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Sub Zero Liquids for Chillers???

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Time4aMassiveOC

Time4aMassiveOC

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Joined
Dec 10, 2004
Location
The CircuitCity FireDog House
so im wondering what i should use for chiller liquid. i dont want to use in my solution im thinking water since i dont want my evap getting frozen over.

i found this review
http://www.gruntville.com/reviews/wc/vm_pcice/page2.php

and although expensive it seems like it would do the trick, but i dont know if its going to get much thicker in viscosity as i near the -60F freezing temp.

anyone have any experience with this?

or does anyone else have any other cheaper or more apropriate solutions.

obviously some things i dont want are solutions that will deteriorate the tubing, put excessive wear on the pumps, be flamable or be highly toxic.

once those conditions are met then we can discuss the merits of ones heat transfer ability over another.
 
would the water not seperate? i hear water + antifreeze isnt good. but i dunno why. i assumed its due to the water seperating and freezing at the sub zero temps.

im thinking i want to be able to go as low as possible eventually like around the -100's even though thats really expensive/hard. but -30's to -60s is what im going for first
 
Water + Straight Ethylene Glycol

Water + Straight Propylene Glycol

Water + Ethanol

Water + Table Salt

Those are some good ways to go. Table salt + water is the cheapest and easiest by far, with a possible freezing point of around -21C at the right proportion. The downside? Its very ionic and will accelerate any potential galvonic corrosion from dissimilar metals in your system. If your loop only has one kind of metal in it, then its a viable solution, otherwise don't even think about it.

Ethylene glycol to water at a 60% / 40% by volume ratio will result in a liquid with about -55C freezing point and a specific heat about 68% of water alone.

If you aren't going to be getting that cold, cut by the EthyGlyc and you will avoid problems with the mixture getting viscous at low temperatures.

Check out: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ethylene-glycol-d_146.html
and you can look at the trade-offs between viscosity, specific heat and freezing point for different mixture rates.
 
Gautam said:
The more and more I think about it, nothing but denatured alcohol.
Click to expand...

Takes way to long to pull down.

Pulldown of 4 hours + versus propylene glycol at 1 hour or less to pull down to -75F (-60C).
 
Why would Booze take longer to cool down then anti-freeze. If it has a higher heat capacity it would take more power to cool it, but that would be good for us where we don't want it to warm back up.
 
Pf.Farnsworth said:
Takes way to long to pull down.

Pulldown of 4 hours + versus propylene glycol at 1 hour or less to pull down to -75F (-60C).
Click to expand...
Yeah, and now lets talk about the viscosity of propylene glycol, lol. 4 hours for far far better flow rates and temperatures, a tradeoff I'm willing to take any day.
 
is there anything that isnt dangerous that can be cooled down to those temps and still flow like water? imagine your chiller suddenly stops working and your denatured alchohol is now all at +67C or more before the cpu turns off i can imagine it might not be a good picture should it somehow be ignited. in those conditions.

how toxic is it?

and what is a TXV i followed the link but the link post was huge and i only saw referance to TXV not really what it was or how i could get it

if you dont mind could you point me someplace more specific to read up on it?

nevermind its a Thermostatic Expansion Valve :)
 
Last edited:
greenmaji said:
TXV
Click to expand...
Coming soon...hopefully.


Time4aMassiveOC said:
imagine your chiller suddenly stops working and your denatured alchohol is now all at +67C or more
Click to expand...
Hehe, my chiller would probably take at least 20 hours or something before getting to temps anywhere near that high after being shut off, probably twice that long actually...I know that it takes it about 10 just to get above 0. The chances of it heating up that high without you catching it somewhere in between are very slim.

Anything on fire is dangerous. :D DN alcohol is pretty much in my eyes a perfect coolant, except for the price.
 
In an enclosed system there's almost no chance of the alcohol igniting. The flashpoint just refers to hwo likely it would be for the vapors to ignite at that given temperature, but in a closed system there wouldn't be any room for vapors so the only thing to worry about would be the auto-ignition point which is high enough so you shouldn't have to worry about it.

One caveat though, no matter what temperature the alcohol is, a spark is more than enough to ignite it o_O
 
so then, any nontoxic non flammable options? surely pc ice cant be the only option.


the pc ice review
http://www.gruntville.com/reviews/wc/vm_pcice/page2.php

im not saying i wouldnt use the DN alchohol for my own stuff since it seems not too overly dangerous. but i doubt i would feel fine giving one to my cousin. or non computer savvy friend.

i wouldnt use the toxic one though since i read that whole thread on how the dude just about how his coolant leaked and nearly killed his cat
 
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