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Surging Water Level

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Noshei

Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2010
Location
Centennial, CO
So I just recently moved and I took the chance to redo my loop and fix a couple of bonehead (or beginner) mistakes.

So once I got the loop mostly filled and got most of the air bubbles out I noticed that the water level in the loop would surge up and downfairly drastically. By that I'm talking a good 4-6" change of level in a 1/2 ID (3/4 OD) tube.

I have a few ideas as to what might be going on, but I am unsure if any are correct. Right now I have the loop closed off to prevent it from shooting water out the T-line I use to fill, but I can still hear the water surging.

So heres the parts list of what I'm using within my loop.

EK-Supreme HF Block
2x EK-FC480 GTX for Nvidia GTX
Swiftech MCR320 QP Radiator
Swiftech MCR220 QP Radiator
XSPC Dual Acrylic Top for Laing DDC
Swiftech MCP355 Pump
Swiftech MCP35X Pump


I have check all of the tubing to ensure there are no kinks or other issues and everything looks good. I also thought that maybe because I have two different pumps it could be causing the problem, due to different speeds, but when I looked at the speeds they were within 100-300 RPM of each other all the time.

So any ideas?
 
For the level to change that much in a t-line I'd say it can't be pump oscillation, but more like air trapped in one of your radiators. If it were pump oscillation, you'd have tubing that looks like a beating heart.
Can you cap the t-line and tip the system & tap on the rads to dislodge air bubbles?
 
Yep, air is compressible, water not so much. I have dual pumps and on vs off is 1/4 inch change in reservoir level, and probably that is some trapped air. When first bleeding 2 inches is typical (air trapped in rad), you just have lots of air still.
 
I'll give that a try, I already have the T-line capped so thats not an issue, rads are a bit tough to get to but I'll see what I can do.
 
Cool. You don't have to remove the rads, just tip the case enough so that the barbs are higher than the opposite end, then lightly smack the case (open hand, no rings to scratch the paint).
 
Now that I think about it, I might have screwed myself when I re-did my loop.

I used to have the rads connected together on the bottom fitting with the water flowing in and out of the top fittings. I changed that when I re-did the loop thinking it would provide better flow due to the use of gravity, instead of working against it.

So, I'm going to have to tip it pretty far to get the bottom fitting high enough.

If you take a look at the first picture in the link in my sig, you can see the 220 Rad, with the ports on the right side of it. The ports on the 320 are directly opposite those.
 
With a Sealed loop full of water gravity is not a factor. For future info!

Good Luck getting them bubbles! :thup:
 
With a Sealed loop full of water gravity is not a factor. For future info!

Exactly correct. I once took a little pump with a 5' head rating (for open tubing) and connected 30' of tubing. Once it was bled and running I took the middle of the tubing upstairs to make a 12' high loop.
Ran fine.
 
Your system is well sealed up and your not using a res. Just flip your case upside down, shake it, lay it on its side, while its running and that will get the bulk of the bigger bubbles out. It just takes time, especially with TLine loop.
 
So I managed to get it down to about an inch in change at this point, going to leave the t-line open with an extra bit of tubing coming out of the fill port on top.

So when I re-did the loop I changed from the blue tubing in my pics to black, really wishing I hadn't. It looks cool and all, but makes it that much harder to fill imo. Thankfully the top I have it the clear version so I can see bubbles there. Still looks like there are plenty in there, but Ill just have to let them work their own way out I think now.

Edit:

Forgot to mention I did notice a bit of flattening in one part of the tubing, but its on a pretty hard 90 (maybe 2") so I not surprised by that.

Also just noticed that some air bubbles seem to be getting stuck in the top of the CPU block
 
{So trying not to sound silly} you can try sucking on that T-line too, creating a vacuum on it really does help the bubbles move into the water stream and out through the T.
Done it myself plenty of times (with odd looks from the [X] .Mrs).
A small shop vac might cave in the tops or blow a seal...so I'm sure you don't wanna go there.
 
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