Tubing from Home depot

Anyone see anything wrong with me using tubing from home depot. The tubing I plan to use from there are:

3/4od 1/2 id
clear vinyl
55psi @ 70f
Resistant to most chemicals
Watts is the brand name

I don't plan to have any extreme bends and this tubing seems to handle bends more than good enough for me.

I went there just to get the clamps, but ended seeing the tubing and the rest of the misc materials I need to finish up what I need including a home made T line set up.

Any have any experience with this or for see any problems with me using it?

--pak

Don't do it. I know you might think it looks okay, but trust me, you won't know how much of a nightmare hardware store tubing can be till you try it. Kinks like crazy and is very difficult to bend...yeah, its usable, just a headache that you should avoid if at all possible.

I see no problem with the cheap tubing if you don't mind it clouding after 30 days or so.
If your tubing kinks, your routing is wrong, try a different order for your loop.
The tubing your are looking at is 1/8" wall and will do fine if you PLAN your loop.
If you need it on the cheap...............MASTERKLEER is the only way to go for cheap and good.

heh. there is nothing wrong with cheap tubing if you heat it up when you form it. of course, it isnt great for tight bends but meh. if your just starting out, tygon is kind of a waste of money.

home depot tubing is fine. check out my set up http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=506308. ya it kink so be careful, thats why i used the coils. very useful if you're just starting out like me. i went through 20 feet to get it the way i liked. now if i want to upgrade to tygon, my routing is set.

The stuff is more expensive and far inferior to masterkleer or even many of the other choices available online. I'm especially bad with my hands, but it was just completely unmanageable for me. And it was so inflexible that it ended up slowly breaking one of my pumps.

Yup already mentioned the pros and cons.

I agree with everything.

I went with braided which was a really big mistake LOL. I also didnt try the hot water bending method... although with braided I doubt that would affect much.

Clouding... is an issue I have heard about... but I think that depends more on your medium ingrediants as well as proper cleaning. But im no expert.

Go with Masterklear or Primoflex (if you like colors). Those are my favorite types of tubing.

I use homedepot braided vinyl tubing. Works fine, but then again, I am on a modified tech bench and it allows me to use less than 5 feet of tubing. There are no tight bends either. If I were w/c a case, i'd buy masterkleer.

The tubing does flatten out a little bit at one point but that's fine. As for the "clouding after 30 days.". Thats not true, I've been running this for atleast 2 months and it's perfectly fine.

Well if masterkleer is obviously better than the home depot stuff, I'll just go with the masterkleer. I'm probably going to get a micro res too. It actually seems cheaper to go with a micro res if you account all the parts that go into making a Tline.

Last minute check list.

45 Coolran 32t Radiator
60 MCP655 pump
23 White water block
00 Already had fans
05 10 feet of masterkleer
17 Micro res
00 I'm going to steal clamps at work
08 misc shipping

$158 so far, not bad. And the only thing that is used is the water block.

That all I either have or have coming. Do I need to get any additives or anything else?

--pak

*edit-added prices for fun*

The one thing I would recommend is spending about $4 at Walmart and getting a bottle of algaecide (fish section). A bottle will last you forever as it only takes a drop. Despite the folks who will argue sometimes zealously that they never add anything and never have a problem, do yourself a favor and make sure nothing grows. You could also use PT Nuke from petrastechshop if you so choose.

The Swiftech microres is a good res. A t-line with cap however can be had for under $5. I personally prefer the res route, but either way if properly done will do the job.

You also need some $.69 distilled water, and although in an all copper loop it isn't a must, most of us throw some Pentosin antifreeze in the mix just to have some anticorrosive for insurance, 5-10%, or in my case, I like the red color of my Toyota (pentosin) antifreeze.

You are making the right choice on the tubing. Don't buy the junk from Home Depot. I don't know where you are getting your Masterkleer from, but if it is from Mcmaster, do yourself a favor and buy a bag of their "Type 430 Stainless Steel Nonperforated Worm-Drive Hose and Tube Clamps" on page 239. Since you are using 3/4"OD tubing, get the 1/2"-3/4" clamps (#5076K13). They are worth every dime as they don't cut into your tubing so you can tighten the snot out of them, and they are only 3/8" wide which makes them fit perfect over barbs.

I use the Home Depot vinyl tubing without troubles.
Yes it does cloud up, but the inside of my case is white and I was hoping it would!
I used the white silicone tubing before, so it's nothing I'm not used to seeing, though I've been eyeing the green silicone at McMaster for a while....


My water temp is 10C so ALL vinyl based tubing is stiff. Silicone owns all!

I was actually going to get the tubing from jab-tech, but they only have 7/16-5/8. Is that a bad size to go with?

--pak

*added*

Actually, I think I'm going to get the tubing from petras shop. They have 1/2-3/4 over there. Also after you mentioned a $5 Tline, I am going to go that way. You saying that made me realize I do not need to have one of those $10 Tline fillers. And I actually have those style clamps at work. So I am going to get them there for free.99. Getting that algaecide and distilled water will not be a problem.

Only thing I completely disagree with is your toyota coolant. Being that I am a diehard Honda fanboy, and happen to work at a Honda dealership, I am going to put some nice greenish-blue factory honda coolant in there.

--pak

A number of people like the 7/16"ID 5/8"OD tubing as it is considerably smaller than the 1/2"ID 3/4"OD tubing and less bulky. It can also be easier to route. However, in order to get it onto tubing, you need to stick the end in some very hot water (preferably almost boiling) to soften it up a bit to fit over 1/2" barbs.

I personally however plan on sticking with the 1/2"ID 3/4"OD tubing. I just found that it was too much of a pain to me to mess with the 7/16" tubing, and once you get it onto a barb, about the only way to get it off is to cut it off. It took too much pressure to get the tubing onto barbs for me, plus I use some copper fittings that are 5/8"OD where 7/16"ID isn't going onto them no matter what.

As for the antifreeze, I have this thing against green. I have used blue, and now red, and I think I would use almost any other color at some point than green. My wife even laughs at my disdain at using green antifreeze in my system. I bought a rad a while back used (for a previous setup) from on the forums intending to use it with blue pentosin, only to find that the guy I bought it from had used green FrozenCPU dye. No amount of cleaning got it out of the rad, and it kept turning my pretty blue antifreeze green. I finally bought and used enough blue dye to kill the green and about anything else. My wife found the whole process quite amusing.

On a side note, I have a 1981 Honda Accord with 265,000 miles on it that I have had for 20 years. The carb started leaking gas a while back, and I bought a remanufactured carb. No matter what I do, I have not been able to get it running right since. I go and start it up every once in a while, and eventually should take it to an experienced Honda mechanic. I even replaced myself the carb base and gaskets, but for some reason it still is leaking vacuum and won't run worth squat. I'm not going to take it to a dealer however as they are a total rip-off in the way they charge. And you ask what this has to do with watercooling? Well, nothing.

As far as your carb goes, most dealerships won't touch it unless they happen to have a really old technician. Carbs have been out of honda's for 20 years now and most tech have no idea what to do with it. And if they do, they will charge full premium price like you have mentioned.

What I would recommend, if you are mechanically inclined at all. Is pick up an origina honda service manual and know that carb inside out. It really isn't too difficult if you understand the basics.

If you plan to take it to someone, your just going to have to find a reputable tech who knows that carb.

--pak

Voigts, are you sure the vacuum leak is in the carb? My '79 Accord had a snakes' nest of vacuum lines. They never gave me any trouble, but as my friend pointed out when I bought the car, "If anything ever goes wrong with those vacuum lines, you're screwed."

get the 1/2 id 3/4 od it works great, i am using it

Just picked up some of that stuff from home depot and have not had problems with it yet. Pita to get it to bend at all though.

Otter said:

Voigts, are you sure the vacuum leak is in the carb? My '79 Accord had a snakes' nest of vacuum lines. They never gave me any trouble, but as my friend pointed out when I bought the car, "If anything ever goes wrong with those vacuum lines, you're screwed."

Click to expand...

I have checked and checked and can't see any issues with any vacuum lines. I mark them all before removing the carb to replace the base so they are all back where they are supposed to be. If I spray some carb cleaner towards the base, then it idles much smoother until it sucks in all of the spray, which leads me to think that the remanufactured carb may itself be having vacuum leakage issues.

Back on subject, the other issue with the Home depot type tubing is that since it is so much stiffer, it can put a lot more stress on your blocks and barbs (just something else to consider).

I really don't like the tubing from Home Depot, it's super stiff and doesn't feel like it would go over barbs too well. There is way better tubing available online.