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Where to put the barbs n the custom reservoir?

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Black_Paladin

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Location
Boise, ID
Just wondering about where to put the barbs on the reservoir. The reservoir will be going in a box underneath the comp and it will have the pump connected to it so the barb that connects to the inlet of the pump will be at the side and level with the pump.

I am thinking about putting the fill and inlet barbs at the top of the reservoir but I am wondering if this will be a good idea or not. The reason I want the outlet at the top is because then the tubing can go directly down from the computer into the box at the bottom of the computer and into the reservoir (and straight is always better than having long bends and turns).

Now, the one thing I am thinking is that the water will be splashing in the reservoir unless it is filled all the way to the pump and I am wondering if this will be a bad thing or not.
 
yes the splashing would be bad. one way to solve that would be to put 1 barb on the top, and have another barb on the inside to connect a short hose to, so it would go straight to the bottom (see second drawing)

i think a better thing to do would be to put the pump in the res, and have the return hose go in the side of the res (see first drawing)
 

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Errr, putting the reservoir in the lowest point in the system is not good...

1. Reservoirs arent supposed to be completely full and should never be run under pressure

2. Reservoirs are used to fill/bleed the system and remove air bubbles

3. Bubbles rise to the highest point in the system, your res isnt at the highest point in the system, so it wont be as efficient. Sure it will capture bubbles, but not that many of them.
 
NovaShine said:
Errr, putting the reservoir in the lowest point in the system is not good...

1. Reservoirs arent supposed to be completely full and should never be run under pressure

2. Reservoirs are used to fill/bleed the system and remove air bubbles

3. Bubbles rise to the highest point in the system, your res isnt at the highest point in the system, so it wont be as efficient. Sure it will capture bubbles, but not that many of them.

Thanks for the replies. The function of this reservoir is not really going to be for filling/bleeding (yes I will use it for filling/bleeding but this is not its main purpose) but for providing a steady supply of water for the Iwaki MD20-RZT. Since this pump is very powerful, Pheastus told me to attach a reservoir directly to the inlet of the pump (similar to his setup) so that's where I am coming from. I am using a coupling to screw the pump to the reservoir as not to restrict the pump inlet (the coupling is bigger than the inlet and it just screws on to the inlet). I guess it would be OK if there was pressure in the reservoir because this reservoir will be able to withstand that and I thought that it might help the pump function even better.

Zip22,

unfortunately, I was told that putting the Iwaki MD20-RZT inside a reservoir is not an option so this is why I am doing this.

Moreover, the reason the reservoir will be at the bottom is because the pump , reservoir, 2 Fedco 2-342 rads with fans and possibly a few other things will be going inside an external box which I will be attaching to the computer case. Now, if I were to put this on top of the computer:

1- It would be pretty heavy.
2- I have a window and a blowhole at the top of the case so they would be blocked.
3- I will be attaching wheels later on to the external box to move the computer around and I feel better drilling holes for this purpose on the external box than my computer case (I don't want to mod my computer case more than I absolutely need to).

I understand you are saying that having the reservoir at the bottom will decrease performance but do you know how much of a performance hit I can expect? Would it make a tremendous difference to have everything at the top or not?

I do like your idea of running a hose through the reservoir to avoid the splashing though. Why is splashing bad however? Is it because the splashing introduces air bubbles to the system?

EDIT: 1 more question: Why is it bad to have reservoirs filled to the top? It's not that I am questioning you, I just would like to know why this is bad.
 
Come on guys please, someone ought to know this. I wish Phaestus, IMOG or the others that helped me before were here.
 
... i think you're getting some misinformation

bubbles rise to the top of the system if the pump is turned off. when it's on, the water is going to be moving so fast the bubbles will be carried along with it (into the res). some will get trapped on corners (around fittings, in radiators, etc) but just knock them physically to release the bubbles.

i haven't used a res before, but there's no reason why filling it up could be bad. if there are any air bubbles they're still going to float to the top of it (making it not full) and it's not going to add any pressure to the res (only pressure is around the inlet/outlet).

i think your setup is going to rock :) how are you constructing the res? I had a very similar idea and am interested in how you pull it off.
 
crimedog said:
... i think you're getting some misinformation

bubbles rise to the top of the system if the pump is turned off. when it's on, the water is going to be moving so fast the bubbles will be carried along with it (into the res). some will get trapped on corners (around fittings, in radiators, etc) but just knock them physically to release the bubbles.

i haven't used a res before, but there's no reason why filling it up could be bad. if there are any air bubbles they're still going to float to the top of it (making it not full) and it's not going to add any pressure to the res (only pressure is around the inlet/outlet).

i think your setup is going to rock :) how are you constructing the res? I had a very similar idea and am interested in how you pull it off.

Hey, thanks for the reply! :) I actually tried to construct the res myself but I gave up after a few weeks because my construction skills unfortunately suck.

What I initially did is I bought some plexi from Home Depot, had it cut to 10x7 sheets (except the bottom and top which are smaller) and then glued it together. The thing is, I didn't do a good job glueing it together so glue got all over the place (I used plastic fusion) and then when I tried to remove it, I scratched the box and it looked like crap. I then tried to remove scratches with a very wide variety of methods and I succeeded to the most part but then I realized that the box was leaking at one side so I tried to fix this with some silicon and this made it even more messy. Attaching the coupling that would go into the pump inlet to the res was pretty messy as well because even though the inside of the coupling is round, the outside is hex shaped. I therefore used a hole saw to make a hole and then I used a dremel to make the hole into a hex shape which turned out to be ugly even though I managed to attach the coupling to the hole pretty well. I then found out that the silicon I used wasn't helping against leaks one single bit so I tried to clean up the silicon (silicon is a REALLY messy product to be sure) that got all over the place and use something else. I then ordered some Loctite based clear glue for plexi from McMaster and tried that but I was very disappointed to find out that it wasn't very strong and wouldn't be suitable for the job. I then tried some other things but in the end, to make the long story short, I decided to have this done by a professional.

I then took the half completed res that I had over to a place that do custom work with plastics and asked them to do construct what I wanted and I was able to explain exactly what I wanted by showing them the half constructed res I had. They will now build a res for me and it should look pretty nice because these guys work with plexi everyday and are very used to doing stuff like this.

My model res had the inlet barb at the top however and I started to question myself after I talked to the plastic guy on whether I should have put the inlet barb someplace else. The guy also asked me if I needed to be able to open the top and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be able to take the top off or not. It would surely be nice if I could open the res to clean it if I needed but then again this would probably mean that the top of the res would not be completely sealed so I can't fill it all the way to the top (which is OK I guess).

This guy can build the res any way I want basically and I wanted to ask your opionions on what the best way would be. This is going to be pretty expensive (but with me building my own, it would NEVER get completed) so I want it to look and function the best that it can.

If you have any tips, pleaese let me know.

Do you think that it should be OK to have the inlet bard at the very top? Are there any disadvantages to this? I am asking because most of the reservoirs I have seen have both the inlet and the outlet barbs at the side.
 
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