Cooling Cloudy tubes - More new pics 17th April on pg.2

I've had my latest watercooling setup working since August. I'm using water wetter and blue revealing dye.

After a month or so I noticed the tubes were starting to cloud up quite a lot.

Now I see that my Maze 4 CPU block seems to have white gunk in some of the channels.

Is this something anyone else has experienced? I get the feeling its the water wetter, but I only added about 2-3 smallish drops of the stuff into the system. Only 1-2 drops of blue dye were added also. The water is De-ionised water from Halfords.



I've just recieved some Zerex (and what seems to be the last bottle of blood red dye!) from Paul @ coolercases, and am hoping this cloudyness and gunk won't reappear, as it does mean that I've just had to buy some more tubing too (CBA to clean it all out).

Does anyone have any good ideas for flushing out any of this white gunk from the radiator as I suspect it may have collected in there too. (bleach mixture or something pumped through the rad on it's own???)

While I'm at it, does anyone know the size of the allen keys I need for the Fass-O-Matic lid and mounting bracket?

Thanks

 

I posted this the other day for clearing out tubes http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=86479

'doc

 

i have a bit that say's 2.5 on it that i undo mine with...

 

What dye is it? No Water Wetter or any other types of engine coolant in? I'd recommend opening the block and flushing it with alcohol. Change your water and add your Zerex coolant in, leave it like that for a couple of days and see if it stays clean

 

The dye is UV blue revealing. I've only used WW as the coolant in this system so far, and the amount I used was minimal.

The blocks aren't a problem to clean - I'll open them and scrub them with a washing-up brush. It's only the radiator I forsee might be difficult to clean if it is indeed gunked up. Does bleach affect metal at all?

Thanks Murdoc for the guide, I did read that thread the other day, but I really don't want to have to empty the system every few months to clean the tubes. I'm really looking for prevention of this happening again!!

I'm changing all the tubing as I've just bought a Fass-O-Matic and a quieter fan from Coolercases also (didn't arrive in today's package though ) But I don't want a repeat of this three months down the line!

What coolant were you using in your system Murdoc?

 

Ah good How much WW did you use? IIRC it's just a cap full.

 

Not even that. 2-3 drops of the stuff IIRC, maybe a small pipette full. Certainly not as much as a cap full. The fact I only added a small amount is what is totally puzzling me.

 

Water wetter is going to be the source, Zertex should stop the problem.

I use water wetter, some people say use a cap full, others say use less, I use less now and it reduces the clouding, having an all Copper system I don't need to worry too much about corrosion.

Also I heard an anti-bacterial mouth wash suck as listerine is good for flushing a loop, but from my experence that white crap is hard to get rid of without a lot of PSI

'doc

 

Maybe I'll attach the radiator to the outside tap and whack it up to full! Then pump a bleachy or fairy liquid mixture through it and finally rinse it out again with some water.

Or is tap water going to do some other damage?

 

I think tap water would be ok if you flushed it afterwards with some distilled.

There is this solution that i have seen them talk about on procooling dubbed Pinesol or something. Its a mixture of some household cleaning fluids but they are american brands. Im not sure what the UK equivilent would be. IIRC bleach is bad, im not 100% sure i remember why but i think it may promote oxidisation.

 

Ok, first off: DO NOT USE ALCOHOL TO CLEAN YOUR BLOCK! It will almost certainly crack the lexan cover on your block (just follow the latest painful experience of a user :here:).

Clouding is not an uncommon issue, but in your system it is admittedly pretty bad. Water Wetter has been known to foam when there is the slightest pump cavitation. Both Water Wetter and Zerex have a tendency to leave a thin cloudy sheen on the insides of PVC, Clearflex and Tygon tubing.

However in your case it appears to be in the coolant, and there appears to be a gunky residue. My guess is that the dye doesn't like the Water Wetter. Dye can be a real problem in that there are many different types on the market, often originally meant for other purposes, and when you buy some there is no way of knowing what you've got. Some seems to coagulate, some stains your tubing, some just refuses to mix with your water and separates.

Zerex Racing is good stuff: it won't foam, outperforms Water Wetter and it has a nice colour (I think anyway). As said before, it will leave a slight opaque sheen on your tubing, but you should not notice that when the tubes are full of liquid.

I'd research thoroughly what dyes are available and only buy from a reputable source.

 

Sorry Stevey, Star had the same problem and he scrubbed his out with alcohol so i assumed it was ok. Apparantly ketchup is the stuff you want to use to clean it

 

Well I'm pretty sure plenty of people have used WW and UV Blue revealing dye from Coolercases, and I'm sure Paul isn't selling poor quality dyes.

I seem to remember from a previous thread that the Red dye from coolercases had some other anti-fungal or anti-corrosion stuff in it too. If you read this Paul, is the Red dye ok to mix with Zerex or WW? Or is it sufficient on it's own with just the water? (or should I just miss out the dye and just use Zerex!)

Thanks for your input everyone.

EDIT.
Hmm, that residue looks in Starbuck's block like what I have in mine, so the problem might be corrosion rather than stuff in the water - not enough WW then?? I guess I'll have to wait until I take everything apart before I know for sure. Ketchup seems a bit far fetched, but it sounds like it worked

 

Ketchup is pretty acidic, a bit like lemon juice really, so yes, it will make for a nice polish.

Checking Leeum's link, it does indeed look like galvanic corrosion. Perhaps, as you say, not enough Water Wetter. A 5% solution appears to be the norm; I can certainly personally vouch for it being sufficient if you use Zerex.

 

Perhaps Star removed the top of his block to stop it cracking the lucite. Either way thanks for correcting me Nexxo, was going to scrub mine out in a few months time so it's a good job
According to the technical data of Water Wetter it says 4 - 5 cap fulls per quart of water.

 

Hello

First view it does look like too much Water Wetter but as you state only a few drops were used so i think its safe to strike that one.

I have heard and experienced myself that sometimes rads aren't flushed at the manufacturers end which will/can result in flux and other impurities being left in there from the fabrication so its always a safe practice to thoroughly flush the whole system prior to installation (something i always always do) so it could be something as simple as that.

I've been using the same supplier for Dye for the UV Blue Revealing, UV Dark Blue and UV Yellow since we started (3 years) and not had any problems after mixing with either Water Wetter or Zerex providing that to much coolant isn't added which will inevitably cause milkyness.

Galvanic corrosion tends to look more like this which is a build up of the weaker metal (in this case aluminium) being electrically transferred to the stronger metal (copper) and doesn't tend to discolour the water.

To help combat galvanic corrosion deionised water should be used and changed frequently as it will not remain deionised for ever when running through a system but this certainly doesn't look like the result of galvanic corrosion.

I suggest stripping the system down and flushing completely/thoroughly and starting from scratch.

UV Dye Mixing Ratios may be helpful to some who use our Dye though there is no mixing ratio for Water Wetter >>label<< or Zerex as the recommendations are for automotive use where cloudy water wouldn't be an issue.

 

Thanks dude.

The gods on ProCooling tend to advocate a 5% mix. That is what I used when I used Zerex. No foaming, no corrosion.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I'm going to strip the whole of the system down as soon as I get the few items that weren't delivered in today's package from Coolercases.

Have you had any reports of problems with the red dye that you sell?

What size allen key fits the larger of the nuts on the Fass-O-Matic? I have keys for the smaller nuts, but will have to go out and buy one for the others.

edit: found the POST regarding the galvanic and algae inhibitor in the red dye. I should still use Zerex with it though?

Thanks

 

Only problem with Blood Red Dye is that its never quite blood red in colour though that last lot did seem quite red

Allen key size for the Fass-O-Matic is 2.5mm for the inner ones that hold the plexi top in place and 3mm for the outer ones that hold the aluminium mounting plate

 

Thanks for the sizes