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Water cooling nightmare stories

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NGL_BrSH

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
I'm one to learn by mistakes.. whether or not if they are my own or someone else's I usually won't go down the same path.
If we had some stories in here of things that has happened to people in the past that would be helpful and possibly entertaining :p
IE: Leaks, fires, fish in the lines etc..

so if you got one.. lemme hear it :D
 
Don't get an acrylic topped three barb block. They crack. And drown your entire system.

It sucks :(
 
my thermaltake block cracked on its own... i removed it from my system and left it on my desk..it was fine when i left it there.. 2 weeks later there was a masiv crack and it hadnt been moved touched or anything,good job i took that piece of crap out when i did...

p.s what hapend when yours cracked apart from getting wet... anything die as a result?
 
The tubing near the outlet of my pump was clogged because I was cleaning it and replacing the water, so it was running with car radiator detergent. The pressure buildup made the tubing on the outlet of the pump fall off. As a result I had a 30cm high fountain inside my pc. Lucky for me that the computer was not plugged in, and I had removed some of the hardware while cleaning it. Had to replace my mobo, but everything else worked.
 
oh man that sucks!
keep the stories rolling... great monday morning reading material.
 
Tat2monsta said:
my thermaltake block cracked on its own... i removed it from my system and left it on my desk..it was fine when i left it there.. 2 weeks later there was a masiv crack and it hadnt been moved touched or anything,good job i took that piece of crap out when i did...

p.s what hapend when yours cracked apart from getting wet... anything die as a result?
Lots of things died. I think I recall losing about $800 worth of parts.
 
installed the system didnt leak test 1month down the line gfx card displaying red lines thought it was because of overclock and posted on here, went to remove the card felt water said bolx! Fixed the lead made a water catcher to make sure didnt happen again RMA'd as only had the card a month it took forever got a new card am happy again leak free!

All in all... leak tests always help specially when it's your 1st water setup ;)
 
I know some people question the need for it but...

Went without any form of anti-growth in a loop for about 4 months with an Anti-freeze/Distilled water mix. 4 months later I was up for a Nobel prize for creation of a new life form but....my system was down for several days waiting for new tubing to arrive. At that point I didnt have any effective way of cleaning out my tubing so had to wait for it to arrive.

Catastrophic? No, no components lost beyond some tubing. Annoying? Yes, no computer for 4 days waiting for the replacement tubing to arrive.
 
Bugsmasher said:
I know some people question the need for it but...

Went without any form of anti-growth in a loop for about 4 months with an Anti-freeze/Distilled water mix. 4 months later I was up for a Nobel prize for creation of a new life form but....


bahaha.. any pics?

this could really turn out to be a great thread
 
Unfortunately I didnt snap any pictures when this happened. I really should have. The growth was in the form of small brown/black spots that almost resembled dust on my tubing....but it kept spreading and getting darker. Then I was worried it was some form of corrrosion so I drained my loop into a tupperware container and set that inside my case (which I reverted to air cooling after waiting a few days) to replicate the temps while it was in the loop. Kept getting darker and actually smelled pretty nasty.

All in all it was a complete friggin pain in the arse. I sincerely suggest people use anti-growth.
 
This is a great idea. This thread can really be useful. I'm about to take the plunge into water cooling myself, and I can't wait to hear all the stories.

For those of you who post past experiences, be sure to include how you fixed them so we can really benefit from it.
 
oh man i've got a really good one.

a picture is worth 1000 words right?
DSC000203-326x237.jpg
 
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