Just to share my latest discovery I'm currently trying this in my new loop: 500ml of contact lens cleaner. It's great because it's 99.9+% pure water, with a few mg of salt and anti-bacterial additives. Generic bottle of the stuff costs only 1 quid here. I'll let you know how it goes in a few months of use at 40C.
haha keep us posted Until then I will stick to XSPC. I never want to have to drain another loop again ever
Fluorinert myself. Bloody hard to get your hands on though. Unfortunately vodka has a really bad thermal conductivity, otherwise it would be ideal.
Fluorinert cannot be used in our waterloops,its immersion cooling fluid. And its not made anymore,now we use Novec fluids from 3M instead
Well, you technically can use it and it wouldn't be the end of the world if it leaked either...... It does expand when warm though. We bought some only the other month, hadn't realised they'd stopped producing it.
By expand you mean boil. Certainly not for closed loops,with an expansion vessel you could use it but it just isnt effective in our waterblocks as the boiling action is suppressed. I have a few ltrs of Novec sitting here that I have tried it with.
I'm not sure how assertive you meant to be there..... But no, I meant it expands when it's warm, due to thermal expansion. A thermometer works based on this principle and the liquid in it doesn't boil under typical conditions (~ <100°C). You are correct about it needing an expansion vessel though, because it expands when it is warm.......... But you could achieve that by not fully filling your reservoir. I don't agree with your comment regarding boiling action, convective heat transfer can still occur without boiling the medium to transfer energy. Would I use it myself? No, too long a list of problems, the first amongst which is worse thermal conductivity than water. Although if it leaks you're ok........
Oh, if you need further proof you've only to look at 3M's catalouge: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...onic-Liquid-FC-40?N=8704931+3294001620&rt=rud
I have used Fluorinert PF-5080 (aka FC-77) in my dual Opteron 250 closed loop for a decade, without any issues. Thermal expansion is minimal --a few mm rise in level in my Aquatube reservoir. Ah, the good old days... Thermal conductivity is not much worse than water --I managed to cool 230 Watts worth of heat on a single Black ice Xtreme 120.
Boiling is the mechanism of how immersion cooling with engineered fluids works,I just spent 3 months at EK doing work on this subject,this is how you get the thermal performance. That is not the efficient way to do it either,you would require a boiler plate for best performance. Like here.... And finally,3M presentation on immersion cooling. Its useless in any other application. However,this is all for Novec products but Perfluorohexane boils only 10c (55c) higher and the thermal dynamics still apply. These are phase change cooling fluids,not 'transport' coolants
I dont doubt that but its not using the fluid correctly and no performance advantages are conferred. You would simply get better performance with Ol' fashioned water.
I wasn't looking for performance advantages over water; I was looking for a fill-and-forget solution that wouldn't destroy my (at the time fairly pricey) hardware if it sprung a leak. And it worked just fine for that: in a decade I did not have to flush the loop once. No algae; no bacteria, no corrosion. And although thermal conductivity is slightly lower than water, it has a lower viscosity which means good surface contact. It all worked out well.
I get the impression we both have crossed wires here, we were talking about non-immersion. I was merely correcting what I thought was a misconception you held in that you couldn't use fluorinert in a closed loop system because it relied on boiling to transfer heat. Which is incorrect. Yes, perfluorohexane boils at 55°C and is suitable as an immersion coolant. But did you know you can buy several different perfluorinated hydrocarbons from 3M under the trade name fluorinert? They have different chain lengths, so the boiling point is different, Nexxo's FC-77 has a BP of 97°C, so it is absolutely fine to use in a closed system with no more boiling risk than if you use water. I'm not sure what this contributes.
Indeed. There are many different types of Fluorinert, all with their own properties. I studied their properties like boiling point and heat transfer well before I chose my specific one.
I would have thought contact lens solution would be unsuitable due to the salt content. Won't this cause a build up of crystals in your reservoir and possibly corrosion in the radiator(s) too?