Radiator Internal Surface Area???

[dimmreaper]

I've long noticed that automotive heatercores seemed to provide superior results, even better than "cube" radiators in most cases. I always wondered why, and I think I get it now. Many of the watercooling radiators have sufficient(though often less) external surface area, but don't have nearly as much internal surface area as a heatercore.

What do some of you other watercooling buffs think of this theory, does it seem sound?

[ken257]

Heatercores are very good. Look at the amount of air that they heat up in your car and add to that the fact that there is not much restriction to airflow like you will find in a cube type rad. More restriction means you need stronger fans and will have more noise.

[xcr20]

It's maybe the form. Heatercores ressemble to a waffle which could optimize heat dissipation rather than cubic rads, let's say for equal dissip surface and airflow. What do you think ?

[TheMortalWombat]

I'm using a heatercore in my homemade setup. Duron 800@980 1,8 volt, idle 30C, max load 45C with no fan on the heatercore. I placed my heatercore outside the case

[BillA]

for sure
when a round tube is deformed into a very flat oval the internal volume is greatly reduced
and this then greatly increases the ratio of wetted area to coolant

all things being equal (which they never are), a flat tube and fin will always outperform a round tube and fin (and both will outperform a stacked plate)

and soldered or braized fins are always better than swaged fins

but a principal advantage of auto radiator "type" units (also shared with the stacked-plate oil "type") are the many parallel passages which reduce the internal flow rate (though not the total amount) which results in a lower pressure drop and increased cooling due to the greater contact time with the tube wall

the waffle form of a heater core is the utilization of a thinner wall design with more soldered joints, less reliable/strong than the radiator's tube and fin

be cool