Easiest, fastest and most effective way to clean a copper CPU/GPU water block

[beret21]

Easiest, fastest and most effective way to clean a copper CPU/GPU water block

What i did ?

I posted some time back a thread related to my custom GPU and CPU water block and i cleaned them and re-installed them in my system.
But
This time my water flow literary dropped to 1-2% ( To make it easier to understand instead of getting water stream i was getting droplets of water at the loop end ). And this time it happened so fast like within a month.
As my CPU water block design is very less restrictive, i just removed my GPU from the loop so i can use my PC on integrated GPU.
Before you go further i want to let you know that i am using a Bong for my setup and thus use tap water.

Here is a pic demonstrating the gunk, plasticizer, algae AIO.( This is the worse i ever had )



Now previously i cleaned it just with a dishwasher soap having lemon as the main ingredient. This time i read on WWW and decided to go with acid cleaning.

The results are so good that it would be mean not to share it.

What was used to clean ?
This time i used toilet bowl cleaner. Yes u heard it right. The main ingredient used in this cleaner was HCL (Hydrochloric acid). I will recommend only HCL as i found it to be among the best and as its the only one i had practical exp with. It was diluted HCL but the concentration isn't know neither it was written on the cleaner.





Caution
Use gloves, Use safety glasses and work in a safe area. Don't drop it on floor or your Mum might kill you.

Steps ( How i did it )

• Open the water block we only need the copper plate to work on.
• First time i just pored 2-3 drops of the toilet bowl cleaner directly onto the copper plate. Started bubbling i used an old teeth brush to clean and make sure the acid reaches every part and fins.
• After that cleaned with water it was pretty clean at this point.
• Then i took a plastic blow fill it with water so that the copper plate can be fully submerged. Then i dropped 5-10 drops of that cleaner and got that pinkish solution as shown in pic.
• Let the copper plate sit in it for around 10-15 min. Then resin with water again.
• In the end i used dishwasher soap having lemon as the main ingredient. Rubbed a toothbrush on that soap and clean the copper plate thoroughly and in the end resin it again.
• To clean rest of the water block ( For acrylic pieces and fittings i used the same pink solution it cleans really quick removing all that white powder thing that is formed )


After cleaning




Its just to show before and after in detail

I need your help !

Before i put this beautiful clean and loving water block again in my loop i want to know
There is no way i can use distilled water in my loop due to bong and with heavy system usage i evaporate about 1 liter of water daily so it would be expensive to buy distilled water 1 litr daily ?
Is there any ghetto mod/ thing used in our daily routine that can help me with algae reduction or elimination in my loop ?
What tubing doesn't produce plasticizer ? Or what that pipe or tubing is called that doesn't produce this white gunk ?
I cannot afford a copper rad they are rare and expensive here that is y i have to live with BONG ( it works awesome though) :/

 

[S_I_N]

i guess I dont understand the bong system but how the hell do you dissipate a liter a day

 

[EarthDog]

Because its a fine mist that is sprayed in the bong cooling on the way down. So, with an open loop and fine spray, you can get that.

 

[beret21]

i guess I dont understand the bong system but how the hell do you dissipate a liter a day

This is not created by me but this demonstrates how a bong works.
We are actually evaporating the heated water from the loop.
Just to ad to knowledge no radiator ( no matter how pure and big amount of copper is used ) can beat a bong in price and performance. But bong required lot of maintenance a lil example is my above post

 

[S_I_N]

Ok I see now interesting but yeah the Maintance cycle is horrible thanks for sharing this I have never seen it in all my years of alternative cooling

 

[ssjwizard]

Ok I see now interesting but yeah the Maintance cycle is horrible thanks for sharing this I have never seen it in all my years of alternative cooling

Bong style coolers were super popular back in the day. One of the main advantages is that you can actually get sub ambient temps with one if its powerful enough.

@beret21 unfortunately with an evap cooler there is really nothing you can do to prevent buildup. You are going to collect dust and dissolve all sorts of minerals into the water as it circulates.

 

[Blaylock]

Is there any ghetto mod/ thing used in our daily routine that can help me with algae reduction or elimination in my loop ?
What tubing doesn't produce plasticizer ? Or what that pipe or tubing is called that doesn't produce this white gunk ?
I cannot afford a copper rad they are rare and expensive here that is y i have to live with BONG ( it works awesome though) :/

You could try using silver kill coils but I doubt it would be effective having to add a liter of water a day. Also, silver can cause other issues in your loop.


Primochill Advanced LRT and EKWB Rubber tubing are known to be plastisizer free. Or you could just go with good old fashioned copper tubing.


EDIT: I'm curious if that bong is kept indoors do your walls have the same algae build up? I've read nightmares about using a bong indoors.

 

[beret21]

Bong style coolers were super popular back in the day. One of the main advantages is that you can actually get sub ambient temps with one if its powerful enough.

@beret21 unfortunately with an evap cooler there is really nothing you can do to prevent buildup. You are going to collect dust and dissolve all sorts of minerals into the water as it circulates.

Dnt make me loose hope

And one more thing that i forgot to mentions. The maintenance is half if i dnt use the gpu water block ( the one shown in my first post) because its has those 1 mm holes that get clogged really really fast and kill water flow.

 

[Witchdoctor]

I haven't seen a bong since high school

 

[beret21]

You could try using silver kill coils but I doubt it would be effective having to add a liter of water a day. Also, silver can cause other issues in your loop.


Primochill Advanced LRT and EKWB Rubber tubing are known to be plastisizer free. Or you could just go with good old fashioned copper tubing.


EDIT: I'm curious if that bong is kept indoors do your walls have the same algae build up? I've read nightmares about using a bong indoors.

I have been using it indoor from atleast 2 years now. Nothing to the room or floor buddy. But just the maintenance has been increased after adding the gpu in the loop due to the water block inner structure. I added it to loop last month i think

Copper tubing seems to be an interesting idea also it is something i can get here rest that branded stuff cannot be found here at all. Totally zero apart from full kits.

- - - Updated - - -

I haven't seen a bong since high school

They are getting rare and rare. But they are super super cheap and much much better in performance. Maintenance is a whole new story though. Damn ! i have used this word Maintenance a 1000 times today

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I haven't seen a bong since high school

As unique this may seem, you're just going to run into issues again and again. Your best bet is to save up every penny possible and purchased a very affordable used system from a classifieds or ebay somewhere.

 

[Nebulous]

I concur. With a bong cooler, the maintenance regiment will be more frequent. A custom loop will yield better results and you'll have less maintenance periods inbetween. Unless you go with purdy colored fluids, then of course you'll be back to square one in the maintenance department.

I remember back in the day bong coolers were all the rage in pc cooling and witchy, in high school

 

[beret21]

I concur. With a bong cooler, the maintenance regiment will be more frequent. A custom loop will yield better results and you'll have less maintenance periods inbetween. Unless you go with purdy colored fluids, then of course you'll be back to square one in the maintenance department.

I remember back in the day bong coolers were all the rage in pc cooling and witchy, in high school

I will be adding few drops of HCL in my loop as suggested by someone on my next maintenance. Hope to reduce maintenance by that. Also will ad dust filters too to prolong water life. Just have to complete my CNC machine first
Closed loops are so much better no doubt.

 

[Nebulous]

Welp good luck and keep us posted! Be sure to post pics of that CNC rig too!

 

[beret21]

Welp good luck and keep us posted! Be sure to post pics of that CNC rig too!

heres a teaser trailer

 

[beret21]

Welp good luck and keep us posted! Be sure to post pics of that CNC rig too!

Damn i am on 2-3 other forums and i have been searching for you everywhere. I had in mind that someone was interested in my CNC but forgot who it was. Finally an update on my CNC

 

[Conumdrum]

Ohh how does this have anything to do with the thread? Spam? I dunno.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Ohh how does this have anything to do with the thread? Spam? I dunno.

He's the original poster.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Easiest, fastest and most effective way to clean a copper CPU/GPU water block

What i did ?

I posted some time back a thread related to my custom GPU and CPU water block and i cleaned them and re-installed them in my system.
But
This time my water flow literary dropped to 1-2% ( To make it easier to understand instead of getting water stream i was getting droplets of water at the loop end ). And this time it happened so fast like within a month.
As my CPU water block design is very less restrictive, i just removed my GPU from the loop so i can use my PC on integrated GPU.
Before you go further i want to let you know that i am using a Bong for my setup and thus use tap water.

Here is a pic demonstrating the gunk, plasticizer, algae AIO.( This is the worse i ever had )

View attachment 186250

Now previously i cleaned it just with a dishwasher soap having lemon as the main ingredient. This time i read on WWW and decided to go with acid cleaning.

The results are so good that it would be mean not to share it.

What was used to clean ?
This time i used toilet bowl cleaner. Yes u heard it right. The main ingredient used in this cleaner was HCL (Hydrochloric acid). I will recommend only HCL as i found it to be among the best and as its the only one i had practical exp with. It was diluted HCL but the concentration isn't know neither it was written on the cleaner.


View attachment 186251


Caution
Use gloves, Use safety glasses and work in a safe area. Don't drop it on floor or your Mum might kill you.

Steps ( How i did it )

• Open the water block we only need the copper plate to work on.
• First time i just pored 2-3 drops of the toilet bowl cleaner directly onto the copper plate. Started bubbling i used an old teeth brush to clean and make sure the acid reaches every part and fins.
• After that cleaned with water it was pretty clean at this point.
• Then i took a plastic blow fill it with water so that the copper plate can be fully submerged. Then i dropped 5-10 drops of that cleaner and got that pinkish solution as shown in pic.
• Let the copper plate sit in it for around 10-15 min. Then resin with water again.
• In the end i used dishwasher soap having lemon as the main ingredient. Rubbed a toothbrush on that soap and clean the copper plate thoroughly and in the end resin it again.
• To clean rest of the water block ( For acrylic pieces and fittings i used the same pink solution it cleans really quick removing all that white powder thing that is formed )


After cleaning

View attachment 186252


Its just to show before and after in detail

I need your help !

Before i put this beautiful clean and loving water block again in my loop i want to know
There is no way i can use distilled water in my loop due to bong and with heavy system usage i evaporate about 1 liter of water daily so it would be expensive to buy distilled water 1 litr daily ?
Is there any ghetto mod/ thing used in our daily routine that can help me with algae reduction or elimination in my loop ?
What tubing doesn't produce plasticizer ? Or what that pipe or tubing is called that doesn't produce this white gunk ?
I cannot afford a copper rad they are rare and expensive here that is y i have to live with BONG ( it works awesome though) :/

So you are using evaporation cooling, and getting way too much trash in the system, you need a filter and if you are using one I isn't working well for you at all.

The inside of your water block should never look that bad I was using a Coleman Cooler with distilled water and ice before the chilled water cooling I am running now and I used the filter below.

Even the water jugs I was freezing were distilled water in case the jug leaked, which they eventually would do after being frozen and refrozen over and over.

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gasket-9706-Universal-Clearview/dp/B00068OR8M

You can snag this filter from any auto parts store and the replacement mesh filters, this type of mesh filter is much better than the paper type as it doesn't break down over time.

Better to trap your problems in a filter than in your water block.

You can check out this link below to see how I used that filter.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1244073/thermal-mass-below-ambient-cooling-solution#post_16991800

I have a friend that was running a similar setup and he was also using a gas fuel filter but it was the paper type of filter and it failed and started deteriorating, for some reason the paper filter was strong enough for gasoline but not the water he was using with zero critter protection. (If memory serves correctly he was using tap water not distilled water.)

I no longer have a need for a filter with the chilled water cooling I am running now as it is completely closed to outside air and dust.

Oh, for cleaning inside a copper water block, you cannot beat Ketchup, the trick is leave it on for a while like at least 15 minutes before rinsing it off and inspecting to see if you need to do it again if you still have a problem apply it fresh for another 15 minutes, once the water block looks acceptable use a dish washing soap and clean off the ketchup.

It is safe and cleans the copper as ketchup has an acid base and works great, tastes good on Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers too!

 

[GTXJackBauer]

It is safe and cleans the copper as ketchup has an acid base and works great, tastes good on Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers too!