Testing for leaks

[Torlough]

I read 3 hours and saw some place else 12 hours. Which is it. I did a 3 hour test and was fine.

Should I do another test?

[thideras]

I read 3 hours and saw some place else 12 hours. Which is it. I did a 3 hour test and was fine.

Should I do another test?Its personal preference, I usually run mine for about 10 minutes. Not joking. Never had a leak either.

If it doesn't leak right away, it won't leak later unless you change something. :beer:

[PearlJammzz]

Depends on what you are comfortable with I'd say. If it's going to leak at all, it should right at first. Personally I'd let it run for atleast an hour and really examine every connection.

[Clockwork_Apple]

For my first build I did 24 hours.

And I will continue to do 24 hour leak tests, it just gives you peace of mind.

[batboy]

I generally do a couple of hours when leak testing. This also allows time to bleed most of the air out too.

[mrgreenjeans]

Minimum for me is overight, approx. 12 hours. I too vote for peace of mind.

[thideras]

Wow, never realized how long people do that :eh?:

I guess I just trust my work :p

[acompdude]

I also do a minimum of overnight. Preferably 24 hours though. Like others said, I also like the extra piece of mind.

[aja]

Wow, never realized how long people do that :eh?:

I guess I just trust my work :p

I think it is a question of trusting your eyes.

Look carefully for the tiniest specs of water and you can do it in 10 mins I would say! :soda:

[mrgreenjeans]

For me it's trusting someone else's equipment and manufacturing process. A tiny tiny hole in a piece of rubber tubing (and yes it happens, that's why reputable manufacturers test their products prior to sale) and $2,000-$3,000 dollars worth of gear becomes $2 worth of scrap.
Zap!
I want to be sure my water loop is contained throughout it's journey.

[thideras]

For me it's trusting someone else's equipment and manufacturing process. A tiny tiny hole in a piece of rubber tubing (and yes it happens, that's why reputable manufacturers test their products prior to sale) and $2,000-$3,000 dollars worth of gear becomes $2 worth of scrap.
Zap!
I want to be sure my water loop is contained throughout it's journey.Well, even if it is a tiny hold, it will leak within 10 minutes. I fell around the ENTIRE watercooling loop, even tubes, to find ANY liquid.

[||Console||]

I fill my system wrap all barbs in toilet paper and after the system has been bleed if there is no water Im happy and i boot the system .

[PearlJammzz]

That's a good idea console, toilet paper will very easily show the markings of even 1 half drop of water. I am stealing your idea :)

[GerrFel]

Mine was 24 hours out of the PC, then 12 hours in the PC with the PC off.

[EmAn]

i spent 20mins and it has been fine for 10+ months

[Torlough]

That's a good idea console, toilet paper will very easily show the markings of even 1 half drop of water. I am stealing your idea :)


Yeah great Idea I will do mine for 12 hours during the day with Toilet paper.

The oldd TP test :-) just for my peace of mind, it is my first build

[Mycobacteria]

I think I tested it overnight...

[voigts]

I leaktest using air pressure overnight with everything assembled (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=478351). The one time I did have a leak in a reservoir barb due to torquing from the tubing, it sure made for an easier fix to be able to just take it right out and fix it without having to drain or do any cleanup. I also am able to pump up my loop to 10psi which is much higher than the typical 2-3psi that a watercooling loop experiences. And even the tiniest leak shows up in the air gauge I use and can be easily heard.

I used to do the traditional overnight leaktest with every assembled, but I find leaktesting with air pressure to be a better way for me.

[Torlough]

That sounds like a fantastic idea, wish I would have done it before I filled my system with water. Since water is alot more dense than Air I would say that is a great test.

My problem is I found out my PSU wasn't right and I had to change it out. So I want to check for leaks again in case I bumped the barb to teh radiator.

[DaPoets]

That sounds like a fantastic idea, wish I would have done it before I filled my system with water. Since water is alot more dense than Air I would say that is a great test.

My problem is I found out my PSU wasn't right and I had to change it out. So I want to check for leaks again in case I bumped the barb to teh radiator.

Torlough your sig says you only have 4mb of ram...

I came very close to buying the bigwater 745 but after reading only ok reviews about it and forums like OCforums not considering it much of an option at all, I ended up going w/ high end air cooling as a temporary measure until I really find the cooling setup I want. In my readings it seems most people test their watercooling setups for leaks on an overnight basis which comes to roughly 12 hours where that 1st 30 minutes is the main time where you would see issues. But then again I have heard stories of tubes coming loose from that little bit of 3psi after a week.... My opinion is 30 min and you are good but piece of mind goes a long way :-)

[Diggrr]

I test for about 2 minutes.
That's about all my will can stand listening to that power button saying "push me!".

I've been doing this for some time though, and I trust my skillz.
Never lost a thing to the water.

BTW, strips of newspaper work better than TP to show a leak. Even if it's a tiny one, and dries quickly, you can't miss the evidence with newsprint...Excellent for those mystery leaks.

[treatmentx]

Leak test 30 minutes. While it's running, I touch and bend tubes, push on barbs, here and there. If it doesn't leak then, after mechanical pressure, I feel pretty good. Caught one leak before, other than that never had a leak.

[Torlough]

Torlough your sig says you only have 4mb of ram...



gb oops thanks I didn't notice.

[old man voice] I remember back in the day when 4 mb was alot of ram[/old man voice]

[Clockwork_Apple]

BTW, strips of newspaper work better than TP to show a leak. Even if it's a tiny one, and dries quickly, you can't miss the evidence with newsprint...Excellent for those mystery leaks.
Excellent tip.

I just set up an open case CPU only loop, spent roughly 30 mins leak testing as I couldnt wait to fire it up :D

[DaPoets]

I am wondering if newspaper is the way to go... I remember /oldmanvoice back in the day when I delivered newspapers in the rain, ink got all over me because the papers were getting wet /oldmanvoice.... do you really want to risk liquid ink getting on the MB?

[Sleeepyhead]

I let mine Leak test for 6 days,, lol,, was waiting for my HD,s to come in I think.

[Diggrr]

I am wondering if newspaper is the way to go... I remember /oldmanvoice back in the day when I delivered newspapers in the rain, ink got all over me because the papers were getting wet /oldmanvoice.... do you really want to risk liquid ink getting on the MB?

Well, if the ink were being re-liquefied by your leaking loop, I should think that you'd have bigger fish to fry than ink cleanup...your mobo would already be wet. :eek:

[mrgreenjeans]

The newsprint will waterspot in case the leak dries up. Old trick I learned when I used to build custom size aquariums, its how we'd check for leaks, newsprint.

[Clockwork_Apple]

Newsprint would work well for small drip leaks that otherwise wouldnt be noticable with tissue or just looking.

If you're getting the newspaper wet enough to worry about wet ink on the motherboard, you've got bigger problems :p

[Torlough]

Well I did an overnight newsprint test because I installed a new power supply and it was close to a radiator barb.

Good News - No leaks at all with a total of 16 hours testing.

Bad News - No picture on my monitor. The Mother board acts like it is firing up, I have power to my video card (fan is working). But no picture at all no bios set up etc... I am at a loss what to do, maybe I will have to go to my local computer store and get a cheao PCI e video card to test the card. :boo hoo:

[thideras]

Well, you have the 680i; what does the debug display say? :beer:

Also, are you watercooling your northbridge by any chance?

[Torlough]

That would code 1d - which according the the manual is Early PM Early PM initialization.

I didn't even send a Private Message (Just kidding) I have no idea what PM refers to. Bugger it all.

What is a northbridge, what the Passive heat sink is for?? Anyhow nope he only thing that is WC is the CPU.

Update after some net research I found out that this error message = bad ram chip. Yep, well at least I baught 4 gig. Two gigi are getting exchanged. Monday. Meanwhile I am going to load Windows Vista and tiddy up the wiring as well as re connecting all my on board USB and fire wire stuff.

[QuietIce]

I try to do a rinse/test before installing - that will find any manufacturing defects and cleans out the parts. Once it's installed I leak test as long as it takes to bleed - usually an hour.

gb oops thanks I didn't notice.

[old man voice] I remember back in the day when 4 mb was alot of ram[/old man voice] :thup: And even a 1 Mb stick was EXPENSIVE ...!

[HiProfile]

:thup: And even a 1 Mb stick was EXPENSIVE ...!

lol, I was thinking about that as I installed my cpu with 4mb of L2...:beer:

In the world of plumbing, sometimes you'll get less leaks over time! Thats usually with compression fittings though, cheap ones usually suck. But if it doesn't leak at all, even a drop, after 12 hours of full-load stress, it will be fine. You basicly are looking for leaks that push water out faster than it can evaporate.

You could also get a small vacuum/pressure tester thing they use for cars (mainly for bleeding brakes) - if it won't leak up to 3-4 psi, it will be fine. Unless you had an intel extreme(ly expensive) cpu, you'd be better off overheating a cpu than water-logging your moboard and gpu due to a thermal-expansion-induced leak.

[Torlough]

All done!! Thanks for all the advicethideras. as you can see I did some wire management, now I have to figure how to get the bios to shut off the PC if my water pump fils, the connection is made I just have yet to find the option in the bios.

http://st62.startlogic.com/~entertai/Sigpics/Closed%20Finished.jpg

http://st62.startlogic.com/~entertai/Sigpics/case%20open.jpg

Thanks for all the advice.