Questions on Tubing and additives to stop clouding.

Jimbob7 · Aug 12, 2005

Hey, i'm about to get upgrade my loop a bit. Now currently my watercooling is fine, just that the tubing itself (not the water) has been coverd with a white film. Now i know this is a common problem, but i've read a few times people put washing power (what sort i'd like to know) into the loop to stop this from happening, is this known to work?

Currently in my loop there is Distilled water, Anti freeze (which i think is the culprit) and a touch of UV.

I'm using clearflex tubing, does the tubing used make a difference to this problem? If so i'm willing to pay a bit extra.

Thanks

Scott.

sumka · Aug 13, 2005

Greetings.

I'm no expert in watercooling but I run Clearflex here and noticed a similar white/cloudy ish residue appear after around 6 months of running distilled water and Glycol anti-freeze (about 5:1 ratio).

I wasn't sure what to do but, feeling adventurous, decided on putting some household washing up liquid in the loop. I ran the system for a short while (20 minutes maybe) like this, then drained it. Well bit of a problem here because I kinda overdid on the soap so ended up with nothing but foam left in the pipes, so, I refilled, drained, refilled, drained (yawn, keep going)...

Anyway after finally getting all the bubbles out the tubes where amazingly clean once again! They almost looked brand new again. I was happy with the results as I never needed to disassemble the loop to clean it.

Not sure if this is considered a good method or not, though... :shrug:

P.S. I believe Tygon has better resistance to discolouring though I've no hands-on experience of that so can't really say.

Sneaky · Aug 13, 2005

tygon actually stains easier than CF60, as it is a softer rubber, and because of that, slightly more porus to chemical permeation - apparently the MasterKleer tubing that McMaster sells is resistant to the staining that happens to softer tubing such as CF60 & Tygon

Jimbob7 · Aug 13, 2005

Thanks sumfuka, a nice responce, i'll try that to clean my current tubing. But what i'm looking for is an additive that will stop this from happening in the first place. Or something i can using instead of the anti-freeze.

Thanks Sneaky, i'm glad that Tygon can be worse, means i don't have to spend more money on tubing.

Scott.

johan851 · Aug 13, 2005

I'm glad I have Masterkleer now, since I had the same problem with my clearflex 60.

I'd like to know about a additive that prevents this too, though. I tried a little alcohol, but that didn't help.

Jimbob7 · Aug 13, 2005

I'm not sure i can get hold of any Masterkleer here in the UK. I've been doing some searching and some people are putting ''a few drops'' of iodine (sp) into their loop to stop and growth. But i'm not sure of the effects of this, and whether it will stop different metals mixing and making brown water, like i have seen.

Perseus · Aug 13, 2005

Precipitate buildup doesn't have to be organic in nature. That's why it's so hard to diagnose. I never saw any white material in my loop until I tried FluidXP. It took several fill\run\flush cycles to get rid of it. I've been using Hydrx for 3-weeks after installing new Tygon and so far no buildup yet.

Jimbob7 · Aug 13, 2005

I'm sure it has just come from the anti-freeze, i think ill chance it will just water and some UV see how that goes. Or pick up some Iodine IF it's not going to damage any hardware within the loop, i'll do a quick google for that.

If anyone can put some insight into this, i'd be very greatful.

Thanks

Scott.

RacerX27 · Aug 13, 2005

FWIW, I had Clearflex 60 and Hydrx, it was clouding within a week. I flushed and cleaned everything before assembling.

My current setup is Tygon http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ty3id9odlatu.html and a fresh mix of Hydrx and distilled water. Its been running 24/7 for almost 5 weeks now with NO sign of clouding at all.

After using Clearflex 1/2 and switching to Tygon I won't ever use Clearflex again. Tygon is so flexable and soft it makes it so much easier IMHO.

voigts · Aug 15, 2005

I think everyone would like a real solution to this issue. I haven't found one yet either.

Perseus · Aug 16, 2005

Maybe Hydrx has that magic combination of ingredients:

Ethylene glycol
Ethylhexanoic acid
Potassium hydroxide
4-Hydrobenzoic acid
Diethylene glycol

I hope so. I'm really getting tired of replacing tube.

Jimbob7 · Aug 16, 2005

I'm suprised after all this time, (since water cooling started out) that there isnt a solution to this problem. I'm thinking there must be. Perhaps people are just going over the top in the way of aditives. Seeing as i have no money left to by anything to go with the water and UV. I'm going to just run it like that and see how things pan out. I'll update you as things progress, or don't as i would like.

Sneaky · Aug 16, 2005

this may sound like flaming or whatever, but i really don't understand why you guys whine about the staining of your tubing - sure, i replace my tubes every time that i completely tear down my system, but besides that, i leave the tubes i have in there as long as i can before i have to rebuild it, reguardless of if they're stained or not, cause i can see no visual difference in the brightness of the dye/glow of water between new tubes and 2-month old tubes... but thats just me

RangerXLT8 · Aug 16, 2005

Iodine will kill any ORGANIC growth or a few drops of bleach probably wouldn't hurt anything either.

I was using a mixture of Water-Wetter\distilled water and my Tygon 3603 stained bad after a few months. Cleaned it all out and now I'm using distilled water with Zerez Anti-Freeze now. We'll see how it goes.

Jimbob7 · Aug 16, 2005

I know what you are saying sneaky, i have to just left the stained tubing in my system. But if there is a way inwhich the staining can be prevented then, i'd rather that than stained tubing.

RangerXLT8 good luck with the new mix. I'm not sure i'll try bleach, that seems a bit drastic. I'll pick up some iodine in a few weeks.

Skeen · Aug 16, 2005

Why do you guys use anti-freeze? As a biocide? I just ask because pure water is a better coolant.

Or did you guys mix metals and are trying to prevent galvanic corrosion?

Just curious.

Moto7451 · Aug 16, 2005

Overall the difference is pretty minimal in my experience. In a perfect world, running pure water, having no 90° bends, & using 7/16" tubing would net you a 5° gain in performance compared to a system like mine with three different tubing sizes, two 90° bends, a 360° loop because of excess tubing, & using Hydrex, but my temps are still the same as they were when I was using a straightened out system that lay flat on a table (basically) with no loops, no bends, & no glycol.

Skeen · Aug 16, 2005

Well if it makes very little difference one way or the other, then why put the antifreeze in there? The color?

Moto7451 · Aug 16, 2005

Glycol is toxic to bacteria & algae so its an antigrowth agent. Also the color doesn't hurt. One thing to remember about antifreeze though is that if you have too high of a concentration then you will see a drop in performance. Its just that with a 5-10% glycol concentration you should be fine. 20% is the upper limit of what you should use.

Skeen · Aug 16, 2005

Skeen said:
Why do you guys use anti-freeze? As a biocide?

Ahh I guessed right. I wonder how high a concentration you need, as opposed to bleach or iodine, just to kill creepy crawlies. Of course if you use either of these you lose your protection against galvanic corrosion.

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