Can never be too safe.

[Ark325]

Had my watercooling system running fine for a week. Go out of town for a day to come back and see a puddle on the floor, pumps off, systems off. Both of the outlet tubes on my white water had blown off. First thing that goes through my mind is WTF did the clamps go? There they were, in a puddle at the bottom of my case. I decided to use plastic because it was safer on tubing, going to switch over to metal which should hold tighter.

System status unknown. Audigy 2 pins are burnt along with a few on my 9600pro. Intel still looks good, case has light burn marks on bottom, motherboard looks good except for pci/agp slots. Eheim pump unknown.

So...this just shows you can have clamps, streched your tubing around oversized barbs, and properly tested for leaks for a few days, but there is no guarantee.

 

[Lothar5150]

That’s a major bummer. Did you put the clamps on between barbs on the shaft? And did you use pliers to put them on tight?

 

[zip22]

were they the plastic clamps that just kinda bite together? i just set up my system with cable ties. it looks nice and clean, and i think (hope) they will hold more securely than the other plastic kind

 

[johan851]

Well...I'm glad I've always used metal screw drive clamps. Better safe than sorry. Sorry to hear about your system dude.

 

[ssgohan434]

did u stretch ur tubing over oversized barbs and it still leaked??? as in 3/8" tubing over 1/2" barbs??? also have you found the cause of this mishap yet??? i hope u the best

 

[Diggrr]

Firstly, I'm sorry about your rigs possible demise, it's always sad to loose a good computer.

Secondly, I have always used the plastic clamps, and will continue to do so. They hold better than the metal ones, and have not caused a leak like my metal ones did by bunching up the hose on one side of the barb.

Thirdly, how on earth did you "blow off" the outlet tubes? Running your pump backwards? The inlet is the center barb, and the pressure should be on that one. The restriction in the block would cause the outlets to have lower pressure.
Were you suspending anything from the tubing to cause it to come off? Did you setup the system with the tubing too short here?, so the tubes elasticity won over the clamps?

Not picking on you bud, just curious as to how the pressure could have blown off the outlet tubes using a normal pump and flow direction. That points to something else as the cause.

 

[desalien]

what are you going to do now ???
stick to WC or go back to the air-forum ???

( i also feel the pain of your computer)

 

[calvin]

Possible pump failure? Excessive pressure can build when cpu heat no longer being dissipated. If the clamps had held in a pump failure scenario then the socket could have melted along with ruining the block.

Personally my preferred hose style clamp is none LOL. (pvc tube on hose barbs grips very tightly IME)

Wonder if an overtemp proggie was in use? I like shutdownnow! (addon for mbm). Although have found its a good idea to experiment with the high limit setting and shutdown switch selection - then unplug pump to test.

 

[Ark325]

Problem: Looks like the clearflex tubing was bent to much for it to handle, 6" pieces with multiple twists. Probably one side managed to wiggle its way loose till the pressure tossed it off causing the second outlet tubing to come off. System probably shorted out when water got in the pci/agp slots. Eheim 1250 overheated causing the motor to shut off.

Never had a leak with the 3/8" tubing over 1/2" barbs, could not personally pull the plastic clamps that bite together off, but was amazed how easily I could wiggle the tubing off the barbs.

Could disaster been averted, yes. Turn off pc when not in use, don't just check for leaks, check the connections too.

Audigy2 is working fine, cudos to creative.
Intel 2.4 is fine running at 1.2 on my 533fsb system.
9600pro not tested
Eheim motor runs again, cudos to them.
Motherboard unknown. System wont post, normally means its dead but this isn't the first time Ive had this problem when leaving my computer down for a day.

Worse case motherboard won't work properly, good thing Gigayte makes decent cheap motherboards. Newegg has my current one for under a hundred. Going to stay with watercooling, no doublty change the way the WC was setup along with new clamps and elbows. Right now im going through the what if stage, makes me feel guilty. Oh well, back to work to see if the motherboard will post.

 

[lclark2074]

that sad man i hope you have better luck next time. my first resivor leeked but i got lucky it did not take out nuthing.

 

[SK8]

some ppl are making me nervous, i used zipties to put tubes on rbx b/c i dont have room for metal clamps, i have plastic ones and those take ALOT of room.

 

[Rokk1972]

you should be able to use the plastic racheting hose claps on the RBX. I set the hole spacing to allow the use of them.

Sorry about the pic quality, need new camera.