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Water cooling foam help

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Sydney

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Location
Reykjavík, Iceland
So, I set up my new water cooling system last night, leak tested it for 8 hours while at work, and when I came home, no leaks, BUT, the res was all bubbly and foamy, and when I turned off the pump it was all full of foam:

Pump on:
24lpt29.jpg
1zb5o9k.jpg

Pump off:
2mwvx4g.jpg
15me3w9.jpg

And here's my setup:
RES/Pump > GPU > RAD > CPU > RES/PUMP
2qvgo7s.jpg

I think the problem is that my pump is sucking the bubbles down from the res, making the bubbles re-enter the loop.
 
Looks like you have a lot of tiny bubbles in the loop, could take some time. I ran my loop with no top on the res for about 30mins and all that is left is a few tiny bubbles stuck to the res side.

EDIT: Is your rad new? Did you give it a good flush-out before you installed it into the loop? Could maybe explain the foam?
 
Been over 30 minutes, just as many bubbles. More and more bubbles are being generated at the intake of the res :/

Should I consider a t-line instead of the res? That should avoid the foam, although make it harder to bleed.
 
You could try a t-line but there must be something wrong somewhere? The foam must be getting generated some how? Maybe try flushing all the blocks and the rad again? I would definatly drain the loop and try again.
 
Looks ok to me. Changing the order of the loop won't effect temps much anyway. It's pretty much just what works best for you, ie: routing tubing, pump location etc etc
 
Something is making the water cavitate so much it's leaving foam behind. Besides that's an awkward way you have it setup, but hey that's you.

8 hours is not enough time for the bubbles/foam to leave the system, especially with that type of res/pump combo.

Remove the cap, tuen the pump on and start tilting and tapping the rad with something hard covered with rubber (you don't want to damage the rad). This will help the air escape. Use some paper towels to prevent spill over.

There seems to be alot of air trapped in the rad and thus you still have bubbles. The foam however is caused by cavitation.
 
If I were in you shoes, I'd look at temporarily taking the rad off of the top of the case and setting it down low. It looks like you have enough tubing and you won't be "breaking the loop" Might also look into moving the pump/res into the 5.25 bays. just to let gravity do some of the work of bleeding the air out.

My system I actually laid the rad on the floor, and placed the res high. This helped "burp" a ton of air out of the system before the pump even ran. I'm not an expert by any means, this is what worked for me.
 
I have a second pump, gonna try using that as pump, and other one as res only.

Also, I'll try the radiator trick above.
 
Your res is too small to allow the bubbles to rise to the top. The flow is so fast bubbles can't float to the top.

I had a XSPC 100mm high res and it took forever to bleed. I added a piece of tubing to the top, about 6".

It's just the res size is too small, let it run for a few days, pich the hose on the pump outlet almost to closed for a few seconds, do it again and again. That will help slow the flow of the water.
 
Your res is too small to allow the bubbles to rise to the top. The flow is so fast bubbles can't float to the top.

I had a XSPC 100mm high res and it took forever to bleed. I added a piece of tubing to the top, about 6".

It's just the res size is too small, let it run for a few days, pich the hose on the pump outlet almost to closed for a few seconds, do it again and again. That will help slow the flow of the water.
That's what I was thinking. I'm considering getting a bigger reservoir.
 
I'd look for a seal leak at the pump/res interface. It may not be enough to leak water, but with the pump on, is allowing air to be sucked in.

Since your top and res are acrylic, can you see any spots where there might be a seal leak with a careful flashlight inspection?
 
Well, screw it, I just ordered a Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev2, that will also allow me to have the pump at bottom, and res at top of case.
 
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