Corrosion problem

[ushacu]

Hi everyone,

I'm building my first custom loop and have run into an issue. I'd appreciate some advice.

So, I connected everything and did some leak testing, but then didn't have time to work on the rig for a few days so left it sitting. When I started it up again, I noticed a yellowish discoloration in the water.
Bummed out I tore it down and rinsed everything out. I'm using some brass fittings that are not off-the-shelf PC parts so I first suspected them, and set up a tiny loop with just my reservoir and pump to see that it would work fine. A few days later and the discoloration is back...
Now, when I tore that down to see if it could be an issue with the tubes (read about plasticizer being a potential culprit) I noticed that two plugs in unused ports of the res really looked corroded:


I took some ultra-fine sandpaper to try and clear it away and was surprised to find a shiny white surface underneath, where all my other plugs where brass. I was initially worried this was aluminium causing galvanic corrosion.


On an off chance I tried these on a magnet, and they really stuck to it. So this must be iron or steel, and not the stainless kind. Or if it is, some really poor grade of it.
Is this normal, or are these parts faulty? Never heard of painted steel plugs. Not 100% sure, but think these came with my evga hydro copper.
I used just distilled water to make sure everything worked out. Should I have run with anti-corrosion additives from the start?
I just rinsed everything out. Would doing some kind of sys-prep have helped?

Now that I have removed these from the loop, would you recommend some form of treatment for the rest of the system? I don't see much residue in the parts right now.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Yup, that looks like galvanic corrosion. I've had the same experience once and ironically, it was the similar issue you're going through.

I had a reservoir from a novice company at the time that used aluminum plugs. Not even a week past and the aluminum plug was eaten up with just distilled water sitting idle by in a cool dark room.

Give us a break down of the PC loop you're running, parts, fluids, etc.

 

[ushacu]

Yup, that looks like galvanic corrosion. I've had the same experience once and ironically, it was the similar issue you're going through.

I had a reservoir from a novice company at the time that used aluminum plugs. Not even a week past and the aluminum plug was eaten up with just distilled water sitting idle by in a cool dark room.

Give us a break down of the PC loop you're running, parts, fluids, etc.

Thanks for responding,

The miniature loop I ran just for troubleshooting consisted just of:
* Alphacool Cape Corp Coolplex HF Metall 15
* Revo D5 PWM (Acetal) Pump
* Alphacool Eiszapfen Tube Fittings
* Alphacool AlphaTube
* Bitspower plug, y-adapter and ball valve
* Alphacool pure distilled water
* ...and the two bad plugs that I think came with my evga hydro copper 1080, I just moved them around a bit.

That's it. The res should be just acrylic and copper. The alphacool tube fittings and bitspower fittings are brass (and stainless in the ball valve). The D5 also has stainless in it.

The bad plugs as I said are highly magnetic, so they can't be either stainless or aluminium.

I have replaced the two rusty plugs with bitspower plugs and will run it for a few days again, things look good so far.
I'm mostly worried there could be some residue left in the now disconnected cpu/gpu blocks...

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

Go to walmart, get yourself some 50/50 prestone antifreeze use that as coolant and you wont have any corrosion issues even with aluminum and copper and so forth.. Unless you dont want green liquid and you want clear. If you want clear you can order some pre-mixed stuff which is the same thing as antifreeze just without the dye like prestone or other antifreeze has

Or just get different fittings.

Also next time dont buy "Alpha cool distilled water" these companies im tired of them listing their crap at high prices like this "special" water and "special" premixed liquid which is just ethylene glycol "aka antifreeze".. Just because it has their name on it doesnt mean it is different from distilled water you can buy from a grocery store for 80 cents for 1 gallon. I see alphacool charges $7 for a 1000ml bottle of "special" distilled water what a flipping robbery.. almost 4k ML is 1 gallon, and 80 cents for 1 gallon of distilled water.... do the math they made 28x more money off you then what it should have costed.

Same with the premixed crap.. I spent $17 on a bottle of EK premixed liquid only to find out its antifreeze.. i work on cars and smell ethylene glycol all the time. There is no denying thats what in the 17$ 900ml bottle.. I can buy a 1 gallon pure lime green bottle of antifreeze at walmart for $14, 1 gallon of distilled water, make 2 gallons of the stuff. So they made a insaine profit off me.. 2 gallons is 8000ml almost.. For 8000ml of this liquid id have to pay $136 wont happen again i assure you and ill keep trying to spread the info around as well tired of these companies taking advantage of us.


Also ethylene glycol will crack acrylic.. so im confused why they put this in premixed liquids.. Im thinking its best to just use distilled water, a silver coil and food coloring if you want it colored.

Sorry im just rambling talking to myself now lol

 

[Lochekey]

Ideally you will want to dilute down to less than a 50/50 mix. As long as you have no dissimilar metals you can get away with a lower mixture. The 50/50 mix tends to be too viscous for the water Cooling pumps and flow rate deteriorates. It also lowers the heat capacity of the water so you will not move the heat away from the components as easily.

 

[Mr.Scott]

10% is fine.

 

[maxfly]

i would suggest pulling the gpu and cpu blocks apart just to be sure there isnt any rust in them. for such a small run you should be able to wipe the crud out of them pretty easily with a rag. rinse them off really well. my biggest concern would be your rad/rads. cleaning the rad out is a must. disconnect it from your loop and fill it up with CLR. shake the hell out of it for a few minutes. let it sit for 5-10 mins. rinse it out really well with tap water. refill it with tap water. shake the hell out of it again. drain it into a clear glass bowl. rinse and repeat (literally) until the water comes out clear and free of debris and discoloration and no bubbles from the clr.
i would also email evga and tell them what their plugs did to your loop, IF your certain thats where they came from. dbl check that your gpu block doesnt have the same plugs in it.
i use petras pt nuke and distilled water for my loop and have had really good luck with the combination. hope that helps and gl!

 

[ushacu]

Thanks everyone for your responses!
I'm glad to report that after removing the iron plugs the loop is now clear.
I've purchased some mild rust remover (not sure if it's the same as CLR, doesn't seem to be sold here in Sweden) and will be clearing my rads out.
I also actually already bought some overpriced coloring with corrosion inhibiter in it, but wanted to just try it out with plain distilled first (and I plan to only use very small amount of it).

Looking at some online pictures of the evga kit I have, the plugs definitely came from them. I'll be sending them an email.

Looking around I haven't been able to find distilled water in my grocery store. The gas stations have what they market as "battery water" which is essentially just distilled. It's certainly not 80 cents per gallon, but maybe 1/3 of what the aquatuning stuff goes for. Otherwise I might try to find a big jug online. Compared to the rest of the system cost it's a minor expense though.

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

where do you live lol ? In the United states any big grocery store like giant or safeway or food lion or whatever you habe should have distilled water ? Its everywhere here.. and under 1$

 

[ushacu]

where do you live lol ? In the United states any big grocery store like giant or safeway or food lion or whatever you habe should have distilled water ? Its everywhere here.. and under 1$

Sweden. I remember there use to be distilled water sold for ironing, but all I can find now is some bull**** scented "premium ironing water" with just as high markup as the aquatuning stuff.

Out of curiosity, what's the main use case for it to be sold in a grocery store?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Out of curiosity, what's the main use case for it to be sold in a grocery store?

Mixing baby formula.

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

Sweden. I remember there use to be distilled water sold for ironing, but all I can find now is some bull**** scented "premium ironing water" with just as high markup as the aquatuning stuff.

Out of curiosity, what's the main use case for it to be sold in a grocery store?

Lots of uses, Baby Food, coolants for engines i mix it myself buy pure antifreeze and distilled water and i can make 2 gallons for the price of 1 50/50, i use it for lava lamps. I collect lava lamps and the main ingrediant is distilled water.., Aquariums. Some people are anal about their fish and they use pure distilled water vs tap water. Other people buy those expensive filters and fille 100 gallon drums of deionized or reverse osmosis water to remove tap water impurities, and those who dont will use distilled water... Im sure there are many other uses for it too. In stores here there is usually 1/4 of the water bottle section dedicated to distilled water and it usually always sold out.

Basically my main hobbies are computer, aquariums, working on cars, and astronomy. And without distilled water for 3/4 of those hobbies it would make it difficult. Although i just used plain tap water for my fish, and I have discus which are 100-300$ per fish they are fine with tap.. but for breeding ppl want distilled

 

[Conumdrum]

Deionized is what I remember folks in the EU using. In the USA we have DI, it's really the same thing as deionized by what WIKI says. Also, good Reverse Osmosis water is also usable. It's about the conductivity of the water, a measurement of things like calcium etc, the things that make water 'hard'.

I did this test long ago when I watercooled.

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/651859-Water-tests-done-on-my-latest-rebuild

I didn't do RO water in this test, but our RO water at the plant I worked at was about 19-25 conductivity over many years unless the system was broke. Values well within the 2.5 months GPU water I tested.

- - - Updated - - -

Home uses for distilled? Used in humidifiers, CPAP machines etc. I'm sure there are other home uses.

 

[JeremyCT]

If you want or need corrosion protection, you can avoid the performance penalty and potential issues of ethyl glycol entirely by using an automotive "water wetter" type product. I like the Amsoil "Coolant Boost" product personally, but there are several good options out there. The surfactants seem to really seem to help with bleeding (it makes the bubbles smaller and easier to get out), the pH buffers and corrosion inhibitors give some peace of mind. I run my loop with distilled water, Coolant Boost, and copper sulfate PT Nuke. The current build has been running the same water for 44 months now without a drain/refill and only one top-off. The only issue I've noted is some clouding of the tubing, but that tends to happen anyway so I can't blame the fluid specifically.

The loop is going to be broken down soon but only because I'm simplifying and going back to air. If there's any interest, I'll take and post pictures of the insides of the blocks when I tear them down in preparation for selling them on.

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

Forgot about water wetter we used to use that stuff like 17 years ago heh

 

[JeremyCT]

Yea, there's no performance benefit to using it that I've noted personally, but the corrosion inhibitors and surfactants make it a good addition to a loop if you feel a need for something more than distilled and biocide. It's certainly a better option than glycol based antifreeze IMHO.

The only real "issue" is that silver and kill coils aren't as effective. The corrosion inhibitors slow/stop the silver ions from going into solution, so you need to use a liquid biocide. No biggie, but something to be aware of.