 

 

This is why things like ethylene glycol can be used just fine although it is less conductive. Similarily, using something very conductive like gallistan is also probably pointless since youre not improving the rate limiting step.

 

However there are other reasons as to why alcohol is not good. Acrylic and o-ring degradation. So it doesnt help, but can hurt, looks just like water. pointless.

 

Changing the cooling gas to something other than air on the otherhand may actually bring improvements. Remember the coolant is only the middleman between the components and the radiator, conventional liquid cooling is still air cooling.

[elcamino85h]

Brake fluid will melt plastics

[Tam3n]

Methanol water mixture is best for low temperature cooling applications. It's the worst for your health though...

[Ross Siggers]

On 9/16/2018 at 3:11 PM, ARikozuM said:

I would look at motor oils before considering alcohol’s vastly lower boiling point.

The boiling point of motor grade oil is very high yes, but it also relies on very high operating temperatures to reach it's correct viscosity.

 

When at ambient temperatures, even the thinnest grade of engine oil would be too thick to be viable in a PC cooling loop. The motor would be put under unimaginable strain. And then when the PC got up to temperature, it'd still be far too low. 

[Dedayog]

On 9/16/2018 at 10:14 AM, DakVampyre said:

Your assumption of the boiling point being lower in alcohol than that of water is a valid point.... However... If he assures that all hose connections don't leak, and that the unit is properly bled of all air bubbles, therefore making it a sealed system.

In a sealed system, the boiling point is marginal, and he wouldn't have to worry about vapor unless he did have a leak somewhere.  You mentioned antifreeze... Now that doesn't work for PC cooling because a few different reasons, but the main one is in the name...lmao   Automobile type ANTI-FREEZE is designed for 1 purpose and 1 purpose only... Any guesses?

 

So it could be possible to use Vodka, but we have no basis for comparison.

You must not own a car.  Nor have many friends with how you respond to people.

 

 

[Diggy toots]

On 10/23/2018 at 7:04 AM, Ross Siggers said:

The boiling point of motor grade oil is very high yes, but it also relies on very high operating temperatures to reach it's correct viscosity.

 

When at ambient temperatures, even the thinnest grade of engine oil would be too thick to be viable in a PC cooling loop. The motor would be put under unimaginable strain. And then when the PC got up to temperature, it'd still be far too low. 

I would say trying a lighter oil.  At my work place we have spindle bearing oils called velocite 3.  It's the color and viscosity of apple juice.  Might flow better but I doubt it work better than water.

[MaratM]

The problem is using oil as a coolant is rubber gaskets and rubber o-rings. They all have to be replaced to the oil/fuel resistant ones. Alcohol based fluid (vodka) will damage the acrylic and not chemically but due physics. Then you drain the loop alcohol will start to evaporate at very high speed, thus pulling enough energy from the surface of the acrylic to crack it. How it will react with rubber is unknown to me possibly it is inert to rubber, but to be on the safe side it is better to replace all the gaskets to oil resistant ones. if you have all metal waterblock (such as EK full copper of Watercool heatkiller), and a glass or copper reservoir and all the gaskets changed to to oil resistant ones you can use any fluid in your loop. probably the best one for this purpose is diesel fuel due to the fact it is not conductive and have boiling point high enough to work in the loop, and you can even mix metals due to the fact it is not conductive. if you use kerosine (airplane fuel) you can even go subzero cooling without any risk of freezing your loop) (diesel fuel freezes at around -20-25C). In order to that you have to live at the north of Canada, Russia or Alaska.  

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

2 minutes ago, MaratM said:

Alcohol based fluid (vodka) will damage the acrylic and not chemically but due physics. Then you drain the loop alcohol will start to evaporate at very high speed, thus pulling enough energy from the surface of the acrylic to crack it.

not possible.

you need massive volume & gas pressure to crack anything