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7/16" ID 5/8" OD Tubing is awesome

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feyd83

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Location
Atlanta
I finally got all the leaks worked out of my system by gooping the barbs in my Storm block and switching to 7/16" ID tubing from 1/2".

I love the 7/16" tubing, it is smaller than the OD on all my barbs so it has a very snug fit once it's on. I'm a big fan on having oversized barbs, they've always fixed any leaks I've had due to tubing-barb interface. Basically eliminates the need for clamps.

This stuff is really easy to route. It's bending better than 1/2" w/o kinking, which is always a plus. And if I have to make some really sharp turns, I can always add some coolsleeves since the tubing is 5/8" OD.

Thanks to Cathar for the great suggestion.
 
What brand tubing are you using? I bought 2 samples, one of some medical Tygon (not the regular R-3603) and some masterkleer, both are too stiff for my liking.
 
Masterkleer, I've gotten too cheap for Tygon.

It didn't really strike me as being stiff, I'll try bending my left over and the 1/2" ID 3/4" OD clearflex that I have.
 
nikhsub1 said:
What brand tubing are you using? I bought 2 samples, one of some medical Tygon (not the regular R-3603) and some masterkleer, both are too stiff for my liking.

I have some Tygon R-1000... this stuff is great. Has a VERY nice turning radius. The best out of any tubing I have ever seen. I thought I was buying expensive Tygon all this time for nothing (I recently bought clearflex), but I was actually getting something better than all the other tubings.
My only complaint would be that the tubing gets very very easily discolored. Much faster than all my other ones.
 
I just got some masterkleer on mcmaster, it is a ***** to set up but I dont need barbs like I did with 1/2" tygon. The bend radius is definitely better, but the tubes are notably stiffer. Boiling water seems to help, as does petrolium jelly on the barb before ramming it in. Just the way daddy likes it...
 
feyd83 said:
I finally got all the leaks worked out of my system by gooping the barbs in my Storm block and switching to 7/16" ID tubing from 1/2".

I love the 7/16" tubing, it is smaller than the OD on all my barbs so it has a very snug fit once it's on. I'm a big fan on having oversized barbs, they've always fixed any leaks I've had due to tubing-barb interface. Basically eliminates the need for clamps.

This stuff is really easy to route. It's bending better than 1/2" w/o kinking, which is always a plus. And if I have to make some really sharp turns, I can always add some coolsleeves since the tubing is 5/8" OD.

Thanks to Cathar for the great suggestion.

Thanks for the extra feedback feyd83.

Yes, the 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) tubing is surely the way to do things. All the low flow resistance benefit of a 1/2" ID tubed system once the barb-tubing interfaces are factored into the equation, but very close to the convenience of routing, ease of bleeding and less-bulky elegance of a 3/8" ID tubed system.

For the euro/metric boys, the equivalent would be 11/16mm ID/OD.
 
nikhsub1 said:
I bought 2 samples, one of some medical Tygon (not the regular R-3603) and some masterkleer, both are too stiff for my liking.
ugh, i just had a vision of blood running through a watercooling system :eek:
 
I've got some of that same Masterkleer, good to hear it worked out nice. If you have the data, let us know if there's any impact on performance compared to your 1/2" setup.
 
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