Homemade RES idea

So I found this clear round plastic cylinder at walmart($4) and it will work perfect for my RES idea. I just need to know a few things. Will it be ok for the water to drop like that? Or does it need to flow into the water? I think it might be kinda neat to have the water falling into it like that, but not sure if it would be good of for it to do that.





Excuse the rough sketch.

Thanks,
Tyler

the water falling like that will be perfectly fine, but the noise could be annoying

Actually, you might get a tiny performance gain from the evaporation of the falling water (if the top is open) if the top isn't open, it will be like a super inefficient heatpipe, which wouldn't be bad per say, just not very good.

Looks great, the only thing about making a custom res is that you have to be SURE it isn't going to start leaking over time and it might be a good idea to try and put it somewhere where if it does crack or leak it isn't going to drip on any components.

Be careful of the water creating bubbles when it falls back into the res though, bubbles arent the best thing to have in your setup.


Good plan though should work ok, i've got a similar one in mind, same principle though.

No that's not a good idea. The water falling will cause bubbles and you will never be able to get your loop bled. The more additives you have in your water the easier it will foam and bubble up.

Now if your tube was about 18" or longer, then it could possibly work with a low flow/additive system.

How large is the cylinder? What other parts are in the loop?

yeah, besides the noise, that would cause bubbles which you do not want.

Just fill it above the inlet and you'll be fine

It's all about the dimensions whether or not air entrapment is an issue or not.
If the inlet and outlet are far enough apart then bubbles won't be a problem.

However...
Unless you are using a hamster-powered pump, the water won't gracefully arc out of the inlet- it will blast across the tube and create quite a racket. The sound of roiling water might be enchanting for about five minutes but would drive me crazy after that.

You'll also find it easier said than done to affix a barb to the side of a tube like you picture.
There isn't a lot of flat surface area to work with (in fact, there isn't any).
You could glue in a threaded bung or work around this some other way but the main reason most reservoirs have in barbs in the endcaps is because it's so much easier to do.

Good luck.

Um, what is this "plastic cylinder" made out of? There are very few clear plastics that are even usable for this kind of application. Acrylic, unless it's REALLY thick won't hold a thread for very long before stress fracturing.
Unless the sides of your "clear plastic" cylinder are 1/4" thick or greater don't even attempt it.

I think you can hold down a barb with tapping a hole.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1089/

I made my own giant res... works fine

I did mine without using threads on the acrylic at all.
My system uses large tubing, but it would work the same with your itty bitty tubes.
I used a 3/4" female to 1" female pipe coupling, and a 3/4" female to 1" male adapter bushing. Drill a hole in the acrylic and slip the smaller bushing through the hole from the inside of the tank (with Goop added) and cement it into the female coupling.
Wait three hours for curing, and it's done. Solid, water-tight, and not half bad looking. Been going strong for two years now.

Another idea is to use any pvc that's roughly the same diameter as the acrylic (so radius' match close).
Cut out a square of the pvc (or a round shape if you prefer) and Goop it in place over a slightly larger than needed hole already made in the acrylic. When the Goop is cured, you can drill and tap the pvc with the threads, not even stressing the acrylic at all.
You can drill and tap the pvc piece beforehand as well. Larger PVC fittings are around 1/4" thick plastic and have plenty of meat for threads. It's also easy to cut threads in, and will not split like the clear stuff can/will.
Taps for 1/4" NPT cost around $8.

Goop btw, is a brand of clear adhesive that's waterproof and sticks pretty darned well to plastics. Either marine or plumber's will do fine, and are identical as near as I can tell except for package color.
Rough up the surfaces before bonding them, and it will hold nicely.
@ Lowe's/Depot.

While I do use a vortex in my res, I don't really recommend having bubbles reaching your intake in the res...that's a sure fire way to kill a pump. Practice it before installing it permanently.

You need to keep the coolant level above the return line to eliminate air bubbles and noise. I'm using a resy made from PVC pipe thats much the same design. It works great.

Ok..............


I didnt mention anything in my first post about air bubbles, because I didnt want alot of ppl jumping on that train of thought.

Air bubbles are a concern to me also, as I do not want them in my system.


Im not worried about the noise to much.


I should have a prototype done this weekend, and Ill get some good pics.

Then we can debate where to have the water level at.


Thanks

I would say that it's a bad idea. When you break the flow like that you turn your system into an open system instead of a closed system. If the res is right before the pump, then water is forced through the system by pump outlet pressure only.

When the system is closed, water is forced through the system by both pressure from the outlet and suction from the inlet. The result is a higher flow rate. You should always keep the ports of the res submerged.

I wouldn't say suction matters much because the open inlet will want to pull the water behind it like a siphon. The pump will still have to keep the water moving, but as far as my limited knowledge of liquids goes, I see no problem with his setup. I think the noise would be annoying, but more soothing and it would cover up other noises a little.

A rabid monkey said:

I wouldn't say suction matters much.

Click to expand...

Well, you'd be wrong.

http://www.fluidh.com/WebSystCurve.htm

I did say I knew very little about fluid dynamics and I have never watercooled before.