Dye in water cooling

[grimed]

I dont want a lot of bling in my PC but may want to show that it is water cooled other than a clear tube runing from place to place.

Just dont know if using dye in the water is harmfull.

Can anyone tell me if it is, and if not what s the best type to get thanks.

 

[Tweakin]

It can junk up your system if you have restrictive plates and/or injectors. I would recommend Distilled Water and colored tubing to achieve your desired effect.

 

[FAQdaworld]

If you do use distilled water make sure you use a biocide or silver coils to prevent growths in the system which can be a real hassle to clean.

 

[Tweakin]

If you do use distilled water make sure you use a biocide or silver coils to prevent growths in the system which can be a real hassle to clean.

+1 It will also stain your tubing.

 

[john3850]

In the early days I tried a tiny drop of food coloring which worked but I also had a free supply of extra tubing if needed.

 

[grimed]

ok thanks all will have a 360, 280 and a 240 rad in a Corsair 750D some of the parts re in should have the rest in this week.
will have the time to put it together maybe in a week or two.
I thank you all for all you help and will try to rember to take some photos and show the finished work and maybe the steps if i have the time

 

[Grooveriding]

I think it depends what way you use a coloured fluid. There are dyes you can add to distilled and then there are fluids you can buy that are coloured you use in place of distilled.

I recently replaced my entire loop that was using Mayhems Pastel ice white coloured fluid. It was about a year old and there was no accumulation in any of my blocks or elsewhere. With that fluid the key is to use appropriate tubing because some tubing reacts with water cooling fluids and will leech plasticizer into your loop which will clog your blocks. I can't speak to all their colours, but the ice white with XSPC FLX clear tubing caused me no issues. There was just yellow staining on the inside walls of the tube from the UV dye added to the Pastel fluid. It also has a biocide and anti-corrosive as part of it which takes care of that.

Should note that even with coloured fluid and clear tubing, your tubes still look like a solid colour. You cannot see the flow in your tube because of the lack of air.

 

[james1701]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siAISwFqTdA

I would love to use this Mayhem, but too many reports of not good for everyday use.

Like others have said, distilled water is cheap and works best.

 

[SimsReaper]

Mayhems cooling fluids offers up excellent information on their site regarding their products. The will tell you the life time expectancy, and even warn you against everyday use in their Aurora product line. But they do make fluids that are good for everyday use. But as with any preblended product, you must take precautions. Only use premium or approved tubing, and DO NOT add anything else to your fluids. Premixes come with biocide and corrosion inhibitor already added. Adding inhibitors like copper sulphite WILL cause the dyes to come out of solution and potentially cause clogging issues.

People use premixes ALL THE TIME, and you only here about the horror stories. On my first loop, I had people on the forums go absolutely ape-sh&* over my choice to use a pre-mix, and not pure distilled water. But, I am running absolutely fine after 2 years and absolutely no maintenance. But I used pure distilled water and flushed all my components VERY well, to ensure everything was clean, and there were no coatings or additives left from manufacturing.

 

[SimsReaper]

Oh and for the record I have purchased Mayhems Ice White and Red pastels for use in my build I am working on. So I do stand behind my post with more than words. And the coolant I currently use is EK-Ekoolant (UV Blue). I never did really get the UV effect I hoped for, but I have had zero staining and zero problems with it.

 

[BrightCandle]

Oh and for the record I have purchased Mayhems Ice White and Red pastels for use in my build I am working on. So I do stand behind my post with more than words. And the coolant I currently use is EK-Ekoolant (UV Blue). I never did really get the UV effect I hoped for, but I have had zero staining and zero problems with it.

After how long? Staining and gunk is the sort of problem that builds over a year, and normally isn't even noticeable for many months. But so far I haven't seen a single dye pass the test on xtremesystems, not 1 has gone 1 year in a system without gunking up components, corroding something and generally making a mess.

I had no issues with the Feser liquid for like 3 months, then temperatures climbed and when I took my CPU block apart and started looking into my problem what I found was an extremely expensive problem where the liquid had eaten away at my parts and laid down gunk that was all but impossible to remove.

 

[SimsReaper]

It has been just over 14 months right now, and my temp are as good as they ever were (they have never gone above 42 deg C, under prime 95 or aida64 stressing), and no staining is visible on either my rad or the tubing.
I run a fairly simple setup right now, through a cpu and a gpu block, using a 360 rad.

Please note, that I DO agree that pure plain distilled water with silver coil and a corrosion inhib is the SAFEST and most effective way to liquid cool. But if you do want something more, it can be done.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Use Anti Freeze it glows