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Questions on Conumdrum's Annual Water Cooling Cleaning and Rebuild Journal

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x509

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Location
California
Conumdrum has performed another service for us all with this posting:

http://www.overclockers.com/annual-water-cooling-cleaning-rebuild-journal/

It raised a number of questions in my mind, which I would like to raise here in the spirit of open discussion. :chair:

Mostly I want to ask if all of this work is really necessary, or justified in economic terms. :confused: For example, what if we didn't do this cleaning annually? What happens? Does system cooling performance decrease? By how much?

What if the tubing were replaced at every cleaning, instead of being cleaned out? How much can new tubing cost? $25? $30? If I could save 1 or 2 hours, and ensure that my tubing was "fresh," I might be willing to discard the old tubing and replace it with new?

How important is it to clean all the "tarnish" off the waterblocks? What happens if this tarnish is not cleaned off at regular intervals?

Now, I'm not disputing the need to drain the loop and clean out the radiator. But, does it have to be done annually?

I'm not all all trying to disrespect Conumdrum, believe me. I just want to get some questions answered. :chair:

Thank you.
 
some people leave it for a few years and are fine, some people it takes 6 months. there seems to be anomalies out there for how often you should do it.

i personally drain every 6 months and lightly check things over like check clamps, etc. and do a tear down every year.

new tubing is better then cleaning the old stuff, but most don't like to if you don't have to. i go with masterkleer tubing as it's only about $10 to order some new stuff for my current loop. (20ft)

the tarnish on blocks will hinder the heat transfer, so thats a must to get clean. ketchup or vinegar will clean it right up.

it doesn't have to be done every year, but you really should.
 
Your welcome to replace the tubing. Your $30 might mean a lot to someone on a tight budget. I was saying my tubing is fine, I'm glad I bought good stuff and it's in perfect shape. You buy cheap tubing at .59 a ft, yea, I'd replace it all because it's getting stiff and clouding up. It's up to you.

I have seen CPU blocks cleaner than mine at 1 year, seen them messed up at 6 months. You don't know till you open it up.

I don't mind doing the 6/12 month thing, it's fun to me. Hanging around the house, spending a weekend is okay. Maybe you don't realize I didn't slave over it for the whole time. I ate, slept, watched TV, hung out with the wife, watched a movie. Instead of sitting in front of my PC typing stuff like this or playing a game, I hung out and enjoyed my time with the innards of my PC. Mobo en Mano.

What everyone else wants to do, it's up to them.

Draining and refilling I think is still a great idea at 6 months. Water gains many bad properties in time. Dissolved solids, flux residues, biocide looses it's effectiveness etc. The 6 month drain, refill, run for an hour, drain and fill one more time keeps parts clean in the long run. Keeping the rig running well and you deciding when it's time is priceless.

It's up to you, like anything else.
 
You could think of cleaning/rebuilding like dusting off and cleaning lint of of an air cooled system. It's somewhat of a pain, but it really helps.
 
Your welcome to replace the tubing. Your $30 might mean a lot to someone on a tight budget.

If I was on a tight budget, I would certainly NOT spend all the money i n the first place necessary to do watercooling "right."

I have seen CPU blocks cleaner than mine at 1 year, seen them messed up at 6 months. You don't know till you open it up.

I don't mind doing the 6/12 month thing, it's fun to me.


Draining and refilling I think is still a great idea at 6 months. Water gains many bad properties in time. Dissolved solids, flux residues, biocide looses it's effectiveness etc. The 6 month drain, refill, run for an hour, drain and fill one more time keeps parts clean in the long run. Keeping the rig running well and you deciding when it's time is priceless.

It's up to you, like anything else.

Points all well taken. I'm just trying to figure out a "reasonable" tradeoff here. It sounds like I need to drain and refill the water every six months. Agreed. Beyond that, I'm wondering what is necessary.

For example, with "frequent" draining and refilling, does that allow me to go longer, say 2 years, between complete teardown and cleaning/rebuild? That's what I'm wondering about.

Again, I started this thread becuase I believe that you are one of the real experts here, and also very, very helpful to newcomers like me. It was never intended to be disrespectful in any way.

x509
 
I just clean mine when I upgrade something. If I dont upgrade for over a year, it stays for over a year. If you use plasticizer free tubing (tygon beverage tubing primochill pro, etc) and you dont have any new rads (no flux issues), and running just distilled with ion biocide, at least my loop stays pretty clean even for a year. If new rad, or running with dye, then would drain and clean waterblock at least at 6 month.

If running with pure distilled + ions (copper/silver), the longer the water loop stays, the higher the ion concentration of silver and copper (copper ionization to biocidal levels occurs in days to weeks according to one study), up to some steady state point... but ion biocides do not decrease over time, they increase effectiveness over time.

The time I had mine up for over a year, only had few deposits in blocks, and performance changed 0 after redoing loop. But then again, I run a clean loop without dye, tubing plasticizer, just pure distilled. And 1 year old b44 tygon beverage tubing (plasticizer free) only had some slight yellowing, and that does not clean off on mine. But I was changing to primochill blue tubing anyways.
 
If I was on a tight budget, I would certainly NOT spend all the money i n the first place necessary to do watercooling "right."



Points all well taken. I'm just trying to figure out a "reasonable" tradeoff here. It sounds like I need to drain and refill the water every six months. Agreed. Beyond that, I'm wondering what is necessary.

For example, with "frequent" draining and refilling, does that allow me to go longer, say 2 years, between complete teardown and cleaning/rebuild? That's what I'm wondering about.

Again, I started this thread becuase I believe that you are one of the real experts here, and also very, very helpful to newcomers like me. It was never intended to be disrespectful in any way.

x509

Not taken that way at all. I wasn't saying it has to be done any way, it's your way. As you see there are many differing opinions.
 
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