Jacob, would
this be ok to use and how long could I leave the liquid in there before flushing or a complete tear down for cleaning? Also, is this a corrosive inhibitor and algea killer?
I haven't tried AC Double Protect myself, but from all I know and heard from other people, it is an absolute premium fluid and should serve all your purposes absolutely satisfying.
Jakob, that is an outstanding report from EK. I do have some questions and concerns pertaining to this report. I understand that you or Watercool did not perform the study, and I also understand that you may or may not have the answers. But I would like to discussing and maybe we can come up with some logical solutions.
Discussing is why I'm here, so let's do this
But please keep in mind that I'm not a chemist myself, so my understanding of these processes is on a very low amateur level
First, the report shows a higher concentration of Barium (Ba) than Silver (Ag) of up to six times the amount in some tests. Barium is also the lowest standard electrode potential of all the metals found in the spectrum analysis. Is this a non-issue because of it's lower EP or could the Barium be the deposits on the Nickel that begins the corrosion process.
Please see page 15 of the report. They explain that the Barium probably came from dyes.
Next, there was no mention of how old the distilled water was in the loop. We know that over time the water will build up IONs that will eventually "Serve as an electrolyte". So a lack of maintenance could be the root cause of the corrosion and the Silver could simply be an accelerant.
Yes and no. Yes, even a closed loop with distilled water "washes out" ions from every metal surface it touches and thus, the distilled water becomes electrolytic after some time. Yes, you can prevent the accumulation of ions by completly draining and refilling your loop from time to time. But be aware of the very high electrode potential of silver versus every other standard material in a loop: a loop containing silver will trigger the corrossive processes at a way smaller overall amount of available ions.
Finally, With their test study at the end of the report there was no mention of Silver used in their loop but the addition of copper sulfate pentahydrate to create an acidic solution. With the Nickel plating completely corroding away seems to verify my theory that it was the acidic or ionized water that caused the corrosion. The three elements necessary for galvanic corrosion existed.
Yeah, I don't know the context this report was published in. But to my understanding, they were first examining corroded blocks that were probably sent in by a customer. Those are (in my understanding) the blocks #1 to #4. These 4 samples were analyzed in the explanation on page 15-17. Then, they started an separated test where they wanted to find out the effect of copper sulfate, probably because a lot of people used that stuff back then. So, the test sample #5 has nothing to do with the samples 1-4, and while the samples 1-4 were victims to silver, the test #5 did not check for silver, but for copper sulfate.
In my old loop I had a full copper CPU block and 2x Swiftech rads (brass assumed). I've always used distilled water with a Silver coil and replaced the water every 6 months or so. Is it possible I haven't seen corrosion on my CPU block because it's full copper? Do you think it's possible that corrosion could be taking place inside the brass radiator? There's no way to really see inside it. Finally, I've recently added 2x Nickel plated Copper GPU blocks to the loop. Now that I have the Nickel Copper in the loop I am concerned about the results of the test above and looking forward to your feedback.
Thanks
First, the most radiators nowadays use copper pipes and brass prechambers. Some cheaper models also use brass tubing, but the industry standard shifted to copper tubes ~8-6 years ago. But yes, in every radiator I know there also are brass components. Btw, the most fittings are made from brass, too, and then plated. When the plating is scratched (which can easily happen by simply screwing the fitting into something metallic, like a metal CPU block or pretty much all radiators), the brass also comes in contact with the fluid.
Now, let's take a look back at the bottom of page 15 of the EK report. You can see the different electrode potentials of the different materials there. And as a rule of thumb, one can say that the higher the difference in potentials, the more brutal the effects of corrossion are. So you see that pure copper has only little to fear from silver. Yes, even copper is the victim of corrossion to silver, but only to a small margin. Brass on the other hand is an alloy formed from copper and zinc, and you can see that pure zinc has a very big difference in potentials. However, when bound in an alloy with copper, the zinc is kinda protected a little bit by the copper. So, given that you changed your fluid regularly, one could assume that the amount of corrossion that might have happened to the brass is rather smallish.
But, to be fair: you shouldn't be worried about leaks. It would take a very long time to corrode a usual thickness pipe so far that its structural integrity is in danger. The biggest problem with corrossion for most people is the ruined look of their components, and to a way smaller degree, that finer structures can get clogged by corrossion deposits.
As much as I love distilled water and silver kill coils, I'm starting to get a pet peeve with oxidization or in other words the starting point of gates to hell. Even expert guru Martin had distilled and silver in his system for a few years and had no issues. My only issue I have is the darn copper CPU blocks look like hell after a while. I'd rather spend the extra few bucks and call it a day. I just want to buy the right stuff and that isn't too hard on my pumps.
And there you have it. It's not a problem of color or something: this "looking like hell" is corrossion. Your blocks will look like untouched-out-of-the-box when you start using any corrossion inhibitor...