No flow in system

[hemo]

Hi,

I have been mounting my water cooling system for the last couple of days. And after a while I was ready to start the system. It went OK, had a small leak that I fixed. And then water was filling up everywhere. But, the problem is, I have no flow at all in my system. Like NO flow. (Have a flow-indicator (yes, mounted in the right direction)). And I have NO idea how.

I have been:
Tilting the computer to get air out of the way. Did not see any air.
I have drained it and refilled it.
I have double-checked all the inlet and outlets ports.

But I have no idea what I have been doing wrong. Right now I am kinda pissed off since I want to play with my computer.

This is what my system looks like:

https://imgur.com/kGYwdvA

And also I have a external 2x360 radiators (just for fun) connected with push-on fitting on Y split next to the 140 radiator. But still no movement if they are disconnected or connected.


What should I do to get this working?

Best regards

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Can you hear/feel the pumps running?

 

[hemo]

Can you hear/feel the pumps running?

Yes I do!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Can you post pictures (hosted on the forum, please) of the actual system instead of a drawing?

 

[hemo]

Can you post pictures (hosted on the forum, please) of the actual system instead of a drawing?

It looks like this. Kinda a mess I guess. At some places, like the radiator to the right, it gets stuck some air. When I release the hose there is no pressure right there. The water is not pushing the air out through the open hose. Whyyyy?!

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Redo the whole rig. That looks uncivilized to use a appropriate term and not thought out properly. It looks like it was quickly put together as fast as possible. The internal case air flow is none existent. No room to breath and see possible kink points with MANY points of failure as you posted in your original post.

 

[EarthDog]

Redo the whole rig. That looks uncivilized to use a appropriate term and not thought out properly. It looks like it was quietly put together as fast as possible. The internal case air flow is none existent. No room to breath and see possible kink points with MANY points of failure as you posted in your original post.

+1

With respect, that is a mess.

 

[Lochekey]

Looking at the top res/pump it appears too have an air pocket that could get pulled into the pump. Did you ever perhaps get enough air in the system to run the pumps dry. You may have damaged the pumps if so.

Also, what is the tubing coming out of the top of the res for. I see it goes to a y and the one leg is set up with a valve I'm assuming as a drain but where does the other tube go?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I see a few kinks, they are why you have no flow.
Please, do what Jack said.

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah, worst one I see is right out of the res. BUt man is that a mess... so many rads so many blocks... what are you trying to cool??? Perhaps we can suggest somethings to clean that up?!!

 

[Joe88]

as others have said, the whole thing needs to be redone
Move that 2nd rad to the top of the case, see if the res will fit in its place, there is tubing going outside the case so I assume the pump is out there?
Make sure you clean all that water up and everything is dry before even attempting to run it, use paper towels to leak check and run the pump before the actual computer

 

[ATMINSIDE]

as others have said, the whole thing needs to be redone
Move that 2nd rad to the top of the case, see if the res will fit in its place, there is tubing going outside the case so I assume the pump is out there?
Make sure you clean all that water up and everything is dry before even attempting to run it, use paper towels to leak check and run the pump before the actual computer

According to his diagram there's already a rad up top.

 

[hemo]

+1

With respect, that is a mess.

Looking at the top res/pump it appears too have an air pocket that could get pulled into the pump. Did you ever perhaps get enough air in the system to run the pumps dry. You may have damaged the pumps if so.

Also, what is the tubing coming out of the top of the res for. I see it goes to a y and the one leg is set up with a valve I'm assuming as a drain but where does the other tube go?

That Y split was just a last rescue attempt. I haven't had this all the time! It was just so I could fill the reservoir and let the air out without having to unmount it. (Just tilt the computer).

Yeah, worst one I see is right out of the res. BUt man is that a mess... so many rads so many blocks... what are you trying to cool??? Perhaps we can suggest somethings to clean that up?!!

Haha trying to cool my car. No, just kidding. I want to be able to cool it passive if possible. So I do have 2x360 rads outside as well (with push on fittings) that I want to connect to the system when it works.

as others have said, the whole thing needs to be redone
Move that 2nd rad to the top of the case, see if the res will fit in its place, there is tubing going outside the case so I assume the pump is out there?
Make sure you clean all that water up and everything is dry before even attempting to run it, use paper towels to leak check and run the pump before the actual computer

Yeah, everything is so damn wet.... :'( But on the outside I have a 140 reservoir on the chassi and a y-split to 2x360 radiators using fast push-on fittings.


Anyway. Conclusion: I should remove one of the double radiators and the reservoir pump I guess.


I just did a.. what do you call it.. cleaning, a rinse of the blocks using tap-water (Have read this is good to get stuff that could be blocking the blocks out). And what I did notice is that my CPU block has a VERY VERY bad flow. Like VERY bad. I do have very good flow in my tap, and the speed out was so bad. Like maybe 1/5 of the other GPU and Rads speed. Is that common?

 

[Flat-6]

Where to start....

Looks like there is more water outside of the loop than inside it...

You need a bigger case for all those bits.

OK - First up... That res is NOT designed to work horizontally. You really need to run that reservoir/pump combo vertically - end of story...! (more than likely why your flow is not happening).

Next - get rid of that cheap flexible tubing as we can see that it kinks too easily - you can see at the top of the reservoir... Kinks = bad flow

Also that tubing will cause you headaches later as it will invariably release plasticisers into the loop which will gunk up your blocks & radiators and is difficult to remove..

Running those radiators back to back is a waste of time. The outer unit will heat the incoming fresh air and the second rad will be using this preheated air to try and cool itself... this = poor performance.

You really need a bigger case...!

 

[hemo]

Ahhhh finally.

I listened to you, remade everything. And it looks much better now. I had to sacrifice one 140- and one 280 radiator. Will 1x240 and 1x280 rad be enough for cooling one i7 6700K and 2x980 Ti Strix?

Anyway. It all works now. At first it did not, but then I saw that I connected the input on output on one of the res/pumps. Now it is flowing badass speed. Awesome!! I guess I have to wait another 2 days before I can power it up tho, because it is wet

Here is a picture:

 

[Flat-6]

Wow - Looks 1000000000000000000x better...

Well done...!

Only issue I can see know is in how you have connected one of the GPU blocks in series but the top one I cant quite figure out how its connected with the external tubing and that Y junction to the CPU...??

BTW - You can use a hairdryer to aid in drying components that have become wet.

 

[hemo]

Wow - Looks 1000000000000000000x better...

Well done...!

Only issue I can see know is in how you have connected one of the GPU blocks in series but the top one I cant quite figure out how its connected with the external tubing and that Y junction to the CPU...??

BTW - You can use a hairdryer to aid in drying components that have become wet.

Thank you! I am so happy it is over finally!

Since I want to connect 2x360 radiators that is external I was thinking:
After the CPU block there is a Y-fitting. One tube goes directly to the GPU block and the other end is going to the external radiators and then the end of that loop is connected to the GPU outlet. I was thinking that at least some of the water would then take the second way. Will that work?

Ah true thanks. I was waiting for the sun to rise so that would heat my computer up a little bit!

 

[Flat-6]

TI was thinking that at least some of the water would then take the second way. Will that work?

It is usually not a good idea to parallel items with different restrictions as the flow will always prefer the path of lowest resistance.

Paralleling GPU blocks works because both blocks are (usually) identical and therefore the flow is split equally through both blocks.

With your rad and CPU block - the CPU block has a much higher flow restriction as compared to the rad. So what happens here is that the majority of water will flow through rad and much less water will flow through the CPU block which is not ideal.

I would reconfigure your two GPUs together as parallel with each other and then connect the rad and cpu block in series.