Cooling Need some help on cleaning out a WC loop.

I've got a Koolance PC2-601BW case. (no trolling about how it's crud, or I should get a proper watercooling system, please. It does what I want it to)

I also have crud growing on the inside of the loop (I think)

Now, I've got the tubing and clips to replumb the system, but before I do that, I'm going to give it a thorough clean out to get rid of any crud hiding in the radiator, blocks, pumps or reservoir.

The options I've come up with so far are:

1) sterilising tablets (ditched the idea as soon as I thought about the chemistry involved, evolved Chlorine gas and Aluminium radiator not potentially a happy mix, plus I don't know about any direct reactions involving Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate...)

2) 20 volume Hydrogen peroxide appropriated from work, diluted down to something like 5 to 10 volume. I know I'd need to run the system with a vent of some sort to prevent pressure buildup, but can anyone think of any major problems I'm not spotting? The peroxide shouldn't corrode any of the metals in the system, but I'm not too sure about the pumps.

3) ask here for what other people (in the UK) use to clear out their WC loops. I specify UK because the only other solution I've seen involves something called Lysol which I don't think can be got over here.

Thanks for whatever help/wisdom you feel fit to bestow on me

 

Well, now didn't that get a huge response?

Well, In the absence of any responses, I'm going with the H2O2...

TBH, I'd expected some sort of response here, even if it was only a thread hijack

 

I wouldnt bother with chemicals. Best way is to take it all apart, clean the blocks seperatly, flush the rads with mains water, the pump is plastic and doesnt need anything. The problem part is the tubing, cut up a small peice of cloth, fold it up and using the longest soldif thing you can find that fits in the tubing push it along to wipe out all the crap. This doesnt work on long peices of tubing though, so cut the cloth a bit smaller, but so that its still hard to push down the tubeing, and use the pressure of the mains water to push it along. Takes a bit longer but wont disolve your stuff.

 

Were you using the Koolance additive? That green stuff is supposed to keep any critters from growing.

 

Yup, I was using their additive, went cruddy brown after about 7 months first time round (they recommend changing every 12 months) and after about three months second time round. It also looks like I have stuff sticking to the walls of the tubing, so that's why I think I've got crud growing in the system.

Oh, and I did a full flush out last time I changed out the coolant, with tap water three times and deionised the last time before I refilled with deionised and coolant.

Basically, I'm going to flush out the sytem this weekend, running it for a while as it is now with a weak peroxide soln. and the drain plug open (upside down, obviously) to prevent pressure4 buildup, then I'm going to strip it down, remove one of the blocks in the loop that I don't use any more, and replace all the tubing, refill and see what happens.

 

To clean the nasties out of mine, I took a piece of a paper towel, wadded it into a small ball that fit through the tubes, then shot it through with my air compressor. Cleaned the crap right out of it.

 

I'd have tried something like that except that I've got new tubing and am going to replace all teh existing tubes, but it's the gribblies that may be living inside the radiator, blocks etc, that I'm planning on nuking with the peroxide

Oh and I coudn't have done the air compressor bit since I don't have one...

 

Did I mention most nasties that live in pipes won't survive nuclear winter?

Go here to see how.

Note: I am kidding...

 

Good, because I got this when I tried the link :

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /2E/9E/dionisio/fun/make-your-own-h-bomb.html on this server.

 

Oh, goodie... That should give you directions for making an h-bomb. But, it was a joke so nevermind.

 

Finally got round to cleaning out my watercooling. Spent most of the day with my pc in bits (after getting back from a fruitless shopping trip into Newcastle - Travelling Man didn't have any of the graphic's I was after... )

Didn't pluck up enough courage to rip the whole loop apart and replumb it (mainly because the hose clips I got are too big for the job...) so I just ran H2O2 through the loop a few times until it stopped fizzing (fizzing is too dramatic a word, but I'm knackered and it's the best I can do atm) then rinsed with tap water, distilled water and finally refilled with coolant.

Took the opportunity to remove the redundant GPU cooler out of the loop and to rework the fan arrangement on the radiator, as the rad under the rear two fans was always getting clogged with dust - now all 3 fans blow up and out of the case, and we shall see what difference (if any) it makes

Just thought I'd post and mention it

Oh, and it's still working Which is always a bonus