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90 degree elbow fitting. Good-bad-indifferent?

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Perseus

Perseus

Member
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Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Location
Hanover Park, IL
Hello guys,

I'm wondering about the current opinion on this type of fitting. I'm going to be incorporating 3 DD acetal elbows (g1/4 with EK 1/2 inch high-flow barbs) and two standard nylon leak-proof fittings with the same general specs. The change is designed to reduce sweeping loops in my tubing, avoid pinch points and to make my loop look better. My question is this: With the equipment listed in my sig, will I loose enough flow to increase my temps to a large degree?

Not very long ago the conventional wisdom was that 90 degree elbows weren't a very good idea.

Loop is spec'd as: CPU>GPU>(90)T-fitting>Pump1>(90)Pump2>(90)Res>(90)(90)Rad. I have +/-15 feet of tubing (3603, 2705 and Silver) to play with.
 
That was my understanding as well. I started to see pics of loops with them recently and hoped that prevailing wisdom had changed, again. TBH, I still want to see my plumbing flatter and more direct. The HW isn't going to be here for 5-days, so I've got some time to puzzle it through.
 
got this from another site, Avoid 90-degree fittings (or elbows). Using 90-degree fittings imposes a huge restriction on water flow, and this includes 90-degree copper plumbing angles. You should not resort to using 90's unless you are VERY hard-pressed for room, or your cooling loop cools just one item with a reasonably powerful pump.

edit: from the review of a zalman kit: Being a GPU block, the barbs cannot come straight out of the top. This is solved with a pair of 90 degree angles that allow the user to run a line from their CPU, around the side of the video card and then into the GPU block itself. This also makes the entire setup slimmer, allowing it to fit into spaces without taking up any more slots than it has to.
 
Great! More parts to add to my trunk full of unused parts! :bang head I guess I'll use 1 for the turn under my GPU be happy.

EDIT: I was going to use unbroken tubing from my rad to the CPU and for the leg between there and my GPU to avoid sapping velocity.
 
the 90's force a ton of backpressure and dont enable anything other then less space being occupied.

In general all types of plumbing and almost all exhausts avoid 90's unless absolutely necessary.

you NEVER want to plumb a 90 directly after the outlet of a pump (read the pump directions, it even says it).
 
Get them and try them. If you are happy with the results, cools better than air, and are quieter than air, then that is all that should matter. All the mumbo jumbo about restriction and flow may be one persons objective in building a system while not anothers. It doesn't have to be yours. The couple of times that I have had two 90° elbows in my system I never saw a difference in temps.
 
Last edited:
Two 45s have a lot less restriction than a single 90 (you can search for the thread on this).
 
The Swiftech ApogeeDrive I'm using has two 90° fittings molded in- no way around using them.
I'm also using two right angle fittings on the rad plus 3/8" tubing, so you could say I've hit the trifecta of "bad" practice.

Funny thing is, the loop works fine and is quite effective.
Could I drop a degree or three by not using the fittings...almost certainly, but the advantages outweighed the desire for absolute efficiency and it was a tradeoff I was happy to make.

Installing a waterloop is definitely a game of compromises (yes, even aesthetics have to be factored in), so you do what you have to and live with it.
 
Well said clocker2, and all true. I guess I'd just like to avoid crippling my loop, but worst case I'd just have to replumb, and frankly that's something I enjoy doing. Weird, huh? :beer:
 
Perseus said:
... I'd just like to avoid crippling my loop
Click to expand...
"Crippling" is far too extreme a term...maybe "hobbling" instead?

In my case, using the two 90° fittings on the rad cut the tubing length by almost 14" overall, so I made up a bit of the difference right there.

In other, more complex loops I've built (current loop is CPU only), it simply was not possible to avoid the "bad" fittings without resorting to absurdly contorted tube runs.

Basically, it comes down to how fanatical you want to be.
With my "crippled" loop, the CPU sits 45°c below Tmax under load.
I could spend a lot more money and make the insides harder to work in and gain what...another 5-7°? Maybe even 10°?

Nah.
 
It depends, if you want it done right, or done well.


I wanted my rig done perfect, So I spent hours upon hours deciding what to buy, how to rig it etc... Turned out well.
 
As in most cases, perpective is very important, clocker. I spent decent money on what I hoped would be a high-flow loop. The possibility of fittings negatively altering the situation is, simply, distressing to say the least.
 
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