- Aug 26, 2014
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Note: all pictures are in Spoiler brackets just to keep the post from becoming insurmountably long.
So I have this old 120mm copper radiator lying around. I got it as part of a kit a long, long time ago, and stopped using it when I at one point had a leak (totally my fault, in hindsight). I drained it, and put it in a box. Didn't even consider that I had to thoroughly dry it out and seal the ports. I even left the fittings in. Pulled it out before christmas to see if it could be used in an upcoming build, and - surprise, surprise - it's heavily corroded. I didn't have the wherewithal to get a proper picture inside the rad at that point (not to mention that that's really, really difficult), but it didn't look good. The fittings looked like this:
Yep, that's pretty bad. The fittings have been discarded, btw.
So after reading around a bit, I found that the best/most commonly available solution for corrosion removal was flushig it out with vinegar. People seemed to recommend a mix of 1 part vinegar to 2-3 parts water. So I decided to try that. 1 part vinegar, 2 parts boiling water. Let it sit for a few minutes, shaking the rad to get the liquid moving.
The liquid that came out looked like this:
A lot of blue copper oxide, a lot of sediment. Fair enough. The rad now looked like this:
(Sorry for the awful image quality.) Still a lot of white corrosion visible, especially on the channels. Time for a few more rounds of flushing. I did four total, the third I let sit for ~30 minutes in a bath of hot water (unsurprisingly, shaking a radiator filled with hot liquid around cools it off pretty quickly). The fourth was "pure" white vinegar (well, 7% vinegar) heated to nearly boiling, also soaked for ~20-30 minutes.
The result:
Flush 1 through 4, left to right.
Inside the rad:
The last flush showed far, far less sediment:
Better, but not perfect. Not sure how much more I can do for this.
The question now is: can I use this rad? Will it contaminate the loop? Will it clog up my water blocks with corroded gunk?
I hooked it up to my pump and ran water through it for a little while, and after draining it some white particles were visible in the tubing and reservoir. Not a lot, but clearly visible.
I read about gas stations selling some sort of chemical radiator cleaner, but I haven't been able to find it (as I don't have a car, I don't often visit gas stations either ...).
And yeah, I know I sound like a cheapskate. A new 120mm rad isn't expensive. It's just that I'm already spending north of $250 on my water cooling setup, and my budget is already stretched (largely thanks to buying a Ryzen 7 1700X ...), so avoiding spending another $50 on cooling would be nice.
So I have this old 120mm copper radiator lying around. I got it as part of a kit a long, long time ago, and stopped using it when I at one point had a leak (totally my fault, in hindsight). I drained it, and put it in a box. Didn't even consider that I had to thoroughly dry it out and seal the ports. I even left the fittings in. Pulled it out before christmas to see if it could be used in an upcoming build, and - surprise, surprise - it's heavily corroded. I didn't have the wherewithal to get a proper picture inside the rad at that point (not to mention that that's really, really difficult), but it didn't look good. The fittings looked like this:
So after reading around a bit, I found that the best/most commonly available solution for corrosion removal was flushig it out with vinegar. People seemed to recommend a mix of 1 part vinegar to 2-3 parts water. So I decided to try that. 1 part vinegar, 2 parts boiling water. Let it sit for a few minutes, shaking the rad to get the liquid moving.
The liquid that came out looked like this:
The result:
Inside the rad:
The question now is: can I use this rad? Will it contaminate the loop? Will it clog up my water blocks with corroded gunk?
I hooked it up to my pump and ran water through it for a little while, and after draining it some white particles were visible in the tubing and reservoir. Not a lot, but clearly visible.
I read about gas stations selling some sort of chemical radiator cleaner, but I haven't been able to find it (as I don't have a car, I don't often visit gas stations either ...).
And yeah, I know I sound like a cheapskate. A new 120mm rad isn't expensive. It's just that I'm already spending north of $250 on my water cooling setup, and my budget is already stretched (largely thanks to buying a Ryzen 7 1700X ...), so avoiding spending another $50 on cooling would be nice.
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