What's the best antifreeze/coolant?

[hokiealumnus]

Holy thread dig...this beats the other thread by a year!

Anyway, there is no reason to run glycol unless you're using it for one of two reasons: 1. to run at or below 0°C or 2. if you have mixed-metals in your loop (i.e. aluminum & copper). Barring those reasons, there isn't any reason to even consider it. Run straight distilled water + either PT Nuke PHN or a silver kill coil. Best cooling you can get...and cheap too!

 

[Conumdrum]

Wow, the guy should get a prize!

Anyhoo, yep, hokie said it well.

If your planning to run sub freezing temps then VW or Toyota antifreeze is the better purer stuff. I don't know a lot about sub freezing cooling, just what others use.

 

[QuietIce]

Holy thread dig...this beats the other thread by a year!

Anyway, there is no reason to run glycol unless you're using it for one of two reasons: 1. to run at or below 0°C or 2. if you have mixed-metals in your loop (i.e. aluminum & copper). Barring those reasons, there isn't any reason to even consider it. Run straight distilled water + either PT Nuke PHN or a silver kill coil. Best cooling you can get...and cheap too!

LOL! I was thinking the same thing!

When I first started reading this thread I was trying to figure out why anyone was still using anti-freeze at all. Then when I saw Joe Camel I realized.


My preferred mix is 1 gallon H₂O, 4 drops of iodine @ 10% (aka Betadyne and double that if using the normal 5% stuff), and 8 drops of algaecide. The algaecide depends on what you get - there are a wide variety available at any store with fish supplies, just follow the directions and don't worry about reapplications.

PT Nuke is also great stuff from what I've heard though at this point if I spent money for anything except water I'd buy a kill coil or better yet a couple of those silver barbs they have out now ...

 

[nogard666]

I found this thread doing a general search for Hy-per Lube Super Coolant.

Well, I do not plan on super cooling my PC system. I am just looking for an additive that will reduce the corrosive value of straight distilled water that may also help it cool better. My system is pretty much all anodized aluminum, but the water block (Zalman WB5+) is a copper block that is gold plated.

What I am considering adding is Hy-per Lube Super Coolant, which has no glycol in it and is readily available at O'Reilly Auto and now Wal-Mart. For anti-algae and such I have already been using iodine and an algae killer. In my searching I have found that products like Hy-per Lube and WW will cool slightly better then even straight water, but will greatly reduce its corrosive effects on all metal and plastic parts in the loop.

 

[jcw122]

QuietIce, why isn't anti-freeze used anymore? What's the "disadvantage" over PT nuke and the like?

 

[thorilan]

if your system is all copper and brass no need to go above 3%
personally i like iodine too.

 

[Boulard83]

DIstilled + PTnuke = Victory

 

[Spawn-Inc]

QuietIce, why isn't anti-freeze used anymore? What's the "disadvantage" over PT nuke and the like?

the more things added to distilled water, the less efficient it becomes at transferring heat.

as well there is no corrosion issues with copper, brass, silver, gold, chrome, nickel metals in a loop so why add something you don't need?

 

[QuietIce]

QuietIce, why isn't anti-freeze used anymore? What's the "disadvantage" over PT nuke and the like?

It's very simple - (in our price range) nothing transfers heat better than straight H2O so any extras you add to your loop is decreasing it's effeciency.

In addition, anti-freeze is more viscious (thicker) than water, which slows down your pump a small amount and increases resistance in the tubing as well - but these are small effects compared to the heat transfer loss you get ...

 

[jcw122]

Ahh interesting...thanks for the information guys.

 

[muddocktor]

I can see why he might want some anti-corrosive in his system, since he states that his loop is primarily anodized aluminum. If the anodized coating has the slightest scratch exposing the aluminum to the coolant, you will get corrosion started. That was one reason why the Swiftech Apogee GTX waterblocks weren't as popular as the Fuzion waterblocks due to the use of an anodized aluminum top. They finally did start selling a copper replacement top for it but then the price was too high.

As for the best coolant to use, I can't help you there. I stay away from aluminum in any of the loops I build and just use silver and/or PT Nuke with distilled water.

 

[nogard666]

Well. If I do use something like hy-per lube what % mix should I use with straight distilled water? Also, due to some tube sizing issues the Zalman WB5+ had only 3/8" barbs so I needed to get some brass down sizers to make my 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD tubing fit as everything else in my loop is full 1/2" ID tube size. So now I have anodized aluminum, normal aluminum, brass, copper, and gold in my system. On a side note, my radiator is out of an old 40,000BUT window AC unit. It is roughly 7 inches wide, 20 inches long, 4 inches thick, has 3/4" feed tubes, and 4x 3/8" loops that run through it. I have a 220mm fan strapped to it to force air flow through it.

 

[thorilan]

there is a very good chance that your rad is not anodized and is just plain aluminum if you pulled it from an AC unit.

 

[QuietIce]

Well. If I do use something like hy-per lube what % mix should I use with straight distilled water? Also, due to some tube sizing issues the Zalman WB5+ had only 3/8" barbs so I needed to get some brass down sizers to make my 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD tubing fit as everything else in my loop is full 1/2" ID tube size. So now I have anodized aluminum, normal aluminum, brass, copper, and gold in my system. On a side note, my radiator is out of an old 40,000BUT window AC unit. It is roughly 7 inches wide, 20 inches long, 4 inches thick, has 3/4" feed tubes, and 4x 3/8" loops that run through it. I have a 220mm fan strapped to it to force air flow through it.

I could be wrong but I don't think that stuff is designed as an anti-corrosive. In addition to the Hy-per Lube you'll also need to use anti-freeze. Most people recommend at least a 10% anti-freeze mix so you'll need about a pint of anti-freeze for one gallon of water.

For the Hy-per Lube you should follow the label recommendations. It should say how much per gallon or something to that effect ...

 

[boucher91]

have tried both distilled water+biocide and also distilled water+hydrix...
after bout 3 months the water hydrix solution wasnt cooling as well as it was the first month..the liquid in the loop was nasty kinda goo gunk was less than 5% ratio..
cleaned that c%$* out took a while..
then went to distiled water and a few drops of biocide
the water biocide combo hasnt let me down yet... almost a year now...very nice constant temps and the loop is still pristeen clean...

 

[nogard666]

Actually that is one of the big promotions of hy-per lube super coolant. It is designed to both make straight water cool better, and to be a major anti-corrosive. The 3 claims it makes are reduces engine temperature, prevents overheating, and provides maximum corrosion protection.

 

[Conumdrum]

hy-per will probably be fine as a PC WC additive. It's made for cars and higher temps, but it has the properties you need I guess. Just give it a try and let us know in 3-6 months?

 

[QuietIce]

Actually that is one of the big promotions of hy-per lube super coolant. It is designed to both make straight water cool better, and to be a major anti-corrosive. The 3 claims it makes are reduces engine temperature, prevents overheating, and provides maximum corrosion protection.

I stand corrected ...

 

[RGE]

Actually that is one of the big promotions of hy-per lube super coolant. It is designed to both make straight water cool better, and to be a major anti-corrosive. The 3 claims it makes are reduces engine temperature, prevents overheating, and provides maximum corrosion protection.

hy-per lub or water wetter like many other engine additives will decrease an engines temperature vs pure water by changing boiling properties of water and reducing surface tension of water, both which reduces vapor bubbles so better water to metal contact, but only when talking about temps near 100C (boiling) which occur in some parts of engines. So even though the additives decrease the thermal conductivity of water, that is outweighed when operating near boiling temps where reducing vapor bubble effects more than compensates.

But water temp in a computer never gets anywhere near 100C or temps where vapor bubbles occur, so all you get is the decrease thermal conductivity, so it will negatively affect temps in computer.

 

[nogard666]

A small drop in temps is fine as when I ran air cooled I idled around 50-55C and under load my MB would shut down my PC due to over heating, but once I changed to liquid cooling my idle temps dropped to almost consistently 30C with max temps of 48C after running Prime95 for 4 hours straight on the torture test. That was with my old water block which was not meant for a socket AM3 system and was rigged to fit and was not quite centered on the processor. Now I have a water block that is made for my system and is properly centered. I have also increase all of my tubing to full 1/2" ID with the exception of the water block itself, which still only has 3/8" barbs (how Zalman can claim the WB5+ has better flow rate then the WB3+ even though it has the same size barbs is beyond my knowledge). So even if I get a few extra C from having the hy-per lube in the system I think I have some leeway on my operating temps. Really all I need it for is the anti-corrosive properties. And as stated before, I can't use a glycol based anti-freeze because while it may reduce corrosion in metals, according to Swiftech (the makers of my reservoir) it will increase the corrosion in the glues they used in the manufacturing of the reservoir and will void its warranty.

What I am still looking for is the % to use in my system. The directions say use the first 16oz bottle for a system that is no less then 12 running quarts, and up to 20 running quarts, then for every quart over 20 to add more coolant at a 1:1 ratio.