Liquid Cooling Maintenance

[blinkingpeak649]

Howdy again gurus. While I've had my eye on building a liquid cooling rig for a while the only thing still standing in my way is the question of maintenance. I've heard mixed reviews and what I've gathered is the less impurities in your coolant, the better. That said, obviously UV reactive coolants have some impurities in them hence the higher need to maintenance. But I've also heard that with clear coolants, with antifungal additives, hardly have to be flushed and changed out for a while. Probably around 2-3 years from what I gathered.

 

How true is this?

[Waco]

Distilled water and a silver kill coil is all you will ever need.

[Necron80]

Distilled water and a silver kill coil is all you will ever need.

 

 

+1

[Stonerboy779]

+2 Waco

 

And always keep up the standard maintenance of dusting out the pc. Blasting some air through the rads etc.

[ir_cow]

+1 I also end up changing my water once a year but you shouldnt half to do anything but add a little water every 6 months

[Waco]

+1 I also end up changing my water once a year but you shouldnt half to do anything but add a little water every 6 months

That depends on the loop. I have to top mine off every other month or so. Mine has a LOT of connections though.

[Boinker]

Once every couple of months just check it. Maintaining a liquid loop is more like keeping an Eye on it more then anything else versus removing and renewing the liquid contents. If you don't use either a kill coil or pt nuke in there at least then you will have build up within 2 weeks as the system heats, cools and is a breading ground for algae and bacteria. Bishop245 Ran his loop with colored tubing, pt nuke and nothing else for over a year and there was little to no sign of sediment in his system. I smack him around a bit every once in a while for fixing something that is not broken.

 

What I have been using tried and true is PT nuke (3 drops) plus distilled water and a half of a bottle of feser view to Look at the outstanding color under a blue hue.

The stuff being mentioned above I have tried and for whatever reason it did not work for me but I'm pretty sure that means I got a bad kill coil.

 

Hope this helps.

[Speedway]

Another vote for distilled water and a silver coil...and not paying any attention to the BS conclusions EK has come up with! You just have too check the galvanic corrosion charts and the water cooling parts you are using!

[blinkingpeak649]

Thanks all. You've confirmed what I've been thinking. Although I didn't know that bit about colored liquid. Thanks Boinker.

 

Is there a specific brand of distilled water you stick to? Walmart Nursery water? lol jk

[Speedway]

Is there a specific brand of distilled water you stick to? Walmart Nursery water? lol jk

I use Kroger brand distilled But, Walmart's will work the exact same

[Boinker]

I have been using walmart distilled water... no big deal.

 

Just take this into account. the more you do to make sure the system is clean on the inside before assembly the better off you will be later. I.E. clean out everything with Distilled or tap water before assembly.but if you do use tap then clean with a gallon of distilled lastly before you assemble.

[bigball1]

Cant beat distilled water.

 

I added Swiftech Hydrx Water Additive to mine. Been working great for over a year now.