Water cooling?

[keviheit]

how often to you have to clean the water if you have a liquid cooled system

 

[essasin]

Not very often if you have a nice mix. With a mix of distilled water and a bit of coolant the lines continue to be clean for months with no discoloration at all. I usually change the water and tubing maybe once a year.

 

[HardWarrior]

Conventional wisdom says you should flush and refill once every 6-months. Depending on the additive you use, it MAY be possible to go a lot longer, perhaps a year or beyond.

 

[Topplayer]

thow often to you have to clean the water if you have a liquid cooled system

first off using water is a badd idea you use a liquid called mct-40 and with a liquid like that you nev er have to change it because it has a antifoaming and anti algae growth so you really dont have to change it if it is in closed and there is no dirt getting into the liquit

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: Topplayer

thow often to you have to clean the water if you have a liquid cooled system

first off using water is a badd idea you use a liquid called mct-40 and with a liquid like that you nev er have to change it because it has a antifoaming and anti algae growth so you really dont have to change it if it is in closed and there is no dirt getting into the liquit

And does the price of this mct-40 beat the $3 price I paid for 2 gallons of distilled water which I only needed less than one to fill my system?

Distilled Water+Addative=best

It's a fact of life that it'll eventually have to be cleaned out. You could probably go 6 months which is good enough for me, cleaning it out shouldn't really be that hard. Basically, drain water, clean with vinigar/water mix, flush with distilled water, refill with distilled water and add adative if need be. Thats what, a couple hours? and an overnight to soak in vinigar? I even think thats a little extream for cleaning.

 

[jkresh]

Distilled water + antifreeze works well for most. If you are worried about a leak then mct-40 or fluixp can be used (and both tend to run 2-3 years before changing, though if you switch blocks/radiator/pump... you probably will want to change the fluid). Neither fluidxp or mct40 give any better temps then water, generaly it is within 1-2C + or -, but basically the same temp. Mct40 has less potential for growth, but it is toxic, while you could drink fluidxp if you wanted (though its rather expensive and probably doesnt taste very good).

 

[Luckyboy1]

I like to give the piss pad answer because it...

Depends!

I try to tell folks to just use distilled water in a closed system with antifreeze and or water wetter and forget it, but, hey, that's my experience... 4 years... and resulting spin on the deal.

Being too cheap to use distilled water is beyond dumb in my not so humble opinion.

 

[mindwreck]

generally recommended every half year, just as a precaution to make sure the coolant is fine. You can leave it in longer, probably wouldn't matter much.

If you have a complete single metal system (ie. all copper components) then distalled water is all you need. If you have mixed metals, you will need distilled water and some anti corrosive additive to further slow down the corrosion process.

the anti-corrosize stuff also helps in keeping the crawly things out.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: mindwreck
generally recommended every half year, just as a precaution to make sure the coolant is fine. You can leave it in longer, probably wouldn't matter much.

If you have a complete single metal system (ie. all copper components) then distalled water is all you need. If you have mixed metals, you will need distilled water and some anti corrosive additive to further slow down the corrosion process.

the anti-corrosize stuff also helps in keeping the crawly things out.

Even with a supposedly all-copper loop there's probably going to be at least a bit of unlike metal. Especially if you use a guality pump. Even though the distilled water I use is UV sterilized, I wouldn't chance using it alone. 1. It doesn't carry any sort of pH (biologics love acidic environments) buffer, and 2. I can't trust every component to be biologic-free at the start.

All-in-all, I'd advise folks to use a commercial additive, in the right proportion. You do NOT want your loop to turn into a biological sciences lab.