water pump for watercoolong

[zeus_17]

i dont know what kind of pump to buy. does anyone have any sugesstions. how much GPH?? should it be a submersible pump or inline?? please say submersible cause inlines are way expensive. all your help is appreciated.

 

[JML]

maxi-jet- I've heard these are good; no clue what they cost
rio- their ok; cheapppppppp
mag drive- very good; reasonable price
ehiem- best; expensive


http://www.aquatictech.com/pumps.html
www.dangerden.com

GPH depends on your system- What waterblock and radiator are you using? What will be the highest point in your system?

 

[zeus_17]

home made waterblock. figured if i used a large enough resovoir i wouldnt need a radiator. is that a right assumption or do you think i need a radiator?? i think the highest point with be 12-12.5" high. thanx

 

[Stick00]

GPH depends on your system- What waterblock and radiator are you using? What will be the highest point in your system?

that means alot

 

[Bender]

Do't go without a radiator! If the water has no way to cool down you cooling will be useless. If you use a 10 gallon fishtank you will be able to get away with no radiator but thats quite a lot of water. Wal-Mart has fishtanks that size for only $8-9 if you want to save money and go that rout. The maxi jet 1200 is an exelent pump for the price. Danners are a step up in price and quality; Eheims are probably the best yet quite expensive. I have a Maxi-Jet I got for $20 and I love it.

 

[Barryng]

You have to use a heat exchanger to remove not only the CPU heat but also remove the pump heat.

Electrical energy goes into the pump and gets converted to almost the same amount of mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is transfered to the water. Every bit of this energy ends up in the water and is apparent by the water increasing in temperature. So, both the CPU and the pump are putting energy into the cooling fluid, raising its temperature.

Consider the energy consumption of some popular Eheim pumps.

Model 1048 10 Watts
Model 1250 28 Watts
Model 1060 50 Watts

Compare these energies with the amount your are removing from the CPU. The point here is only to make the point that you have relatively a lot of energy to get rid of.

If you use just a reservoir the capacity of the reservoir does not matter in the long term but the surface area of the sides of the reservoir and how well the sides transfer heat do indeed matter. Assume the reservoir has a relatively small total surface area and the sides are made of a material that conducts heat poorly (plastic, glass, etc.). This is typical of most reservoirs and the temperature of the fluid will eventually get very high. This is not good as the rate of heat transfer in the CPU cooling block is directly proportional to the amount of temperature difference between the CPU and the cooling fluid. The colder the cooling fluid the faster heat is transfered and the cooler the CPU. If the cooling fluid is hot, the "delta T" is smaller and the CPU has to achieve a much higher temperature in order to transfer the same amount of energy.

In other words, don't even think of not using a heat exchanger.

 

[arch5]

Every bit of this energy ends up in the water and is apparent by the water increasing in temperature. So, both the CPU and the pump are putting energy into the cooling fluid, raising its temperature.

Remember that this is only the case when the pump is submerged. If it is in-line then some of that heat is transfered to the air around the pump.

I've also tried just using a reservoir without a radiator and it worked ok. The main difference is noise level because you either need fans on the radiator or you need a big fan blowing on top of your reservoir. When I had the fan on the reservoir I was also losing a lot of water due to evaporation.

RhoXS said it best though, "don't even think of not using a heat exchanger".

 

[NoKtEm]

quick question, what makes ehiem's the best? is it just the quality or something? does it last longer? pump better somehow? (not mocking just a real newbie question..)

 

[Bender]

Actually a 10 gallon fishtank is enough to keep a system pretty darn cool. Remember quantity of water and area of the tank helps disipate the heat. If the res were closed it would retain much more heat. My bud Phiber is using a fishtank and he is getting temps of 37c full load. He gets a little evaporation but its not enough to worry about. I think he adds a gallon or so every week. Give it a try its a nice inexpensive way to get water cooling.

 

[Barryng]

Arch, you stated:

"Remember that this is only the case when the pump is submerged. If it is in-line then some of that heat is transfered to the air around the pump."

I do not agree. Motor losses will indeed not make it into the water but this, hopefully, is only a small percentage of total energy used. Every bit of mechanical energy on the shaft makes it into the water. It is true that every pressure boundary surface transfers energy out of the system. However, the pressure boundary (tubes, pump casing, etc.) are all made of materials that do a lousy job transfering heat

 

[arch5]

Motor losses will indeed not make it into the water but this, hopefully, is only a small percentage of total energy used

The basis for my reasoning is that I have an aquarium shop down the street from me. The owners have been using in-line water pumps for years and years. According to them the heat just from the pumps' motor is enough to heat up the inside of an aquarium cabinet so much that sometimes they need fans to cool them off.
When they have several pumps out in the open they don't even need to turn on the heat in the winter.

I imagine the heat output is different for every pump but the back of my Danner 500gph pump gets quite hot!

Bender, I wasn't disputing that a large container wouldn't work.
I was focusing more on the compact solution. Plus, when you get into that large an area of open water you really need to worry about filtration.

 

[DodgeViper]

ARCH5, do you like your Danner? I bought one yesterday from PetsMart and I do not like it. Seems loud and given what you said the back gets hot this will add heat to my system. I bought the Mag 5. Going to give it another try outside the case and pump water into a bucket for a few hours before deciding to return it.

Also the box says it comes with 1/2" NPT threads. The pump I got has 1- 1/2" NPT thread and 1- 3/4" barb. This I do not like.

 

[JML]

you can take the front off the pump (I'm not sure whats it called). It's held on by four screws, and when you take it up you should see an O-ring. Before putting it back on line the O-ring with something like silicone.


BTW- My mag drive 7 is not to loud, except if there is air trapped inside (which should be leaked out anyway). Or if the pump is vibrating my case, which is easily solved by putting something under it to absorb the vibration.

As to it getting hot, you could try some arctic silver adhesive and attach a hs/f on the side (I find the side of it gets the hottest)

 

[hpotter]

you can take the front off the pump (I'm not sure whats it called). It's held on by four screws, and when you take it up you should see an O-ring. Before putting it back on line the O-ring with something like silicone.


BTW- My mag drive 7 is not to loud, except if there is air trapped inside (which should be leaked out anyway). Or if the pump is vibrating my case, which is easily solved by putting something under it to absorb the vibration.

As to it getting hot, you could try some arctic silver adhesive and attach a hs/f on the side (I find the side of it gets the hottest)

I am getting a Mag Drive 350gph and I was wondering how do you attach the barbs to it. I am going 3/8 for my system.

 

[JML]

I run 3/8 also. I just went to home depot; you can find exactly what you need in the plumbing section. If you can't find it, just ask somewhere there for help, (that's what I did =D).
There's also some kind of tape you can put on the threads of the fittings (I forgot what it's called =P)

 

[Aesik]

Teflon tape.

 

[Tecumseh]

quick question, what makes ehiem's the best? is it just the quality or something? does it last longer? pump better somehow? (not mocking just a real newbie question..)

Eheims are the gold standard because they are quiet
and dependable and you can buy spare parts. They
are so good you can almost set them up and forget them.

You certainly don't want to worry about some off-brand
pump failing will with your rig at 100% crunching seti or those
other programs while you are out!!!

Danner is also a good brand.

 

[rivercom9]

I second Tecumseh's comment. They are of very high quality and most people if not all people who own one would vouch for that.