alcohol cooling

went shopping for a water block,
found one at my local hobby store , it is a stamped
copper resevoir that soldered together.
about 1 x 1 inch square with two fuel line fittings
the perfect water block (thin copper).
#2) one man is using a scrapped water-cooled head
off a old two-cycle model boat engine with two line
connectors, also a perfect water block.
he stated that with alcohol cooling his temperature at
idle is -37C and it goes no higher than +5c with
a lot of multi tasking .
excellent if you ask me.
that is how i will be setting up my cooling system.
very cheap cost.
david.

How do yo use alcohol in a cooling system? i mean how does it differ from water?
Any Advantages/disadvantages?

dont now but wouldnt alcohol evaporate
and i have read that water is a better heat conductor

littlerichie (Apr 29, 2001 11:32 a.m.):
went shopping for a water block,
found one at my local hobby store , it is a stamped
copper resevoir that soldered together.
about 1 x 1 inch square with two fuel line fittings
the perfect water block (thin copper).
#2) one man is using a scrapped water-cooled head
off a old two-cycle model boat engine with two line
connectors, also a perfect water block.
he stated that with alcohol cooling his temperature at
idle is -37C and it goes no higher than +5c with
a lot of multi tasking .
excellent if you ask me.
that is how i will be setting up my cooling system.
very cheap cost.
david.

Click to expand...

dont use alchol it wont work it only gets cooler when it evaporates your better off using Purple Ice and water mixture people telling me they get a few degrees lower in temp wit purple ice
cost like 4 to 15$ a bottle all places have diff prices

I use large quantities of alcohol in my cooling rig(20% alcohol, 5% anti-freeze, 75% water).

Basically it lowers the surface tension of water just like water wetter.

dimmreaper (Apr 29, 2001 12:29 p.m.):
I use large quantities of alcohol in my cooling rig(20% alcohol, 5% anti-freeze, 75% water).

Basically it lowers the surface tension of water just like water wetter.

Click to expand...

a friend of mine used water wetter in his pc and it was no different then regular water and both were running under load in CS the water wetter was acutally 1 DegreeC hotter then regular water watter wetter dont realy work but i hear from lots of people that purple ice is the best

you can use anything to lower the surface tension of water as long as it is polar, so dish soap would work(it would bubble), salt(make your water conductive, or anything else. Watter wetter is some basic substance and i am not sure what the purple stuff. Antifreeze also does the same thing. but water has the best heat capicity. As others have pointed out, alchohol really isn't cool, it just feels like it cause of the rate it evaporates.

tyr (Apr 29, 2001 11:43 a.m.):
How do yo use alcohol in a cooling system? i mean how does it differ from water?
Any Advantages/disadvantages?

Click to expand...

in a closed system!
ie! no air infiltration.
use a model airplane fuel pump (model airplane fuel
is actually nitro methane) these pump are built to withstand these chemicals.
from sealed resevoir to the pump
the pump to the water block
water block to the radiator(optional)
radiator to the resevoir.
those little engines get really hot and those little
heat sinks do a fantastic job of transferring heat from the engine to the water.
water has surface tension, but alcohol does not,
therefore alcohol has a greater ability to transfer heat
away from body it contacts.
poeple worry about fire, ina closed system there is no air infiltration so alcohol cannot ignite!
david

Alcohol is not the best choice for coolant... Its less dense than water and less mass generally moves less heat. Plus alcohols (especially methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol) will slowly dissolve the plastisizer in flexible tubing and that's bad. Tygon plus alcohol plus time equals PVC, which can crack! Alcohol can be used to lower the freezing point of water, but ethylene glycol is the best alcohol to use and that's just antifreeze... Those pre-made coolants like puple ice or whatever are the best way to go 'cause they generally won't suck the plastisizers out of your tubing and the rubber in the pump and they generally consist of non ionic additives so they don't conduct electricity; things like salt and soap turn water in to an excellent conductor.