Pump to Waterblock = 3/8", then 1/2" rest of the loop.

Since I stumbled across a great deal on a Maze4 with 3/8" fittings, I had to buy it. All my WC gear is for 1/2" tubing.

So I came up with an idea to run 3/8" tubing straight from the pump to the waterblock, then 1/2" fittings the rest of the loop. I was assuming this would make the water flow faster through the grooves/channels in the waterblock, and have a less restrictive exit.

Fortunately the 3/8" barbs on the waterblock had the same size base as my 1/2" barbs that I have lying around, so I tried to remove the barb in the Exit side of the waterblock and replace it with a 1/2" barb, but UNfortunately it seemed like the barb was glued in there pretty good so I didn't want to use excessive pressure and risk cracking it, so I ended up wrapping that exit barb with 3/8" tubing and then connected the 1/2" tubing on top of that. Amazingly it ended up being a nice snug fit.

In the end, the temps were exactly the same, however, there is one awesome thing that I noticed about this setup. I'm a T-Line guy, and t-lines can be a pain to fill sometimes, but this setup only took a few minutes to get the water flowing. No tilting of the case was necessary.

One of these days I'm gonna change the exit barb to a 1/2" fitting and see if that helps.

Also, I forgot to mention my other dumb idea. (I'm not really concerned about theory, I just like to experiment) I was thinking to set up the tubing like this:

Pump to waterblock = 3/8"
Waterblock to heatercore = 1/2"
Heatercore back to pump = 5/8"

this came to my mind because it would seem like the pump would have to do less work sucking the water in, but then again there is less pressure due to the larger diameter so it would equal out.

Anyone ever try anything like this?

Buying new hardware all the time is starting to get hard on my wallet, so I have to find new ways to keep myself occupied on rainy days

the resistance through a water-cooling system is the same as the smallest (most restrictive) part. water does not compress, so you cant have higher flowrates in one part of the loop than in another. well i mean i guess if you had some kind of resevoir in between with a changing water level.... but anyway. with a t-line especially, there flow will be like you used 3/8 for the whole thing, essentially negating the goal in using 1/2 tubing. glad u got a goo deal on the block lol. dont most wb companies offer both 1/2 and 3/8 fittings on their wb's anyway? well im pretty sure im right on this flow thing. out.

jungle

Well, they didn't have the sale on the 1/2" fitting blocks. I only paid about $18 US for it. Can't go wrong..


As for the restriction/flow - Like I said, I'm only experimenting. This is the most effective way for me to learn - hands on. But still, it just seems to me that it would be easier to say,, pump water through 2ft of 3/8" tubing and 8ft of 1/2" tubing rather than 10ft of 3/8" tubing. This is only a guess, I'm not educated enough on this subject.

By the sounds of it you changed one barb to 1/2"?

You can streach 3/8" tubing over a lot of 1/2" barbs, you could do that, pump to block 3/8 then 3/8 to heatercore if you have barbs on it, then bigger back to the pump.

Jon

I do similar experiments.
And I am lousy with the math and the more advanced concepts behind why all this stuff really works- I just know the results I have seen.

The smallest size opening will be the biggest restriction- usually this is the opening in one of the barbs in a block, not the tubing itself.
Using different size tubing does seem to help a small amount: bigger tube adds less restriction to that segment of the loop, and the resistance is cumulative so any area that is reduced will have some positive effect: whether this will be easily noticeable or not is a different subject.......

My little tests have shown that results are there- exactly why is mostly a barely educated guess on my part.

(Note that the best example of the difference it made was when using a block made for 10mm tube-
I used 10mm tube throughout (pump and heatercore used 1/2") and also swapped all tubing for 1/2' tube: results were considerably better, although it was a year or two ago and I do not recall the exact numbers.)

if you think about it, lets say the pump has 1/2 inlet and the rest of ur setup is 3/8. the water that the pump pumps out of the 1/2 dia. part still as to be replaced from the rest of the system, which is 3/8. assuming constant pump pressure, the water from the 3/8 part will be supplied at a constant rate, replinishing the 1/2 dia. part at this rate. to have a higher flow rate in the 1/2 dia. part would mean pumping the water out faster than it was coming in. since it's a closed loop, i doubt that this is possible, but especially not with a small water cooling pump, since water cannot be compressed. another example, if you were to blow into a tube that narrowed down to a very small hole and then ballooned out, the smallest part would restrict your flow and it wouldnt matter what was on the other side. the gains in cumulative (sp?) resistance would probably be minimal if they existed at all, certainly not enough to see any difference in performance. evidence: people change their whole tubing from 3/8 to 1/2 and the difference is pretty small. anyway, with all these things coming together, it only makes since, to my twisted mind at least lol, that this change of tubing the middle of the system, especially for such a small part, would not have any effect. *jungle's 2 cents clink* correct me if im wrong.

jungle


p.s. i am more of a pre-plan guy, as you can see. i spent an hour making calculations once for a high school mobile, but hung it in 5 secs.