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Long term effects of waterwetter and other additives.

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Angry

Angry

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Joined
Feb 24, 2001
I noticed in this thread the on going discussion of the effects of using additives such as waterwetter dissolving teflon tape and certain plastics. (i.e. Lexan, acrylic.)

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=447334&page=2&pp=20

Ive been using waterwetter in my loop for a little over a month now and havent seen any ill effects....yet. *knock on wood*

My sys consists of a DD TDX, Lowe's submersed pump,vinyl tubing 1/2 I.D. and a el'cheapo 3qt res from the dollar store. With distilled water.

Has anybody else seen any ill effects from using additives in their loops?
 
Most of us have had ill effects, but nothing detrimental. More along the lines of white film build-up and bad odors. I used it for a year and had no serious or damaging effects, and I use a lucite maze3, a plastic res, and I def didn't see any teflon tape that got chowed.

There are much better alternatives to WW, but I don't think it's gonna harm anything.
 
My experience isn't related to water cooling, but here it is anyway. For about 5 years I was on the volunteer fire department in my home town. During the summer, we run with "wet water" in our water tanks. Water wetter basically reduces the surface tension of the water. This is somewhat similar to things detergents do (and it even foams up a bit, I once got a face full of suds from adding water wetter to a tank and then adding water instead of the other way around). The reduced surface tention allows for better penetration of Class-A fuels (wood, brush, etc), which is quite useful on wildland fires. As far as I know, we haven't suffered any ill effects of this (although fire trucks are probably built a bit more sturdily than most water cooling systems).
 
listen to the intro
http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp?productID=53&coolantFlash=1
I plan on using water wetter in my loop, bottom line!
Water is the better "heat conductive material" in rads then anti-freeze (if you want to call it that) you can use in your loop. I plan on using water watter and distilled water in my loop, Bottom line.


link
Another important property of coolant is latent heat of vaporization, which is the energy required to change a liquid into a vapor. It takes nearly 2.4 times as much energy to boil water as it does to boil antifreeze. This high latent heat of vaporization is desirable because it draws heat from localized hot spots that occur around the exhaust valves, exhaust ports and combustion chambers. Even though the overall temperature of the cooling system may be below the boiling point, this phenomenon of localized boiling is important in controlling temperatures and preventing preignition in areas of intense heat. The efficiency of water as a coolant can be made even better by using a wetting agent to reduce its surface tension, improving heat transfer from the metal to the liquid
Click to expand...
 
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have water wetter in 1 system for 3 years now and other than brown tubes the inside of the block pump and res are all still clean ( cathar silver cascade number2)
 
ECH said:
listen to the intro
http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp?productID=53&coolantFlash=1
I plan on using water wetter in my loop, bottom line!
Water is the better "heat conductive material" in rads then anti-freeze (if you want to call it that) you can use in your loop.
Click to expand...
Of course it is. The advantage of adding anti-freeze to water (even in your car) is that it doesn't freeze. It doesn't cool as well as straight water, but that's a small price to pay for not freezing you coolant. On the other hand, unless you routinely use your computer whilst wearing your paka, you probably don't have to worry about your PC water cooling system freezing.
 
True, but you do have to worry about galvanic corrosion. Much less likely in an all copper loop, but still a very real possibility.
 
The only thing Ive observed is that the return line that goes into my res and striaght into a pool of water/waterwetter has turned a very unclear and ugly color, like its been coated but doesnt really seem to be. But thats probably expected with vynl tubing where both the inside and out side are exposed to liquid.
 
citronym said:
True, but you do have to worry about galvanic corrosion. Much less likely in an all copper loop, but still a very real possibility.
Click to expand...

I've never heard that this was a possibilty in an all copper loop. Even if GC was an issue it wouldn't be a problem that would appear in a time frame that any of us would be worried about.
 
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