Mysterious Buildup

Since my system is out of commision until Swiftech sends me a new pump, I've been poking around in my computer, rerouting wires, trimming tubes, stuff like that.

When I examined my tubing, I noticed that the inside of the tubes look slightly frosted, like frosted glass. It scrapes off relatively easily, but it seems to have only formed on the tubing, and not any other surfaces in my cooling loop.

I'm using 1/2" Clearflex that I bought from Cooltechnica, and my coolant is distilled water mixed with Water Wetter.

Has anyone else had this happen, much less know what it is?

Its a thin film that waterwetter puts over everything on your setup.

waterwetter is also putting that film in your WW's channels and its hindering performance, thats why most watercoolers prefer antifreeze

Is it meant to inhibit corrosion?

ya it does.... it acts like a protective layer; but because of that the transfer of heat to the water gets reduced.

Raider84 said:

ya it does.... it acts like a protective layer; but because of that the transfer of heat to the water gets reduced.

Click to expand...

As far as I heard the heat transfer is not altered, but the fact that people with waterblocks with jets such as the DD or RBX with narrow channels get clogged up, NOT that it decreases heat transfer, why the hell would you use it in a car then?

Hmm...well, is this something that's unique to Water Wetter, or does this happen with all of the coolant additives (apart from good ol' ethylene glycol).

There are several with this effect, I would use plain anti freeze looking at your waterblock, the WW.

I had the same problem when using water wetter. It has not returned since I am running glycol. This stuff does leave a thin residue on everything, it is just harder to see on solid objects because the tubes are clear and noticably fogged.