Newbie mistakes- please help

[1Moreusername]

Greetings!

Some background: I haven't built a computer in about 15 years (never water cooled) and decided to be super ambitious and build a loop using hard tubing and EK HDC 16mm G1/4 fittings. Everything went great (so I thought) after the learning curve with bending and my first loop was completed 2 days ago and set for a 24-hour leak test. At the end I had no leaks, but I could see some cracks forming about 2-3cm from one of my fittings. Turns out in my haste to finish the loop I think I applied a little extra force to get the tube to meet the fitting exactly and at some point the tube cracked. Yes, I know that was a stupid thing to do. Lesson learned. No more applying extra force. If it doesn't work, rebend it. However, I thought it best to disassemble the loop and do it properly. This results in several questions I'm hoping someone can help with:

1. I used some 90 degree revolving fittings: These have some give at the joint where the fitting is made to rotate, obviously there was some stress on my loop resulting in the above problem. How much force can those joints take before I risk having damaged them and should just replace them? I have no idea how they're made or constructed inside otherwise I'd have a better idea.

2. Tightening some of my fittings resulted in some shavings where I assume it was some of the inside painted surface of the fittings coming off or residual metal from the threads coming off. Am I wrong and is this a sign I damaged the fittings when tightening? I see no other indication that that is the case.

3. O-rings: I can't see any visible damage to the o-rings on the fittings but I'm considering replacing them prior to the re-install. However I can't find anywhere to get them despite multiple google and reddit searches (I'd prefer not to purchase directly from EK due to shipping costs and time). Any suggestions?

4. There are some shavings that made their way into my video card block despite having rinsed out all components prior to building the loop. Is it absolutely necessary to break down the water block and remove them? One I was able to get out with rinsing, the other is a small piece pinned against the side where the water runs over the GPU. It doesn't look like it is having much effect on flow across the GPU.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[godevskii]

Hello and welcome,

1 all rotary fittings will eventually leak after a couple years, say something like 4 years, maybe less if you do a lot of upgrades and constantly mess around with them. Although you need not to worry you will probably detect the leak when you are refilling the loop, and you just replace it, but be aware of this and try not to have the tubes making to much force on rotary fittings.

2 this is not normal, ek fittings have good quality in general, how did you tighten the fittings? Do not use any tools, your hands force should be more then enough, i believe it might be just stripped paint from the radiator threads but if its more than that and really its metal you should check your threads and fittings.

3 you can find o-rings on aqua tuning store, they are made by phobya. (hope im not infringing any forum rules on posting the store name, only trying to help ;D )

4 if its not affecting the flow and you see normal temperatures in the loop you can leave it there, otherwise disassemble the block and clean it with a used toothbrush.

 

[Cnaydmancangt]

The Joint moving thing im not sure.. I have two Thermaltake fittings one is 90 degree angle the other is 45 degree, the rotary end is wobbly and i was like this cant be right ? I ordered a pack of 4 90 degree angle fittings from some chinese company on amazon was only $16 for all 4 which is dirt cheap.. The rotary ends are solid and dont wobble and in fact are hard to turn. TBH i feel like these fittings are better then the thermaltake ones i got but im not sure.. The TT hasnt leaked so i just left them.

For o-rings id just go to harbor freight and buy a box of like 200 o-rings for $10 there. Im sure the ones Godevskii mentioned are $10 "sarcasm" per o-ring judging by how much all these watercooling companies charge for stuff that should be half the price they charge

 

[1Moreusername]

Hello and welcome,

1 all rotary fittings will eventually leak after a couple years, say something like 4 years, maybe less if you do a lot of upgrades and constantly mess around with them. Although you need not to worry you will probably detect the leak when you are refilling the loop, and you just replace it, but be aware of this and try not to have the tubes making to much force on rotary fittings.

2 this is not normal, ek fittings have good quality in general, how did you tighten the fittings? Do not use any tools, your hands force should be more then enough, i believe it might be just stripped paint from the radiator threads but if its more than that and really its metal you should check your threads and fittings.

3 you can find o-rings on aqua tuning store, they are made by phobya. (hope im not infringing any forum rules on posting the store name, only trying to help ;D )

4 if its not affecting the flow and you see normal temperatures in the loop you can leave it there, otherwise disassemble the block and clean it with a used toothbrush.

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll be back to building soon!

- - - Updated - - -

The Joint moving thing im not sure.. I have two Thermaltake fittings one is 90 degree angle the other is 45 degree, the rotary end is wobbly and i was like this cant be right ? I ordered a pack of 4 90 degree angle fittings from some chinese company on amazon was only $16 for all 4 which is dirt cheap.. The rotary ends are solid and dont wobble and in fact are hard to turn. TBH i feel like these fittings are better then the thermaltake ones i got but im not sure.. The TT hasnt leaked so i just left them.

For o-rings id just go to harbor freight and buy a box of like 200 o-rings for $10 there. Im sure the ones Godevskii mentioned are $10 "sarcasm" per o-ring judging by how much all these watercooling companies charge for stuff that should be half the price they charge

Thanks!!

 

[maxfly]

i dont have time to address everything but make sure you get ALL of the shavings out of everything. if they make their way into your pump you will end up killing it. so pull your blocks apart, yep cpu and gpu, rinse your rads out really well(running tap water thru them from the tap is a good way to create a little pressure) and make sure they are free of debris. check your fittings, it sounds like youve got some cross threading going on. screwing them on should be nice and smooth until your almost all the way on. if they are hard to screw on something is wrong. GL!