Sealed system, hose porosity, thermal expansion...

Suppose you have a sealed system with no air pocket. Braided hoses. 2 liters of coolant. Subjected to thermal fluctuations, say 5*C to 25*C, daily cycle.

How will this system handle the coolant thermal expansion over the long-term, say 5 years?

Will it experience coolant loss through micro-leaks on the fittings? through hose porosity?

yes it will leak, how much is unknown by me at least but SOME will evaporate out.

No one is going to have their watercooling loop setup for 5 years without doing some kind of draining/refilling. I found that I had to add a little bit of water every month-and-a-half or so to keep my res full due to evaporation through the tubing. You had better make sure you don't lose water through fitting leaks.

Some tubing is more pourus than other, silcon tubing being the most porous that is commonly used. You will loose coolant due to vapor seeping through the tubings, and possible some of the plastic materials in your loop.

But Voigts pretty much hit it dead on, no one has a cooling loop running for 5 years strait. Just doesn't happen.

Yeah I know... but if you're going to build a maintenance-free WC good for 5 years how are you going to design it?

Some things come to mind:

1) very low porosity tubing (any suggestions?)
2) sealed system that could handle coolant thermal expansion (I need ideas on this)
3) redundant pumps
4) long-life coolant, the organic-acid (OAT) coolant in my car is good for 10 years...

If you are looking at a 5 year time span you need something running on all Copper tubing. Completely sealed.

This however I think would not be practical. For one, you would more or less have ot scratch build everything. Secondly, you have a non static system, subject to heat and water, and various addatives. Just like a car, at some point you need to change out your fluids.

You COULD do it, but ot would more or less be a permanant solution, and not worth it IMO.

RonnieG said:

Suppose you have a sealed system with no air pocket. Not likely Braided hoses. 2 liters of coolant. Subjected to thermal fluctuations, say 5*C to 25*C, daily cycle.

How will this system handle the coolant thermal expansion over the long-term, say 5 years? Not enough to worry about.

Will it experience coolant loss through micro-leaks on the fittings? through hose porosity?

Click to expand...

Micro leaks ...not if you use the corret tubing size to match the babs and the correct size stainles steel screw type hose clamps. Water will permeate through tubing though. How much depends on the tubing.

All the information you are seeking is readily available.

And as others have said ...5 years is a looooong time. The CPU will be obsolete long before 5 years is up.