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Water Cooling Maintenance

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Furion

New Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Hello! I just finished registering.

Anyway, the reason I signed up was to ask some help on water cooling maintenance.

I'm thinking about shifting to water cooling. I've read tons of guides about installation, but I've failed to come across a good guide about water cooling maintenance.

I'm thinking of purchasing a case which comes with a water cooling solution (3D Mercury from Gigabyte)

I am aware that most of you would not recommend buying a kit, specially one from Gigabyte (3D galaxy II is the kit that comes with the 3D Mercury), but I am aware of it's capacity to cool and that it is not the best one out there.

I would just like to know how I would go about maintaining this kind of water cooling setup, for example, how often do I change my coolant (I'm also planning to purchase PrimoChill's PC Ice coolant), how often do I have to clean my CPU Water Block, and some other maintenance stuff that I might not know about.

Thank you for your kind support.
 
Good, high-end air cooling is better by far than cheap, low-end water cooling. PrimoChill's PC Ice coolant honestly is a waste of money IMHO. ICE, like any fluid that you put into a loop, will leach copper ions over time and become increasingly conductive. Using non-conductive fluid doesn't ensure a thing. I also have seen some threads about people who have had serious clogging issues using ICE.

The best mix of fluid is still distilled water with 5-10% of Pentosin antifreeze and some algaecide and a few drops of povidone-iodine. You will have no growth issues ever with this blend, and it is really your best bet. Some people here use Tygon silver tubing with plain distilled water, and that seems to work fine also as the water leeches silver from the tubing and inhibits growth.

As far as maintenance goes, if you have the right ingredients in your fluid, some people go as long as a year and just top it off from time to time before draining/flushing/refilling. I personally seem to tear into something every few months that requires me to drain anyway.

Depending on what kind of tubing you use, many people replace there tubing once a year or less. Some replace it more often as certain kinds of clear tubing cloud very quickly (ie. Clearflex 60).

Setting up a watercooling system takes a lot more time than air, and it can take longer when you change parts, but I actually have found that it requires less maintenance and I have to blow the dust out much less often than when I was on air. I can get away with once a month or more easily on water, but on air, my system was dust choked after 2 weeks.
 
Just to add, Chemical PVC tubing (Tygon, CF60) Gets cloudy within 6 months, give or take a coupll months depending on your setup. Topping off your coolant can be done as infrequent as once a month, to as often as every other day depending on your setup. Components and tubing that are mor pourus will release vapor more quickly.

Setups with silcone tubing will generally release coolant the fastest and require more freqeunt top offs.

Even with High end air, you need o thave periodic maintence, cleanin gout the dust, animal hair, reseating your heat sink one in a while, etc. So with water, you aren't necessarily getting into more mainaineance, just diffrent types.
 
Thank you very much for your prompt replies.

@voigts:

The problem is that I do not know where to get the said materials for the fluid you described. So it's either PrimoChill PC Ice coolant, regular car coolant, or the coolant that comes with the 3D Mercury case.
 
Distilled water: Any grocery store
Anti freeze: Any gas station or auto store, or grocery store
Iodine: Pharmacy
Algeacide: pet supply store
 
Distilled water: Any grocery store
Anti freeze: Any gas station or auto store, or grocery store
Iodine: Pharmacy
Algeacide: pet supply store

How do you know how much of each of these substances to use in a loop????

i like the mixx, but how MUCH!!??!?!?!
 
How do you know how much of each of these substances to use in a loop????

i like the mixx, but how MUCH!!??!?!?!

the point is to have as much water as possible as its the best heat conductor of the liquids listed, the others are just for keeping bacteria out

and lots of people have tested their way, to a good mix
 
90-95% distlled water 5-10% anitfreeze, couple drops of everything else.

I prefer an even lower ratio, I run about 98% distilled water 2% anitfreeze, and enough dye to make it glow. I don't use any boicides, as I frequently change out my coolant.
 
the point is to have as much water as possible

???
Whether I have a loop that uses 1 liter of water or 2 liters of water or 2 gallons of water isn't going to matter. The water is going to heat up to reach an equilibrium between heat load and heat being dissipated. The amount of water will just determine how long this takes to happen.

How do you know how much of each of these substances to use in a loop????

i like the mixx, but how MUCH!!??!?!?!

As Jas mentioned, 5-10% antifreeze, a drop or two of fish aquarium algaecide, and 6-7 drops of povidione-iodine are about right.

The antifreeze has PH buffers that help keep the water at a better PH level. I mentioned Pentosin antifreeze because it contains no silicates and tends to cloud tubing the least. You can find it online in different colors, or you can get Toyota dealer red antifreeze, or VW/Audi blue which are also Pentosin. In an all copper loop antifreeze isn't an absolute haveto, but the general concensus seems to be that a 5-10% mix is a good idea.

The povidone-iodine (alcohol-free so as not to pose any issues with acrylics that may be in a loop) acts as a general biocide, and the algaecide specifically targets the green stuff.

This mix is cheap, effective, and works. Why would you spend so much money on PC Ice or the like when you can get distilled water for .79c, iodine for $5, fish aquarium algaecide for $3 (all at Walmart), and maybe $10-$20 for enough Pentosin to last for many years (I think my gallon of red Toyota 100% antifreeze cost me $15)?
 
I completely agree. The pre mixed stuff you can buy online isn't Bad persay, but why spend the money for only enough of it for one fill, when for the same price if not less you can buy enough coolant mixtures to last you years.

All you are buying is basically the same mixture you could make at home if you purchase the pre made stuff.
 
Mine is 100% maintence free for over a year now...

I dont need additives:
I dont need to wory about concentrations, mixes, or the fact that AF retards the effectivness of water as a coolant.
 
???
Whether I have a loop that uses 1 liter of water or 2 liters of water or 2 gallons of water isn't going to matter. The water is going to heat up to reach an equilibrium between heat load and heat being dissipated. The amount of water will just determine how long this takes to happen.

i didnt mean it like that, i meant its better to have a more water in your mix, not as in liters, gallons, but as in a ratio, because the more you add to the mix, say if you use 15% antifreeze and 85%, that will not cool as good as 5% antifreeze and 95%. the higher the percentage of additives the worse it will cool.
 
i didnt mean it like that, i meant its better to have a more water in your mix, not as in liters, gallons, but as in a ratio, because the more you add to the mix, say if you use 15% antifreeze and 85%, that will not cool as good as 5% antifreeze and 95%. the higher the percentage of additives the worse it will cool.

Now that makes sense.

I should be noted also that although antifreeze does lower the effectiveness of water for cooling, 5-10% isn't going to make a measurable difference.

As for Myco, he uses the Tygon silver tubing which keeps anything from growing due to the silver in the tubing leaching into the water. If you don't mind silver tubing, then this is a great way to go.
 
My system has been going to about 5 years now with distilled water and a cap full of purple ice (added about 2 years ago). Ive only had to top it off once (6 months ago) and haven't really touched it since i put it together.
 
My system has been going to about 5 years now with distilled water and a cap full of purple ice (added about 2 years ago). Ive only had to top it off once (6 months ago) and haven't really touched it since i put it together.

What are you running?

You haven't upgraded your hardware or watercooling in 5 years?
 
Ehiem pump, tygon tubing, blackice radiator i think, and dangerden block. I forgot that I upgraded my system once but I kept the water block and didn't disassemble the cooling system.
 
As a 3D Mercury owner I can say its a VERY nice case and water cooling system. I bought it for $100 and that price it was unbeatable but at the regular $400 price I would look somewhere else for sure.
It cools my Opteron 165 better than my previous high end air but the single rad will more than likely wont be able to handle anything else added to the loop except a NB cooler or the likes.
As for fluid...I read somewhere that you must be careful with what you use as they are mixing metals with the rad and block and according to gigabyte their fluid actually prevents or minimizes the issue...:
When dissimilar metals are in contact with one another in the presence of an electrolyte, galvanic action occurs, resulting in the deterioration of the metal with the lower galvanic number. The electrolyte may be rain water running from one surface to another, or moisture from the air containing enough acid to cause it to act as an electrolyte.
 
Wow, 100$ ?

Did you get it as a used case or brand new? that price rocks.

Hmm, so 3dmercs rad is made up of a different metal than that of the cpu block? hmm.. that sucks.
 
I haven't changed the fluid in my setup for a good 3+ years, its just a mix of roughly 75% distilled water and 25% car antifreeze(Prestone brand). Never had an issue with it, and its been running 24/7 all that time too.

Only maintenance I do is a monthly blowing the dust out of my rad, even with a filter some dust still collects in it and a quick blow with compressed air in the opposite direction that the fans blow does the trick.
 
Personally I didn't use the anti-freeze due to the poisonous nature of the stuff.

Just some distilled water with 30 drops of Providone Iodide from publix (its the pre-mixed stuff, it wasn't pure so i used plenty)

also I highly suggest adding the Providone Iodide after you add the water, it makes bleeding the air out of the loop a million times easier and faster (took about 2 hours to bleed out all the air this way). This is because the Iodide will bubble up making a frothy liquid and will basically make all the large bubbles into lighter, smaller bubbles which will bleed out super fast.
 
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