Some Filling/Bleeding Tips For Your T-Line

When using a T-line, you really need to plan your loop. It makes it a lot easier and makes it a lot quicker to setup.

1. Your radiator is basically a big tank of water when you fill and bleed your system, so you want to make sure that your T-line is directly attached to your radiator and the barbs of the radiator are at the top of the radiator in your fill/bleed position of the case. Sometimes it is easier to fill and bleed the system upside down or on its side; look at Example 3.
2. Don’t attach your fill port to the top (or any other part of the case) because it makes it harder to fill and bleed. You can’t move the top of the T-line around to keep the air in the t-line when you tilt the case; see number 4.
3. Put the T-line at either the top-most or bottom-most part of the loop. If it is at the top-most part, then you fill and bleed the case with it upright; if it is at the bottom, then you fill and bleed with the case upside down.
4. In order to get the most air out of your system, you are going to need to tip the whole system on each side (and sometimes on each corner) a couple times and make sure any air left in the T-line does not go back into the loop
5. The longer the T-line is, the less you will need to fill it up during the fill and bleed process, so make the T-line as long as you can.
6. If you use a funnel and you notice that the funnel is full of coolant but the T-line is full of air, then in order to get the air out squeeze the tubing and air bubbles will come up through the funnel. I have also heard of people put a straw through the funnel to allow the air inside the loop to escape, but I never have any straws around.

7. Double check your cables before you put the side panel back on; numerous times I have finished with my computer and plugged it in only to find out that my SATA cables have come out.

Let’s look at some examples:

In this first setup, I have my watercooling loop with the T-line attached to the pump and the waterblock. While this is probably the shortest amount of tubing one can use, it is not practical for filling and bleeding because air gets stuck inside the radiator and, on top of that, in order for any of the air inside of the radiator to get out it has to first go through the pump or the waterblock, which results in to very small bubbles and makes it take even longer.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY YOU WANT TO HOOK UP YOUR SYSTEM.

Note: The way to fill/bleed this system is in the upright position, because the T-line is at the top most part of the loop; to empty the system, you flip it over on its top.

In this setup the T-line is connected to the radiator and the waterblock, and the radiator’s barbs are on top (notice the radiator is flipped around from Example 1). When I fill and bleed, this allows the radiator to get rid of its air very easily. While this system may use just a little bit more tubing, it is almost meaningless and the ease of filling and bleeding the system far outweighs any negative effects of extra tubing.

There is one very (very very) small problem: any air left inside the radiator has to get sucked through the pump and then through the waterblock, making the air bubbles really small and therefore it might take longer to fill and bleed before it gets to the T-line. However, I didn’t have any big problems with micro-bubbles because almost all of the air was out of the system before I started up the pump.

THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO HOOK UP YOUR SYSTEM.

Note: You fill/bleed/empty this system the same way you do the one above.

With this loop, the main difference from a fill/bleed point of view is that you have to have the case upside down, or even on its back with the motherboard lying down horizontally, in order to fill the loop. But when it is upside down, notice that the radiator’s barbs are on the top and the T-line is connected directly to the radiator.

Aside from the system being unwieldy because of the radiator being on the outside, it was the fastest one to fill/bleed of the three examples when it is on its back; when it is upside down, there is a minor problem because you cannot get the T-line to be straight up because the bottom of the case is in the way.

THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO HOOK UP YOUR SYSTEM.

Tip: With this setup for filling/bleeding, I kept the clamps on either side of the T-line loose so I could twist the fill neck to the best angle, which is straight up.

I hope this helps everyone to be able fill and bleed their systems faster!

Matthew Krysiak, AKA Icedfire on OC Forums