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Uh Oh, Copper Block with an Aluminum res/pump

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Wraith

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Location
Fussa Japan
Is that bad? I think I read sumthin about not mixin aluminum and copper, but being a TOTAL n00b i did, go figure. So what do i do? What happens when you mix the two?
 
Is the aluminum reservior store bought and anodized? If so, don't sweat it. The anodizing is an electrical insulator that should also stop the battery effect.
If it's not anodized, I'd try to find something else.
You can check for anodizing if it's a clear version, by using a multimeter. Touch the probes to the aluminum about 1/4" from each other, with the multimeter set to Ohms resistence. A reading of 1.0 is okay, anything else is not anodized.

I'd still add some corrosion inhibitor though, say a few tablespoons of antifreeze, just incase.
 
will taking it apart un-anodize it at all, i dint think so but id rather have one of you guys confirm that. I need to make it a litte bit quieter, but i dont want it to rust if i take it apart. Ty in advance
 
It won't rust... Only iron and steel rusts... But it can oxidice... wich is the same thing...

To stop the corrosion you can ad saccrifice anode to the system... The anode will corrode instead of the aluminium and if you also add some antifreeze or WW the process will be quite slow I guess.

For aluminium the anode must be made of magnesium. They are commonly used in warm water reservoires and marine engines.

Make sure the magnesium and the aluminium you wan't to protect is connected and you should be safe.

In case the magnesium anode gets to small after a while due to corrosion you can just replace it with a new one...

Sorry for the bad english!
 
Can you use Zink as the sacrifishal anode? (spelling?)

Would the parts need to have any type of contact with each other other then the water to work? ie. using a zink stick from a marine store as the lid to your plastic res?

I didn't even think about that with my unit untill you said something about it.
 
NOT zinc... Zinc just adds to the corrosion of the aluminium...

The only metall you can use to protect is magnesium. There are other metalls with lower value than aluminium but the thing about those are that they explode when you put them in water.. :) Even magnesium can react with hot steam.


The magnesium and aluminium must be connected so that electrons can move freely between the two metals.
 
pelle your backwards, its magnesium that adds. zinc is good.

what aluminum pump/rez do you have?
 
Ok, guys, here comes the chemistry lesson:

The whole battery effect is the process of the most reactive metal in the cooling loop corroding. Take a look at this . That is a metal reactivity series table. Notice the positions of copper, aluminium, zinc, and magnesium. Copper is the least reactive, then zinc, aluminium, and magnesium. Aluminium is more reactive that zinc, so zinc would not do anything when added to a cooling loop. The only feasable option is magnesium, because the others will explode/react with water, like Pelle said.

Edit: This link explains the battery effect very well.
 
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How about some sort of homemade coating inside the res? Some sort of paint of epoxy stuff to coat the inside. Having your water full of metal particles can not do much good..
 
Sniperboy said:
Aluminium is more reactive that zinc, so zinc would not do anything when added to a cooling loop. The only feasable option is magnesium, because the others will explode/react with water, like Pelle said.

Almost got it... Except for when adding zinc to the loop it will make the aluminium react even faster... It is not just passive... :)
 
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