Question Silver kill coil in cooling loop

[thilanliyan]

I've been running distilled water with a silver kill coil in my loop (1 CPU block, 2 GPU blocks, 3 rads, 1 res) for the last ~5 years. I've only disassembled and refilled that loop once in those 5 yrs. As far as I could see, I haven't had any corrosion or algae issues and my soft clear tubes have stayed clean.

I'm planning on running a much bigger reservoir than I do currently when I rebuild the loop in about a month.

My question is, how much silver in the loop is "enough" to prevent algae? Should I have a couple of coils of the stuff in the reservoir? Is having the kill coil just in the reservoir enough to prevent algae in a rad far into the loop?

I'd like to avoid premixes and biocides/etc if I can. I wouldn't mind putting say propylene glycol in the system if that would be recommended over distilled+silver coil.

 

[aigomorla]

One kill coil should be enough, i usually use 2 and just let it sit in the res.
I have even used 1 troy ounce silver bars and plop'd them inside the res, if i could fit them.
But im sure 2 would probably be ideal, but you could get by with 1 if you kept your PC dark for the first month or so.

But this answer really depends on how much light / ambient light your PC gets.

The thing about silver is it gets more and more concentrated over time as more ions are released into distilled.
Distilled is aggressive so it will leach the silver ions, and copper is also a good anti microb as well, so if you have copper in the loop, it will leach that as well.

The only time you will lose is if your PC see's direct sunlight in the tubing, and you are running clear tubing, or you have a really obnoxious RGB setup inside your case like (insert a youtuber here) then you will have issues without a booster or a premix.


Another note:
Careful when buying killcoils.
A LOT of them are fake, are not 99.9999% pure silver... note has to be pure silver, and not Sterling Silver.
These fakes have given silver a terrible name as people tried to sell impure ones with high iron content, and well, i don't need to tell you how bad that went when you mix metals.

 

[thilanliyan]

One kill coil should be enough, i usually use 2 and just let it sit in the res.
I have even used 1 troy ounce silver bars and plop'd them inside the res, if i could fit them.
But im sure 2 would probably be ideal, but you could get by with 1 if you kept your PC dark for the first month or so.

But this answer really depends on how much light / ambient light your PC gets.

The thing about silver is it gets more and more concentrated over time as more ions are released into distilled.
Distilled is aggressive so it will leach the silver ions, and copper is also a good anti microb as well, so if you have copper in the loop, it will leach that as well.

The only time you will lose is if your PC see's direct sunlight in the tubing, and you are running clear tubing, or you have a really obnoxious RGB setup inside your case like (insert a youtuber here) then you will have issues without a booster or a premix.


Another note:
Careful when buying killcoils.
A LOT of them are fake, are not 99.9999% pure silver... note has to be pure silver, and not Sterling Silver.
These fakes have given silver a terrible name as people tried to sell impure ones with high iron content, and well, i don't need to tell you how bad that went when you mix metals.

Do you recommend a premix at all or do you always use distilled plus kill coil?

I've just realized, my CPU block is an EK Supremacy (non-EVO) nickel plated (I thought it was the copper version at first). From what I've read, the bad batch of EK plated blocks were the Supremacy EVO, so not mine. I've been running it this way with distilled plus kill coil for 6 yrs now and I don't remember seeing any nickel flaking when I took it apart 2 years ago, so I'm guessing I'm okay?

Or should I get a copper only block to be sure?

 

[aigomorla]

I hate premixes... its a money grab for vendors.
Just run your system without light for a week or so with 2 kill coils.

And no even if the nickle flakes, so what,.. your not going to look at it, and it wont impact your system at all, so just leave it be and save yourself the cash on something else.

 

[thilanliyan]

And no even if the nickle flakes, so what,.. your not going to look at it, and it wont impact your system at all, so just leave it be and save yourself the cash on something else.

So there's no risk of galvanic corrosion with the kill coils and (properly plated) nickel in the same loop when running distilled?

Sorry for all the questions. I haven't bought new WC parts in more than 5 yrs, so I want to do it right the first time because I tend to leave the loop as-is for a while.

 

[aigomorla]

So there's no risk of galvanic corrosion with the kill coils and (properly plated) nickel in the same loop when running distilled?

at worse it will tarnish the silver turning it slightly black, and cause the nickle to flake, but the flakes wont do much to your system or parts.
Its not going to be anywhere close to copper and alu, where you actually see the alu disolving into solution and eventually pitting.

and dont worry about the questions... keep asking... its best i have made the mistakes for you and are teaching you what i swore never to do again, instead of having you face it first hand.

 

[thilanliyan]

Okay cool thanks very much for all the info. I bought a couple of extra kill coils since I only have one in the loop right now.

For the Nickel flakes I'm assuming some of it could clog up blocks or radiators no?

 

[aigomorla]

For the Nickel flakes I'm assuming some of it could clog up blocks or radiators no?

You give eK too much credit for using that much nickle in plating.... lol...
meaning no... dont worry, the amount of nickle used is so tiny and the flakes so thin, it just wont have any impact at all.

 

[thilanliyan]

You give eK too much credit for using that much nickle in plating.... lol...
meaning no... dont worry, the amount of nickle used is so tiny and the flakes so thin, it just wont have any impact at all.

Lol, okay good to know. I'll post some pics of the build once I get all the parts in.
Thanks again!