[Gilley7997]

I going to do some seraching today, but I was curious if anyone has any experience for this stuff. I was just thinking that doing this would actually relieve and shorten some of the stress on a few of my smaller loops that I think I am going to have?

Have any of you used these before, or know where you can find them?

Thanks

[4od]

Fittings are generally very restrictive, and as long as you have decent tubing, you can make almost any bend.

Unless your really short on space, or have some other special circumstance, i would say stay away from them

[Tekko]

if you have to use then remember then 2 45° are less restrictive then one 90°

[Ben333]

you mean barbs on the blocks or radaitors or you mean nipples in the line?

[Moto7451]

I lost the link but someone on the forum did some testing and a hard 90° bend impacted performance in the same way that adding an extra foot of tubing would. More rounded 90° bends impacted flow a lot less and two nicely sloping 45° bends only slightly impacted performance. That said, if you can do the job with just tubing go for it.

I've run 90° bends on VGA blocks and it never affected my temps much more than the block itself would.

[satandole666]

The posters above have the right idea. Avoid them if you can but if you must use them (kinks, tight corners, lack of space) they don't impact performance "that" much. Honestly it'll come down to whatever makes you sleep better at night. If you think there is too much stress on a component due to the flex of the hoses toss some fittings in.

[voigts]

What works best is to use regular copper fittings for 45 degree fittings, and if possible, use long sweep elbows for 90 degree fittings (i.e. Mcmaster.com part #5520K603 for 1/2" or #5520K184 for 1/2" street) and just solder a small piece(s) of copper pipe into the end(s). Even regular copper elbows are much less restrictive than their plastic counterparts. Then you just stretch your tubing over the straight ends and clamp them down.

I use a few of the long sweep elbows for the exact reason that you mentioned in that they make some turns much easier and relieve stress on stuff while adding very little restriction.

[Jas]

Going along wit hwhat Voigts is saying, I like to use copper fitting for my elbows and T's.

If you use Nibco 3/8" ID elbows you can slip 1/2" tubing over them and have a nice tight seal. The 3/8" elbows and T's are actually bigger than 3/8" and work very well with 1/2" tubing.