Is Plain Distilled Water Good Enough?

Alright, I seek the help of you more advanced people around here. I need to know what's the best/most practical option for my watercooling system.

Here's what I'm running.

PolarFLO TT Chrome
Thermochill 120.3 (copper/brass)
AquaXtreme 12V pump

Very simple. Anyway...Can I run plain distilled water?
Here's what I figure.

Distilled Water:

Already have it (2.5 gallons worth)
No additional filling needed
Can just pour down drain when I'm done
Non-Toxic (I could drink this stuff if I really wanted to...)
Pretty good performance supposedly
No color (so if I get a leak while leaktesting, I probably won't see it)


Zerex:

Gotta go get it
Need to figure out way to fill system with it
Have to take to special place to dump out water (dumping antifreeze is illegal for those who don't know)
VERY toxic (i'd die if I drank it)
Maybe a slight increase in performance.
Purple. Ewwww.


Also, does anybody have anything against using food coloring to give my water some color? Hopefully it doesn't dye the blocks or leave any stains or anything does it? I'd like to know.

Thanks in advance.
Fyberwire

I don't believe the antifreeze will give any increase in performance. actually prob. a decrease in cooling ability. In our application (PC watercooling) it is more of a corrosion inhibitor than anything else. Pure water with dis-similar metals will cause corrosion. a little and I mean a little bit of antifreeze will not hurt. Dont over medicate your system. It is not an Indy car. Dyes... usa a non particulate dye one that is toaly soluble in water such as wildfire. check www.cool-cases-usa.com

Dont run a WC system w/o an additive, thats a bad idea.

distilled water and antifreeze, all I use, and my tubes have been clear for a month.

AMD-Me said:

Dont run a WC system w/o an additive, thats a bad idea.

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I've been doing it for a year. I use aquafina bottled water, no problems. Just a little UV dye for color is all I add.

There we go. Thank you.
As far as I know, brass is copper/iron, so it shouldn't be THAT dissimilar right?

I'm looking for a definitive answer here. I was going to get aquafina, but decided against it.

I run plain distilled or arrowhead (yeah I'm that lazy). All copper loop.

Umm I think that polarflo block is partially aluminum... you should run some antifreeze IMO. It will keep growth out and protect you from mixed metals. I once used only distilled water, 3 months later I had brown algea everywhere. If you want that, use water only.

I ran my Innovatek kit with Arrowhead distilled water and a little anti-freeze for over a year with no problems. Lines are still clear and no corrosion. It was an all copper set up though. Of course, YMMV

Fyberwire said:

There we go. Thank you.
As far as I know, brass is copper/iron, so it shouldn't be THAT dissimilar right?

I'm looking for a definitive answer here. I was going to get aquafina, but decided against it.

Click to expand...

Brass is generally 55-80% copper, and the remainder zinc. It's a good idea to have something as a corrosion inhibitor, and something to prevent growth of algae.

Well I'll admit, after 6 or 8 months with the same water, I have a little brown sediment in my bayres (yes I have a bayres in my gaming rig lol). Chances are it is from the dye breaking down over time and whatever stuff has worn off the inside of my pump, but all the copper is as shiny as the day I put it together. The tubes are fairly clean too. In fact they are dirtier on the outside then on the inside. Like I said, I use no antifreeze in that system. I have a whitewater, a fusionHL gpu block, and a dtek heatercore. The fusionHL is brass on top, which I chose because I absolutely wanted none of that anodized aluminum crap.

But yeah, if you want to minimize risk, 10% antifreeze won't hurt. I'm certainly not against it, don't take it that way.

The addition of light and warmth will greatly help a little hydroponic algae farm along.

Without those, and adding only freshly boiled tapwater, you can safely store up chunks of cooked salmon for a year. This is canning, and we've been experimenting with and proving this technology for 200 years now.

Sterilise the system.
Add boiled water.
Seal it.
Protect from excessive heat and light.

***

That said, I think a dash of antifreeze can help. It contains poison and neutralizes the corrosive property of water.

Beautiful. Thank you all.
I'll be heading out to buy some Zerex this weekend.

Nikh: Yeah, the top is aluminum, but it's chromed, but to be safe, I'll follow your advice and use some Zerex Super Protector (kills algae and protects against corrosion)

I'm looking at maybe 5%-10% Zerex, maybe 7 cause it's right in the middle and it's my lucky number.

Sean: Thank you for your help as well. My room is very bright and can get pretty hot during the day if the blinds are up (usually not), so I'll follow your hints. Of course, my watercooling will be completely inside the PC-70.

However, following an old camping trick I learned, throw a few drops of Iodine into your water supply (taken from a lake/river), wait a few hours, and it'll be good enough to drink. I'm not really sure if the PolarFLO TT will corrode if I leave it there (with the chromed aluminum top and copper base, as the chrome should form a protective coat over the whole thing), but if I'm sure it won't, I might as well run a few drops of iodine and water to kill algae and still be non-toxic. I really don't want to have to go and find a special place to dispose of the antifreeze (I'd like to protect the earth thank you).

Anyway, please help me out here. What I'm looking for is this.

Anti-Algae
Non-Toxic
Anti-corrosion

Simple enough right? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: After looking through the master coolant list, Engine ICE looks like the best additive out there for what I'm looking at. Nice and non-toxic, combined with nice performance should mean a good choice for me. I skimmed their FAQ but it looks like it doesn't cover algae, but a few drops of Iodine should solve that.

-Fyberwire