Radiators versus Heatercores, etc.

McWarren

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Joined

Oct 31, 2002

Location

London, UK

• Dec 29, 2002

• #1

Out of interest, does anyone know why radiators dedicated to watercooling rigs are so much more expensive than automobile radiators?

From what I gather they're equally as good. Do companies charge so much for special radiators purely because of the profits available, or is there is more complex manufacturing involved?

 

JML

Senior Member

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Joined

Dec 30, 2000

Location

New Jersey

• Dec 29, 2002

• #2

Heatercores are like $20 at most autoshops, and $30-35 w/ correct sized fittings at most online water cooling sites. Or are you refering to the Black Ice series of radiators? They are just glorified heater cores, sold for pure profit

 

F

frostmeister

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Joined

Jul 6, 2002

Location

Good old UK

• Dec 29, 2002

• #3

You can get good heatercores and rubbish heater cores, as you can with radiators. The only real way to look at the performance of a given radiator / heatercore is to compare the ability to get rid of a given amount of heat at a specified waterflow / airflow combination. I'm making a radiator at the moment and will post a performance rating of it compared to a BeCooling Aquacoil. Got to look at some figures from that to compare my homemade radiator to...

 

RonnieG

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Joined

Dec 3, 2002

Location

Philippines

• Dec 29, 2002

• #4

Car rads are commoditized. PC WC is a niche market. That's why.

But then why bother with PC WC rads when there are cheaper, better alternatives like heatercores...

 

Last edited: Dec 29, 2002

M

MoFoQ

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Joined

Nov 13, 2002

• Jan 2, 2003

• #5

Plus most radiators for watercooling uses copper tubing as opposed to the typical aluminum tubing for automotive heatcores

 

TyRex

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Joined

Sep 12, 2002

Location

Indiana

• Jan 2, 2003

• #6

i've actually found it depends on the brand whether its copper or alumunium. I cant remember which brand is copper or aluminum, but it does depend on the brand

 

strokeside

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Joined

Jan 10, 2002

Location

Dublin, Ireland

• Jan 2, 2003

• #7

It does depend on the brand/maker of the heatercore. I have a copper toyota, and an aluminium ford core.

 

M

MoFoQ

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Joined

Nov 13, 2002

• Jan 2, 2003

• #8

as far as heatcores for cars is concerned, I was referring to the ones that are inexpensive (the copper ones do tend to cost more than the aluminum ones).