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Water Cooling Failures

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Radical

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Location
CA
I'm seriuosly considering a water cooling setup for my system, but I can't get over the fact that water and electronics do not mix. I was looking for stories of people who ahd water cooling, and had accidents with them (leaks), but I couldn't find any, amazingly. Are leaks with water cooling really rare, or are they just not documented? Have any of you ever had leaks? If so, how did you deal with them, or did you? Also, how do you guys prevent leaks and other failures from occurring, since I never hear about any of your water coolers messing up - all I hear about is success. Water cooling sounds good to me, but I just have this thought in the back of my head that something is going to go wrong. Thanks for your help.
 
Leaks happen. Pumps fail. Generally it turns out ok, iv only heard of a couple times where leaks actually killed components. Actually, my friends system condensed on him all over his mobo and vcard, everything was fine after it dried out.
 
Lots of posts like yours ended up with various stories of failed systems. Search on words like "fried," "dead," "leaked," etc. There are some horror stories to be heard, but not many. They almost always include these words:
...I was too excited to do a full leak test and ...
The other horror stories have to do with components that cooked themselves when a water pump failed to run for one reason or another.

I'm happy to say that I will soon have a way to combat many of the death scenarios that have plagued water cooling, including leaks (fast and slow), unchecked overheating (operating system and/or BIOS lockups), and failing pumps.
 
If you are careful, a full leak test takes about half an hour. If nothing shows up by then it's not likely going to long term. I have been building systems with this notion for a couple of years now, and I haven't killed anything yet. That said, if you follow my advice and blow something up I take no responsibility.
 
Skulemate said:
If you are careful, a full leak test takes about half an hour. If nothing shows up by then it's not likely going to long term. I have been building systems with this notion for a couple of years now, and I haven't killed anything yet. That said, if you follow my advice and blow something up I take no responsibility.

I wish that were true but leaks can show up well beyond 30 min. I know this too well from personal experience and chats with other wcers. Most of the time (for me) it was tiny leaks that acculmulated into visible drops of water but leaks nonetheless. This only happened on a couple occasions but there's always a possibility :-/
 
I know what you are saying, and that's a possibility. However, these are not the sort of leaks that tend to be system killing, and they can be dealt with in due course. Also, these leaks tend to occur in threaded connections, which is why pressure testing components beforehand is a good idea.
 
Yeah, usually doesn't destroy the system but as a watercooling newbie at one time the slightest drop of water in my system would make my heart skip a beat or two or three... :D
 
One time my hose came off my cpu block, the pc was off but plugged in. Video card and mobo got wet, very wet. I took it apart, dried it out for about 4hrs and then put it back together.
 
Yeah, I would definately test the system out of my computer for 24 hours before I installed it. I'm surpised that you guysa re saying that even when some of the components have gotten wet, they didn't fry. I thought that if something even got a drop of water on it it was done for. Is it just luck that they didn't fry? or did they do something to prevent that from happening. Thanks.
 
Well, using distilled water has many advantages, one being that it is relatively low in electrical conductivity compared to ordinary tap water which translates into less chance of damaging circuitry, also if you are lucky (define lucky) your PC is off when a leak occurs, and without electricity flowing through the components no short will occur..until you press the power button..so thus forth it is always a good idea to check the fittings often, even after the initial leak testing. ...one other thing..use hose clamps (preferably metal ones) on all connections. if your really nervous you could also silicone the barbs as well.
 
Okay, I did a search on Distilled Water, and I found out that it should have a resistance of 1,000,000 ohms. If this is true, then (I'm not sure how much power is running through something like the motherboard) say there are 3 volts running the motherboard, then that would mean that if a tube leaked onto it, then only .000003 amps would be able to pass through it? or did I do that wrong (I used V=IR, where V is voltage, I is current (amps), and R is resistance (ohms))? Would .000003 amps be enough to short something out? Forgive my absent knowledge of electronics, and thanks again for your help.
 
hehe....I often wonder (haven't checked myslef) if distilled water's resistence goes down when you start adding water wetter, Zerex, etc.

Frying a mobo can happen with a tiny bit of water in the wrong place, like the voltage regulators, or you can go the other extreme and have a ton of water on a huge portion of the mobo and be just fine. Luck plays a huge part. Personally, I'm not taking those chances. My system is being designed with the expectation that it WILL leak somewhere, eventually.
 
I just had an idea. I was reading this guy's guide to installing a peltier on his CPU, and he coated the area around the socket and NB (which he was putting a TEC on as well) with "liquid electrical tape. I'll look for some information on it, but do any of you know what that is? Could I just put it on the whole motherboard, or maybe just the backside of the video card (because if somehow the CPU block leaked, the water would probably drip onto it)? The guy's website is found here: http://maximumoc.com/guides/a7n8x_modding_2.html

EDIT: Here is a link to Liquid Electrical Tape: http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=7953
 
leak test, put leak stuff on all conectors, and use clamps. No leak will then be possible. Have Fun. But anyway, distilled water is non conductive, so it wont fry your system, just let it dry out.
 
distilled water is non conductive
That's not true. By that logic you wouldn't even care if the system had a leak, and wouldn't need to wait for it to dry out. Distilled water may not conduct much, but it's no insulator, and it becomes even less so as you add impurities (even those dust bunnies that are already sitting on your mobo before you "added" the water). Hmmmmmm "MudBunnies"...can I patent that? lmao
 
Distilled water does conduct electricity.. its VERY little. H20 is a weak conductor of electricity... Usually it won't go far as to fry your system... hopefully not.

I learned this in Psych 111... people usually tend to overestimate the damage, or likely of accident by how easily it can be recalled or how terrible it sounds. Its called Availability Heuristic.

For example... Most Overestimated cause of death seem to be All accidents, Motor vehicle accidnets, Pregnancy, Tornadoes, flood, All cancer... Most underestimated causes seem to be Smallpox, diabetes, stomach cancer etc etc

Same concept applies to people fearng over WCing... Frying your mobo and losing all the components seem very freightning.. thats why beginners tend to overestimate the damage and be afraid to acually run a WCing system... However in most cases WCing i a success and even if its a ailure its VERY minor.

my advice is... READ everything first and UNDERSTAND everything first and then just do it really carefully making sure every step you took is a correct one.

Metal clamps, teflon tape, leak test can definitely help you
 
I have had some condensation on some componets before. After a bath and a scrub it didn't do any damage (Not that I want to try again) but I'd say go for it radical. Its loads of fun.
 
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