A couple of maintenance Q's ?

So yeah, I have done the one thing many ppl have been telling me not to do for years now, and I added a dye (cant remember the brand) in my loop about a year ago. It was one of those premixed colored dyes.
This week I took apart both my loops for maintenance, and I am shocked to find blue residue in between my CPU waterblock fins, as well as some in the radiators.
How should I proceed ? White vinegar ? For how long ? Use a toothbrush if possible ?

Then flush with deionized water ?
Where I live getting distilled water is a pain in the ***, so DI is my only option.
So that's my first question.
I'll be adding DI, biocide & silver coil, and nothing more.

Second Q:
I got tired of having two completely separate loops in my puter. So I want to use only one rezz, two pumps, two rads, 3 waterblocks. Essentially, I want to connect my two loops ( 1 pump + 1 rad + 1 waterblock = cpu cooling , 1 pump + 1 rad + 2 water-blocks = NB & voltage reg cooling ) to use the same reservoir, in order to save space, make it easier to disassemble and maintain, etc.
However, I am worried about the differences in pressure. My CPU cooling loop, uses an Alphacool VPP655, while the mobo cooling loop uses a phobya pump. Will connecting those two different loops (with different pressures) at the same point on the rezz, create back pressure at the weakest loop ? Meaning, is there a chance that the loop with the weakest pump, may have a pressure drop, due to the stronger pump pushing water at higher pressure at the exit of the loop in the ress ? ( Hope that makes sense ).

if you read past cleaning threads u can use white vinegar but don't let it sit for long as it will cause harm to your rad if left sitting in there and after use flush with plenty of distilled water (ill look for the links but search button usually turns up allot of stuff)

boiling water and do the dance for the rad

for the cpu block i like ketchup and a toothbrush usually gets the job done

after using anything vinegar, ketchup, moon dust, always flush thoroughly with distilled untill it comes out clear

some info on distilled water..
after distillation the water should contain only oxygen and hydrogen molecules, have a PH level of 7 and contain no other minerals, contaminants or gases.

deionization of water does not remove hydroxide or hydronium ions from water also it does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, except by incidental trapping in the resin

ill leave the 2nd question to those with some more knowledge on the subject

edit::
more on the cleaning
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691722&highlight=cleaning+loop

conundrum pretty much answers most of the questions

I find it hard to believe that you cant find distilled water I thought the same thing when I first went looking for it but then felt silly when i noticed all the places it could be purchased at
your local supermarket should have it if not a wallmart will have it if that fails go to your local pharmacy and ask for distilled water they don't usually keep it in the front you have to ask for it and they'll bring it out from the back

allot of times its just the simple task of asking for it
also if your in school the science lab will usually have an abundant supply (the good stuff)

I got this at my local fine fare supermarket


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Thank u for the reply and advice.
I'll give it a shot with white vinegar and see how it goes.
About distilled water, I seriously cant find any around, unless I order it online and pay good money for it.
I've been to gas stations, pharmacies, supermarkets. I can only find DI water, which is essentially the same thing, but produced by removing particles and ions through filtration. Ph is 7, ppm is 5-6.
Also, thank you for the link ;-)

NP and goodluck with your loop and keep looking through the forums there's such a wealth of information archived in here that the only times I feel inclined to post anything for myself is when i need an opinion on a subject because almost every problem / question I've ever had has been previously answered

be sure to let us know how everything goes

Boil your DI water and let it cool while covered. That should kill any critters still in it...algae being the main concern for water cooling. If the pot was cleaned in a dishwasher, I'd scrub it out first with soap and water too--don't like the junk a dishwasher leaves behind.

I'd use dish soap and a toothbrush to clean out the goop that the dye left behind. You can finish with a soak in vinegar if it's got some tarnish left, then rinse well with hot water, then boiled DI water.

**BTW, I've used a large pressure cooker and a 3/8" coiled copper tube to make my own distilled water on the stove. Drape the tube coil over the side of the stove and let it drip into a clean jug. A small fan on the tubing can help with the condensation...just a tip if you'd really like to make your own. Boiled DI should be fine though.

Lastly:

The tubing, pump and radiator will also have some blue dye. Rinse and clean it all, replace the tubing if you can.

In England and some other countries you can't get Dis. DI is the stuff they use. They can buy it by the liter cheap. They use it right out of the bottle all the time.

So OP:

Just by DI and use it.

Well I went looking today, and couldn't find any distilled water, only DI.
In any case I went on and used white vinegar in my cpu waterblock. Left it for 30 minutes, then flushed with DI.
The good news is that the residue from the additives/dyes, when using vinegar becomes paste-like, almost like snot or mud. Using a plastic toothpick, I was able to remove it from all the visible places. However since I haven't got the proper sized allen key to take the waterblock apart, I am almost certain there is still residue left at other spots.
The bad news concerns the radiators. I only flushed with vinegar a small 120mm radiator (didnt wanna ruin my big rad), left the vinegar in for 30 mins, then flushed with DI. Interestingly enough, alot (and i mean alot) of residue came out, some in paste form, but most dissolved in the vinegar. The vinegar had turned blue, and it took almost 1 liter of DI to flush it out. However not all of it is gone. By looking into the rad's inlet and outlet holes, I can see that there is still alot of residue left inside, and I doubt it will come out, unless I leave the vinegar for much longer (risking damage I presume) or by using a high pressure system (which I do not own, again risking damage I assume). I will try to do the same to my big rad after I buy some more vinegar and DI.

Can anyone comment on my backpressure question, that is what worries me the most at this point

As long as your radiators are brass/copper you dont have to worry about vinegar harming them. I actually set my loop up with 50/50 vinegar / water and run it for a few hours when I want to clean them because without a compelling reason I dislike taking wateblocks ect apart.

You can get a hose adapter that will thread onto your sink faucet. For your situation I would actually suggest this since there is so much residue. Flush with tap on a low/medium speed for 30 to an hour and then flush with vinegar.


As to your other question If you could link us to the phobya pump we can better advise you on that. However, I find it necessary to point out that your 655 is plenty strong enough to push that full loop.

Vinegar turning blue is no big deal, that's copper ions...so don't sweat that. Keep at the whole cleaning it deal. You will become overly familiar with the rad dance. If you felt so compelled, you could hook your pump up to just the rad and use a big bucket as your res and just let the outflow from the rad go down the drain and see if that helps get anything out.

I've felt the urge to connect it to the tap and flush it, but then again, tap water is horrible, so it won't be doing much cleaning.
I think there is a thin line between cleanliness and paranoia, and I'm right in the middle right now. I'll keep flushing with vinegar and DI, and then see how the flushed water comes out.
As far as the pump, yes i know its strong enough, but since I got the two loops, why lower performance by making it one single ? Initial plans were to cool the gpu as well, but there are exist no waterblocks for it other than universal so I abandoned it.
The Phobya pump is rated at 800L/H , 4m overhead, 18W, I think its a re-branded generic pump. Difference in pressure between VPP655 & Phobya isn't that big, so I assume that connecting them at the reservoir inlet shouldn't be a problem.
Thank you all for the help, wish I had a proper camera to post pics.
Will post back when I've set it up, or if things go very wrong. Have a nice Sunday !

it's a rebranded Jingway pump, just like the DD CPX and EK's pumps. Skinnee did a review of those pumps, check it out.