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Couple tubing questions

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FACTION95Si

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Location
Alta Loma, CA
I just went to Home Depot and picked up the following parts:

Watts AB Clear Vinyl Tubing 3/4" OD x 1/2" ID 10 feet
Watts AB Nylon T- barb 1/2"
Watts AB Nylon 1/2" x 3/8" adapter <--- for Aheim 1250 or end of T-line
Watts AB female pipe cap 3/8" This will cap my t-line. Its metal not nylon.
10 metal hose clamps

Next week I'm going to be ordering my Maze 3, Eheim 1250 and Dtek Radiator combo.

I want to know if this Watts AB Clear Vinal Tubing sucks and if I will have problems with it? Will WatterWetter or other anticorrision fluids harm the cheap tubing ?

Is it better to have metal or nylon parts such as barbs and t lines?

Do I have to put any sealant inbetween the connections to prevent leaking?
 
My experience with the Watts Clear Vinyl tubing is that it's very inflexible and tends to kink in the confines of a pc case.

Also, check the IDs of all of your components to make sure you are getting the flow you are thinking of and don't restrict the pump's intake.

Good luck,

Wangster
 
The walls on this tubing are 1/4" thick. It doesn't seem to kink unless I bend it sharply like a 90 degree angle.

So is nylon or metal better to use? Does it matter?
 
Since your using hose clamps it doesn't matter. Some people's experiences have been that soft tygon/clearflex tubing and metal barbs didn't require hose clamps but they felt that nylon barbs definitely required hose clamps.

I concur, although I prefer using hose clamps regardless of the situation.
 
When I first set up my system I used that Home Depot tubing and it seemed to be fine. I recently made some changes to my setup, and as I was disassembling, I noticed a few partial kinks where there didn't used to be any. I guess the vinyl reshaped itself over a short time. I just put in Tygon-3603 and it's MUCH better. It's a lot more flexible and it seals on the barbs better. I didn't order enough so I just got in some Clearflex-60 also, to compare to Tygon. I just got it yesterday but I really can't tell the diff except that Tygon is clearer. So to answer your question, yes the HD tubing sucks. I didn't think so at the time but I didn't have anything to compare against. You can get 10' of clearflex for $12.
 
There is this property of vinyl tubing that most of you overlook. It can be thermoformed into shapes that would otherwise require elbows and such. For that reason I choose vinyl.

12955.Ericsson R520m.jpgl.jpg
 
i used vinyl on my old water cooling, and it would kink, changed color, then cracked on me, i use tygon/clearflex now
 
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