First time water cooling with 8 year old tubing wish me luck [solved]

[jediman]

Hi all,

Been around for a while and bought used water cooling years ago but never got around to setting it up. How bad an idea is water cooling with 8 year old tubing/fittings o-rings (some clearflex 60 and tygon 3603)? I am going to be leak testing outside the rig anyway.

 

[Witchdoctor]

I would at least replace the tubing

 

[Audioaficionado]

Water cooling and 'wish me luck' aren't a good concept. Pony up and get some new tubing at least.

 

[t1nm4n]

Inspect the fitting O-rings for any cracking, if they were in packaging I would suspect they are safe, but if left open in a dry place they might not be good either. O-rings are inexpensive at Ace Hardware or such places. Any O-rings in the blocks themselves should be fine I would guess, but I'd disassemble everything and inspect. New tubing is cheap also.

 

[Flat-6]

Tubing technology has changed over the years.

The majority of flexible tubing is prone to platicising/plasticizing and then clogging your components.

Although your original selection of Tygon is probably OK (is it DEHP free?) I'd suspect the clearflex is another story.

These days the go to tubing tends to be either Primochill's ADVANCED LRT or EK's ZMT tubing - Both of these have been proven to work very well in our cooling loops.

 

[jediman]

Ordered new tubing thanks for the warnings.

 

[t1nm4n]

I'd say wise move, too err on the side of caution is just about always a prudent thing to do.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

A note here. All plastics and rubbers have a shelf life regardless of how it is stored.

In my industry, I must prove 80% shelf life remaining prior to shipping.

In short, old plastic and rubber is a bad thing. Replace it. (This goes for car tires as well)