Mystery MCMaster's Antibacterial Tubing?

I am thinking about upgrading all my tubing and redoing my loop with Tygon Silver, so I have been searching around trying to find the best price. So far I haven't had much luck, the going price is about $3.50 per foot.

While searching I came across this at http://www.mcmaster.com/ part number: 8354K12.

Part Number: 8354K12
1-99 Ft. $0.87 per Ft.
100 or more $0.74 per Ft.
Type
Antibacterial Gray PVC Tubing
Material
PVC
Shape
Single Line
Outside Dia.
3/4" (.75")
Inside Dia.
1/2" (.5")
Wall Thickness
1/8" (.125")
Reinforcement
Unreinforced
Color
Semi-Clear Gray
Operating Temperature Range
+25º to +150º F
Performance Characteristics
Antibacterial
Bend Radius
6"
Durometer
70A (Soft)
Tensile Strength
2,103 psi
Sterilize With
Gas and Steam (autoclave)
Specifications Met
Not Rated
Compatible Fittings
Barbed
Standard Lengths, ft.
10, 25, 50, 100
Chemical Compatibility Link
5187KAC

Click to expand...

The only thing I see that could possibly make this tubing a bit hard to use is the Bend Radius. It seems really high for this type of tubing (error?). You may be able to use some kind of anti-kinking ring. At the very least use a different piece of tube in a tight spot.

If it has the same effect as the tygon silver for $.87 per foot I would definitely be willing to give it a shot.

http://www.mcmaster.com/addlcontent/loadaddcontent.asp?ID=423545518284&Type=PERFDAT

10ft Tygon = $35
41ft Mystery Tubing = $34.85

Any ideas on this tubing?

baah already posts about it. O well maybe someone learned something new about it.

If there has been no word by the next time I order from McMaster (not sure when that will be), I'll throw in a foot or two and let you know how ornery it is. I want to check out their choose-a-color 7/16" black too. I suspect both are going to be too rigid for our purposes, but it won't cost much to find out.

BTW, US Plastic sells antimicrobial elbows. Unfortunately, they're the most restrictive kind.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/va..._name=31315&product_id=31342&variant_id=64907

OMG sweet!!!

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...SPlastic&category_name=31315&product_id=31334

The 5/8 to 1/2in reducers would be perfect for my Iwaki pump which has 5/8 pump output/intake. Definately gonna get some of these if I get any anti-microbial tubing.

They also seem to have this for tubing:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...SPlastic&category_name=31304&product_id=31305

To bad you have to buy a 100ft roll (~$4.13 per ft)

I also have some NPT fittings I could replace with the ones they have. Not sure if just a few fittings would make any difference and I am not sure I want to replace my brass fittings with plastic ones


I was also thinking about getting a Swiftech Micro-Res if I were to upgrade my tubing. Mainly just to check the water levels, would it cause any problems if I were to run an all Black/Silver tubing setup /w pure distilled? Could it be a potential breeding ground for that pesky algae? Or would it be better to run a T-Line setup with a small patch of normal clear tubing using the anti-microbial couplers . It may be hard to see the water in a clear patch of tubing?? Running pure distilled for a few years is my goal

I have some experience with the tygon silver tubes. I know thath they can bend quite well.

To give you an idea this is the types of bends I can do with tygon silver.

Awesome setup Myco...you sure have gone for all the bells and whisles in terms of hardware and watercooling...


BTW...mycobacteria in my industry scrares the crap out of people that use metalworking coolants...

UmHelp said:

I was also thinking about getting a Swiftech Micro-Res if I were to upgrade my tubing. Mainly just to check the water levels, would it cause any problems if I were to run an all Black/Silver tubing setup /w pure distilled? Could it be a potential breeding ground for that pesky algae? Or would it be better to run a T-Line setup with a small patch of normal clear tubing using the anti-microbial couplers . It may be hard to see the water in a clear patch of tubing?? Running pure distilled for a few years is my goal

Click to expand...

No light = no algae. There are things that will grow without light, but algae is photosynthetic, hence it's not one of them. I'm not sure why you don't want to put a few drops of algaecide in your coolant, but if you're going to run straight H20 in the dark, getting rid of the res is not a bad idea. You could also make a removable cover for the clear section of tubing.

hmm removable cover! I like that idea, buy a swiftech micro-res and build a metal case to cover it up or find a piece of metal/plastic tubing that fits the OD of the tube and slide it over. It might be possible

If this tubing does everything it says it does then making a res cover might not be all that necessary:

Face to the microbial growth which can lead to the formation of mildew, contaminates materials, degrades the tubing itself, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics launches Tygon® Silver, a new tubing which kills bacteria, fungi, algae and increases the product life.

The principle: the new product is made with a silver based compound on the inner surface at the point of fluid contact. This concentration of ions between the silver based compound and the fluid allows an ion exchange and therefore to kill microbes and to assure a clean fluid pathway.

The association of silver ion technology and expertise in the food-and-beverage markets allows to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics to commercialize its product on a test-marketed compounded of major distribution customers. Further to the interest aroused by the product during the first showing, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics can propose it on the food-and-beverage market.

The tubing meets Food & Drug Administration (FDA) criteria. It can apply on numerous fields as: ice machines, water purification, water bottle straws, dairy and applications in the laboratory, chemical and environmental markets.

Click to expand...

Why use algaecide when your tubing does it for you, supposedly.

One of these days I am going to buy a MountainMods case!!!

I'm not sure if it puts enough silver ions into the coolant to keep it sterile or not. Saint-Gobain's wording could be marketspeak for nothing will grow directly on the tubing, but you could still have a zoo in the fluid.

I would think that if you had enough of the tubing in your system physics would make sure that most of the water would eventually touch the outside of the tubing. Friction, centripetal force, the applied force of the pump, resistance's in the water itself, etc....

The water would be moving something like this because the tubing would cause friction on the water slowing it down (at some atomic level or greater).
______
Slow Microbe free water
Faster Microbe infested water
Slow Microbe free water
______

This would cause the faster water to grab some of the slower water creating a type of turbulence in the water (at some level however small). This kind of flow would probably cause the water to mix up and over enough distance (with other factors added in) all the fluid should touch the tubing at one time or another.

Now calculating the exact distance that this would occur in a 1/2ID tube is something I am not really willing to calculate but I would think that adding bends in the tubing would also help mix up the water. There are a lot of factors at play here but I think that with all the twists, turns, waterblocks, pumps and what not effecting the flow characteristics, the amount of water that touches the tubing or gets into the range of the Silver ion effect should be enough to effectively kill a good majority of the microbes. You are also taking about a loop here, if the microbe doesn't hit the silver on the first pass then the probability that it will hit it the next time should jump up a considerable amount on it's next pass through the loop (not gonna even attempt to calculate the probably that a microbe will hit the silver ion in a watercooling system ).

Am I headed in the wrong direction here? At the very least you can't discount the inherent pseudo-randomness these factors add to the water.