Review: Thermochill EC6 Fluid

[hokiealumnus]

Well, you guys know I'm an advocate for Distilled + PT Nuke. In fact, I'm still a very avid proponent of it. But if you must have pre-bought fluid to make your loop look nice, this stuff doesn't seem bad at all.

Thermochill EC6 Watercooling Fluid​

Thermochill is a company with an interesting marketing strategy. A rather simple and effective stratagem entitled ‘Offer an alternative to all’. Thermochill has built a reputation by making solid products and it is that ‘goodwill’ that they thrive upon. The list of Thermochill products are growing increasingly larger, with radiators, compression barbs and now coolant amongst its portfolio. Through this approach they could have a chance at alienating their existing customer base by producing (according to some of the hard core water cooler enthusiasts) a product based on marketing hype. However in all fairness time will tell whether this is a good idea or not.

A simple Google search will reveal the ugly truth behind some of the pre-mixed fluid used today. Primochill and Feser have experienced occasional issues, such as the dyes breaking down at higher temperatures, floating scale issues and other problems. To be fair, these incidents are of an isolated nature. But the issues are not helped by the CEO of a certain company denying that the problem (though isolated) even exists and insisting that well respected people are faking photographs and are out to ruin him. This indeed does not help matters and as such this reviewer and many other enthusiasts have fallen back to the old distilled water and PT-Nuke method. As a review site, we are supposed to be impartial, but after the folly of other companies we cannot help but observe with a slightly sceptic eye.

Long story short:

Pros:

• Fairly Inexpensive compared to some coolants.
• Eco friendly coolant
• A deep UV reaction, a more solid look rather than head-ache bright
• Low Viscosity
• Doesnt stain tubes (so far tested)
• Lasts between one and two years in your system (quoted by Thermochill Rep)
• Performs exceedlingly well; compared with the products on test
• Takes alot of abuse; judging by the extreme tests undertaken

Cons:

It was fairly hard to actually find any real faults with this coolant, howeverthere is a very very minor issue.

• Need more colours.

See Gilgamesh's full review here at Overclockers Tech.

 

[Conumdrum]

Thanks for posting this! If you want UV it might be the way to go. The cost vs distilled water is still grossly skewed considering there is only 1C diff between the load tests and that was on the clear TC stuff. 1C is way within the measuring equiment and ambient varabilities too.

Ohh well, nice write up though. We still hope for the 'Uber Fluid' someday.

Edited, got rid of fluff.

 

[Boulard83]

Thks, good reading.

If one day i want colored die, maybe ill swap to this.

 

[hokiealumnus]

I love the look of the green. If I had UV lights, I'd go for it. But I don't, so it's distilled + green tubing & green res LEDs. It definitely has a place in the market though and is a strong alternative to Feser & Primochill.

 

[Bobnova]

UV LEDs from china are something like $5 shipped for 50, i got a 50pack and they are totally reasonable. They do give off a lot of visible light though.
I need to try aiming 'em at antifreeze and see what happens


I'm seriously considering this stuff for my future WC, i like the non-conductive aspect of it, though i suspect that trying to fill an automotive radiator with it would bankrupt me.
I can't find it for sale anywhere either, at least not at the usual suspects (newegg, petras, ebay).

 

[Springbok]

I've been using PC Ice for it's nonconductive properties ever since my Swiftech Storm sprung a leak that I was trying to track down. I had water drip onto my graphics card and fry it, PC Ice dripped in the exact same spot while the system was running and nothing happened. Definitely the way to go if you want colored liquid and clear tubes, though UV reactive tubing are much brighter.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Ok gents, let's clear this up lest anyone be confused - Water, H₂O, is inherently non-conductive. Only the minerals added to it make it conductive. As long as you're using distilled water (which removes all the minerals), it is just as non-conductive as the coolants claiming to be such.

But let's say consumer-grade distilling doesn't remove every mineral. Ok, so it's ever so slightly conductive. So maybe I can grant that it could possibly be less conductive than consumer-grade distilled water when it first comes out of the bottle.

BUT...both water and any fluid you put in your loop will leach ions off of your blocks, radiator, barbs and anything else that is metal in your loop. Non-conductive fluid will be just as conductive as regular distilled water in a short time and they will both then continue to be more conductive as time goes on.

So don't buy into the hype. Buy coolant if you want your loop to glow, or possibly if you want to run it below 0C (some of them have lower freezing points than water). Don't buy it for non-conductivity, which is a property that water itself holds.

 

[Bobnova]

Pure water is quite corrosive, by the time it leaves the distillery loop it's already eaten enough copper to be conductive, and even if it hadn't, within half an hour it'll eat enough of your blocks/radiator to conduct anyway.
Lab grade water is something else, they have snazzy coatings and containers to prevent it from dissolving things, but even then it doesn't stay pure very long (pure water will even etch glass).
So while yes, water itself is non-conductive, you will never see non-conductive water in the real world, all real world water is conductive.

A non-conductive fluid won't necessarily start eating things, it depends on what the fluid is and what it's interactions (if any) with the materials in your loop are like.
For instance, Fluorinert (commercial/industrial coolant for submerged type cooling) will not become conductive, ever. Of course, it also costs something like $200/gallon.

 

[hokiealumnus]

We're saying the similar things I think, just in differing degrees. You have a point about water's properties and that's why I put in the part about consumer vs lab-grade water. I didn't use my standard qualifier: Nothing that the normal water cooler can afford will remain non-conductive for long. Truly permanent non-conductive liquids are priced out of the normal consumer's range. Fair enough?

Oh, and "grow" in the original post should have been "glow". Should make more sense now.

 

[Bobnova]

I actually read it as glow anyway