Hydraulics fluid as coolant?

[halfsquelch]

I am in the process of getting a liquid cooling system for my computer and am wondering if hydraulics fluid can be used as coolant, and if it can is it a good idea.

 

The hydraulics fluid I have access to is non-conductive and non-corrosive, which is a good start. But, does hydraulics fluid have good heat conductivity and would it mess up a pump or rubber tubing?

 

I know different types of hydraulics fluid will have different levels of heat conductivity, but does anyone know how an oil based one would compare to distilled water.

 

If anyone has experimented with this before please let me know how it turned out.

[potatochobit]

/facepalm

 

There are no federal government recommendations to

protect humans from the health effects of the major hydraulic

fluids. However, mineral oil, the major chemical ingredient of

one type of hydraulic fluid, is part of the petroleum distillate

class of chemicals and there are regulations for these chemicals.

 

#1 it is toxic

 

#2 hydraulic fluid's purpose it to be a lubricant that reduces heat by preventing friction and damage; or to be a incompressible fluid that force can be applied to, such as your brakes or fork lift. It does indeed transfer heat from the gears to the external casing, but how efficient that is, I can only guess not that great.

 

#3 your car radiator is filled with water, not transmission/hydraulic fluid

[road-runner]

I wouldnt try it, it wont cool worth a damn even if the pumps happens to live very long. Distill water is what you want with a biocide like PTnuke or similar, some claim the silver coils are best...

[halfsquelch]

/facepalm

 

 

 

#1 it is toxic

 

#2 hydraulic fluid's purpose it to be a lubricant that reduces heat by preventing friction and damage; or to be a incompressible fluid that force can be applied to, such as your brakes or fork lift. It does indeed transfer heat from the gears to the external casing, but how efficient that is, I can only guess not that great.

 

#3 your car radiator is filled with water, not transmission/hydraulic fluid

 

 

Toxicity is not a problem for me, I get soaked in this stuff at work. I also have a feeling the reason it is not used in cars is because of it's toxic nature.

 

Thanks for the input though, I will have to run some tests to find out how much heat it can transfer.

[Puck]

It will take longer to reach max load temp, but the max load temp will be higher plus it will take ages to cool back down.

 

That is assuming the pump is strong enough to move enough of it, and the fluid is thin enough to even prime the pump and start moving. There is a good chance the pump will spin forever but just churn a small amount instead of pumping it.

 

Distilled water is one of the best things for transfering heat(yes, better then most additives and antifreeze), and happens to be easy to use as well.

 

I use almost pure distilled water with a small amount of antifreeze just to prevent growth.

[slick2500]

I know some people use winterized windshield washer fluid, the blue stuff, as coolant it seems to do a good job and it has ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, in it and ethanol kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria and fungi, and many viruses so it also serves as a biocide.

[Queenz]

Distilled water and Silver Killcoils as your biocide is your best bet.

 

 

And there is no such thing as Non-conductive fluid. Don't be fooled by such stupid advertising. No coolant is non-conductive, it's just a phony gimmick to get you to buy the garbage. Everything becomes conductive over time cause of the movement of metal ions into the water. This also goes for distilled water too.

 

 

Nothing transfers heat better than plain distilled water.

[slick2500]

After many long hours of browsing the general consensus on teh internets is a mixture of distilled water and a biocide to prevent things from growing in your loop. If you want your coolant colored just get some pentosin coolant as it also from the general consensus is the best to use at about a 10% mixture. This is also cheaper than almost any premixed coolant. ~60-80 cents for a gallon of distilled water and ~$3 for a bottle of biocide.

Edited January 26, 2010 by slick2500

[road-runner]

After spending years on the internet I have found those pre mixtures, colored coolants clog the tiny fins on the blocks and stain everything so I would advise against those also. If you want colors get the colored tubing...

[johnnyfive]

Plus, many water cooling components state you should only use distilled water with them anyway.

[Overclocker16]

I don't know how long you've been working on whatever A/C you work on over at Moody, but that stuff doesn't seem like it will be great for any kind of liquid cooling loop. If you're working with high pressures for pumps and tubing to get the most out of it, maybe. But something thinner like distilled water would be better imo.

 

If you want something non-conductive and non-corrosive find something like mineral oil / polyalphaolefin. That would work better than hydro.

 

 

FYI Queenz, yes there is a such thing as non-conductive fluid. Such as polyalphaolefin.

 

Also generally speaking (considering how you were talking about being around hydro all day at work, you are speaking on A/C hydraulics), that will probably not be good on rubber tubing, nor a regular pump. If you went with steel braided tubing and a heavy duty pump. Then probably you could have a decent system working.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Overclocker16

[robAP]

The previous reply early on stated Hydraulic fluid as non-compressible......in fact is IS compressible. By design it needs to be to prevent shock loads of pressure spikes from valves shutting on or off. If I had water as my hydraulic system in the plane, the gear retraction would blow out the flexible hydraulic lines at either end of the cycle due to the large valves instantly shutting off or on and the resultant loads sending the energy straight through the fluid to the breakable actuator. from wikipedia: "The low compressibility of water means that even in the deep oceans at 4 km depth, where pressures are 40 MPa, there is only a 1.8% decrease in volume"

 

But enough of that, it's not what you asked.

Water has the highest rate of heat absorption and dissipation of all fluids. In cars we add antifreeze solution to prevent it from freezing at sub-zero temps and to prevent its boiling at extreme temps like if you were driving on the equator desert. we are not operating at either level so we do not need the additive. Water is the most fluid substance so it is the easiest to move with pumps, however because of the nature of its in-compressibility we must use pumps with non-positive displacement...centrifugal style that we see for sale on newegg or through swiftech, etc. hydraulics and oils and fuels are usable with positive displacement pumps (piston style for example) which guarantees their pressure through the system and the compressibility inherently helps limit shock loads and spikes. accumulators are used against compressible gasses to further prevent large shock loads.

 

Nature uses water as a thermal regulator on this planet. rain, evaporation, clouds for shade. why argue with nature?