Amount of additive in wc-setup?

[Sssnake]

Hey all. Now ive been into watercooling for some time, using additives like waterwetter,purple ice and so on.
From i have experienced sofar, the best stuff for preventing corrosion is good old antifreeze. (And its the cheapest of the lot too ) So i think im gonna stick with that one. So, my question to all of u out there is:
Does anyone know what the lowest tolerable concentration of antifreeze is? On the bottles one can only read how much one shoul duse at what minus temps to get good antifreeze, but nothing about how much is necessary to get good corrosion protection.

Now im european, so i think in terms of litres (1gallon is roughtly 3.8 litres) and i will be using a inline-pump with a t-line, for 1 cpu-block as well as nb and gpu block, a eheim 1250 and a BIX-rad.

So as u can see, there wont be a hell of a lot of water in the setup, guessing 1/2 a litre or so, and pouring in 30-40% antifreeze in that doesnt really
sit well with me

So if anyone knows what minimum concentration is (for corrosion protection), please let me know ...

 

[Owenator]

I run 75% Distilled water 25% antifreeze now. I read somewhere on Swiftech's web site that, that is the optimal ratio. I used to run distilled water and watter wetter but I ran out. I haven't seen any corrosion. But then I change out the water everytime I rebuild my rig. Which is multiple times a year. Probably this weekend come to think of it!

O

 

[Jibjo]

1x4 ratio is the lowest minimum I have seen recommended by antifreeze makers; a lot of them, like Peak, advise 1x1 or even 70% (cars in cold climates). It probably doesn't do much good to have anything less than 25% if corrosion is a concern.

 

[pelikan]

Wouldn't it be better to use something like Zerex Super Protector so you can just put in 5%?

 

[E-Licious]

What pelikan said. Those other ratios seem a bit high.

 

[Sssnake]

Sounds good, but then u guys will have to send me a bottle

Sadly, we dont have that stuff here, to my knowledge anyways.
Thanks a lot for helping out tho.

 

[SK8]

i just used about 30& peak antifreeze with zerex stuff in it and 70% Distilled water , i dont know the exact ratios lol , and about 4 highlighters it glowes insanely!

 

[Sssnake]

would u like to put up a link to where i can get some of that zerex stuff?

Also like i said, have tried waterwetter, with bad reults, put bout 15% of it in water and threw in a iron nut.. started to rust in just 2-3 days.
either there was something wrong with the waterwetter i got or it just dont work for that. Also dont really want to stain those nice EXPENSIVE tygon hoses i just bought for this project ...

 

[walkerIV]

iron nut?
you use iron in your loop?
On morepositive note, just inquire in a local auto shop about corrosion inhibitors for the cooling system.

 

[SK8]

well, there really isnt a way not to stain your tygon hose, b/c waterwetter makes a white lining for it to work like it says, and dyes and antifreeze might discolor your tube.

 

[Sssnake]

well, im kinda counting on SOME staining, but not right away, like with waterwetter and silicone tubing. took just a week or 2 to make the whole hose pink ;(

 

[Sssnake]

btw, the "iron nut thing" was just a test to see how good waterwetter was as corrosion protection. Didnt have ANYTHING to do with my wc-setup

Thanx for all the tips

 

[SK8]

dude silicon tube is horrible it lets water out its teh nasty!

 

[Diggrr]

dude silicon tube is horrible it lets water out its teh nasty!

Yeah, and it's reliable, easily sterile, it's already white so you don't have to gripe about what your additives did to it, it holds onto barbs really well, and it's hard to kink, as well as being the best all around tubing for refrigerated applications. *forgot to mention that it doesn't shrink or split and it's the best at isolating pump vibrations.
Sorry, just feeling like an a** tonight.

If your system is all copper, and you have no additional metals in it (except for the brass in your heatercore, which don't count), you don't really need corrosion protection all that much. I'd consider using 5% or less (if I used anything other than distilled water). In a one metal system, it's only real use would be to kill the germies IMHO.

There used to be sticky where someone went to ALOT of trouble to give real numbers for different percentages of antifreeze and alcohol mixed with water, and the heat capacity (in real temp readings) really started to stink above 5%. There's also viscosity issues where the thicker AF starts to slow your waterflow down.

Just a few thoughts. Ciao!

 

[Sssnake]

Kewl thanks.

Ok, seems im gonna have to be more helpful to u helpful ppl

Im gonna run a bix like i said with a slithedge(anodized top) an all copper nb-block and a swiftech mcw50. Now the swiftech im not concerned about so much, but im not sure i trust the anodizing on the slitedge...

 

[Jibby]

if you have an all copper system or an all "like metal" system 10% is recommended but if you have some alluminum or any other metals that react badly with metals in your system 25% is recommended.

 

[Sssnake]

Ok, if any1 but me is interested, i found a interesting link in another thread:
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr110046.htm

This helps me somewhat, even tho it is about engine-use of antifreeze.

quote
"The amount of additive needed to protect the cooling system isn't much - only about 2% to 3% of the total liquid in the jug. This is usually enough to protect for at least two years or 30,000 miles in most vehicle applications - or even longer if the antifreeze is mixed with relatively pure water (distilled or deionized). "

so thinking ´bout perhaps going as low as 5%AF. We will see. Got some alumina and copper in glassbottles with liquids (Des water/AF) ranging from 5% to 20% AF concentration, that i will let sit for about a week to see what happens..

thanx for all yuor help, and hope this have/will answer some similar questions floating around in other ppl´s minds too

 

[MoreGooder]

Ok, if any1 but me is interested, i found a interesting link in another thread:
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr110046.htm

This helps me somewhat, even tho it is about engine-use of antifreeze.

quote
"The amount of additive needed to protect the cooling system isn't much - only about 2% to 3% of the total liquid in the jug. This is usually enough to protect for at least two years or 30,000 miles in most vehicle applications - or even longer if the antifreeze is mixed with relatively pure water (distilled or deionized). "

so thinking ´bout perhaps going as low as 5%AF. We will see. Got some alumina and copper in glassbottles with liquids (Des water/AF) ranging from 5% to 20% AF concentration, that i will let sit for about a week to see what happens..

thanx for all yuor help, and hope this have/will answer some similar questions floating around in other ppl´s minds too

You read that wrong. I was the original poster for that link. The "2% to 3%" is referring to the amount of corrosion inhibiting ingredients in the JUG OF ANTIFREEZE, not the percentage of AF in your system overall. 5% AF is not enough. Stick with 25% if you have aluminum.

 

[Sssnake]

darn.
sorry then.

Guess i was more tired than i thought when i read that