Contemplating homemade water cooling loop.

Been thinking about this for a week now and ran across this forum so I'm happy to join yall!

Ive had several ideas and already picked up a heater core from the pick and pull but i wont rant too much about my possible options. The one thing thats holding me back is i see alot of people run into leaks and lost hardware. So a surprising idea came to mind that i have yet to see anywhere online. Imagine having your water loop and on top of the reservoir having a simple manual pump to suck out a small amount of air so that you have negative pressure say -1 psi and a pressure gauge. Install your loop suck out a little air then check time to time. It would be the best leak indicator ever.

And the best way to prevent leaks if you think about it.

Sounds like a PITA.

If you do your loop right, with compression fittings etc, the chance for a leak isn't very high. But if you watercool, it's a risk regardless.

EarthDog said:

If you do your loop right, with compression fittings etc, the chance for a leak isn't very high. But if you watercolor, it's a risk regardless.

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Exactly. +1

As one wise old man said (Con), "Water cooling is a Hobby. It's not for everyone."

Are you kidding me, its the best idea ever. You could even attach a simple kill wire if the needle drops to a certain level and parallel it with the computer power line. Hmm why did my computer shutdown. Oh look its leaking water. Im sure there are tons of systems that were done properly but ended up leaking because humans are not flawless. Thanks for being open to suggestions guys...

Ehh, its not about being open to suggestions... your idea isn't going on my rig, its for you! You asked about the idea in general and you were given honest feedback.

That said, and I am just guessing here, I am not sure the pliable tubing could handle a slight -1 PSI vacuum without deforming in some manner. You may have to go with thicker walled tubing to prevent collapse due to the vacuum. Not to mention whatever gauge you have measuring the pressure needs to be pretty darn granular as not all leaks are blowouts/would cause a dramatic change in pressure. So if you have a slight drip, your meter may not be able to read it in the first place. I would imagine a meter that would be able to read such small changes would cost an arm and a leg as well. Just not worth it to me personally. Also, there is a reason why people test their loops for a while before hooking it up to their system, to see if there are any leaks, be it human error or faulty parts. That is usually enough along with proper maintenance such as breaking the loop down every so often and checking o-rings, etc.

It sounds fundamentally flawed I'm afraid to say, but please, do it up and prove me wrong!

wow a man-o-meter that could read it that close would cost more than most of our little boxes, a bit like having a 25.000 dollar safe to protect a 10 dollar bill.
I just use a few drops of coolant dye from the auto parts store and shine a uv light around once or twice a week.

I believe AQ has that for their AQ5/6. It shuts the system down if they notice a decrease in water volume in the reservoir, if I recall correctly or have sensors laid out at certain points where it would be possible for a leak, i.e. fittings etc.

GTXJackBauer said:

I believe AQ has that for their AQ5/6.

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Correct - they are available in a few different sensitivity ranges: http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=2903

When connected to an Aquaero unit you can pretty much do anything you want ie shut down the whole PC or just the pump, raise audible and/or visual alarms etc.

It relies on detecting differential pressure so there is no requirement to initially pressurise or evacuate your system to have it detect coolant loss.

Interesting piece. Would this catch slow drips too or simply blowouts.

It should detect slow leaks however it would take longer for an alarm to be triggered as compared to a large loss of fluid.

A slow leak is just as fatal to a part as a blowout. Just depends on where it's leaking.

I should get some pics of my loop up.

no compression fittings, no hose clamps, no leaks, no reservoir.

I am using 1/2" barbs with 3/8" hose stretched over it. Its been running for a week and a half almost 24/7 with no leaks. bleeding was fairly simple due to routing.

boanerges57 said:

I should get some pics of my loop up.

no compression fittings, no hose clamps, no leaks, no reservoir.

I am using 1/2" barbs with 3/8" hose stretched over it. Its been running for a week and a half almost 24/7 with no leaks. bleeding was fairly simple due to routing.

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I would never run it without anything that will hold on to the tubing for a peace of mind. A accidental bump or after a while the tubing gets loose from the stretch and heat. Too risky for me unless you have deep pockets for replacements, not worth it imho.

boanerges57 said:

I should get some pics of my loop up.

no compression fittings, no hose clamps, no leaks, no reservoir.

I am using 1/2" barbs with 3/8" hose stretched over it. Its been running for a week and a half almost 24/7 with no leaks. bleeding was fairly simple due to routing.

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great.

Let me tell you a story. I was like you, and was fine for years doing that until one day... I changed my loop and added in a r9 295x2 With a total of 5x120 rad. Leaked tested and all went well. So I was having a long session of gaming (for me that's 2 hours), and suddenly my pc shut off. Looked over at the pc to find water spraying in the inside of my plexI and all over the mobo and x2. What happened was the increased heatload warmed up my tubing and it came off the barb. Needless to say compressions fittings were added after that. Be careful!

I'd be using [as a minimum] some small cable ties around the tubing to secure it to the barb.

If I read correctly, AC also has a pressure sensor that could be hooked up to shut the system down if pressure builds too much from a plugged block or something, pressure would be a better way to detect and prevent future leaks from happening, would it not.

The OP hasn't been back since his last post... I suppose he didn't like my honesty?

EarthDog said:

The OP hasn't been back since his last post... I suppose he didn't like my honesty?

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Don't worry, I have that problem too. lol