When wa-wa goes bad

psychofunk · 02-04-2003, 02:53 PM

When there is a leak and it sprays onto your components, do they fry instantly? Do they fry only if certain things are hit (mosfets, power, connections, cpu socket, etc.)? If so, then what?

Anyone who has fried components please share your experience with me. What happened? Was it instant? How bad was the leak and what caused it?

I am thinking of making plexi shrouds to direct leaks to safe places as well as covering vital components so that even if there is some spash then the critical components (if there are special fry triggers) will still be safe.

bigben2k · 02-04-2003, 02:57 PM

You must have missed Joe's article.

Your idea is good. I think it could be simpler to wrap a jacket around the base of the waterblock.

cybrsamurai · 02-04-2003, 04:21 PM

i had a leak in my tubing (vinyl) and i had luckily sprayed my main board with a spray on conformal coating and everything was fine. The water was hitting it in the lower right hand corner by the IDE connectors and what not. I found the leak shortly after it started.

psychofunk · 02-04-2003, 06:08 PM

Thanks for the article BB. I think you are right about the jacket thing but I have a window and like showing everything off so I want to use plexi, like in the case of the CPU I want to make like one of those collars that people put on their dogs so they can't lick their wounds, that way it will direct the water but still look cool and i can use clear or colors with or without UV reactive paint on the edges, all sorts of stuff, maybe give it that satin tranlucent finish.

nicozeg · 02-04-2003, 07:02 PM

Once I have a slow leak from my WB to the back of my GPU. :shrug:

I noticed that games were terribly slow sometimes without reason, that was because every drop evaporated completely before the next, so only when wet it behaved funny!

I had the luck of no permanent damage

golovko · 02-04-2003, 07:15 PM

my radiator ruptured once spilling water into my power supply, down my motherboard, onto my vid card, and started pooling up in the bottom of my case. my vid card sparked and then smoke started pouring out. the motherboard and ps were ok, the only think lost was the geforce3.

a month later my maze3 with lucite top cracked and spilled water down my motherboard once again and onto my new vid card, a radeon 9500pro. this time none of the hardware was damaged thankfully, and the only reason i knew that something was wrong was because my monitor started flickering all weird-like so i turned off the comp and took a look inside...

joemac · 02-04-2003, 08:03 PM

I was away when my rig started leaking. It had a maze 2 and pelt. The pelt overheated, everthing got so hot that the maze 2 solder failed

and my Cpu died and scoket had heat damage (melted)

. Recap I had a dead board,CPU,Pelt, video card and a soaked floor. Never found what led to the failure (other than the fact that the water leaked out from some place). Well you win some and that time I didn't.....

psychofunk · 02-05-2003, 02:32 AM

That's what I don't understand why does it fry sometimes but not all the time. Is only when the water hits something that holds power (like a cap) that there is a problem. So if I protected those things then I would not fry anything?

bigben2k · 02-05-2003, 08:47 AM

That's a mystery, because there are many variables.

First, you have to know that the water is able to conduct electricity, especially if it has additives in it. Second, the coolant has to effectively short specific areas of a VC/mobo in order to make damage: it could throw off a voltage regulator, and cause everything to fry, or mix a bunch of signals together, in which case you only see odd behavior. There are many other things that can happen.

What's important is cleaning it properly, so that the leak or its residue doesn't do any more damage, when you start it backup.

psychofunk · 02-05-2003, 02:40 PM

So then could I cover all vol regs and be safe. And would covering then cause a heat problem. Am I asking for the impossible? Maybe I'll just stick with the the pleixi shroud idea so that I can direct spray?

hara · 02-05-2003, 03:54 PM

I think that all this is nonesens. Use quality fittings/clamps and tubes and you should be safe. The only thing that can leak then is the pump. Place it on the floor.

psychofunk · 02-05-2003, 09:33 PM

hara?...first, the key words in your post are "should be". Maybe you don't mind flushing $300 but I do, so if I am going a little postal then so be it, that is my right.

second, I want everything to fit in my case otherswise I would just put my rad outside and use a plastic tub for a res.

thirdly, there are several hundred other posts, if you don't care to provide a constructive opinion or suggestion then please be my guest go read another "best pump" or "best rad" (I'm guilty of that one too) thread.

fourth, for my $30 dollar investment in plexi, even if I never need this stuff the piece of mind that the extra protection is there is worth it and in addition to that this is constructive use of my time, beats watching tv and eatin bon-bons, well maybe not the bon-bons but definately the TV.

02-04-2003, 02:53 PM	#1
psychofunk Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	When wa-wa goes bad When there is a leak and it sprays onto your components, do they fry instantly? Do they fry only if certain things are hit (mosfets, power, connections, cpu socket, etc.)? If so, then what? Anyone who has fried components please share your experience with me. What happened? Was it instant? How bad was the leak and what caused it? I am thinking of making plexi shrouds to direct leaks to safe places as well as covering vital components so that even if there is some spash then the critical components (if there are special fry triggers) will still be safe.

02-04-2003, 02:57 PM	#2
bigben2k Responsible for 2% of all the posts here. Join Date: May 2002 Location: Texas, U.S.A. Posts: 8,302	You must have missed Joe's article. Your idea is good. I think it could be simpler to wrap a jacket around the base of the waterblock. __________________ WBTA (Water Block Testing Alliance) Nordic Hardware WC 101

02-04-2003, 04:21 PM	#3
cybrsamurai Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Ashland Posts: 296	i had a leak in my tubing (vinyl) and i had luckily sprayed my main board with a spray on conformal coating and everything was fine. The water was hitting it in the lower right hand corner by the IDE connectors and what not. I found the leak shortly after it started. __________________ Air cooled my ass.

02-05-2003, 08:47 AM	#9
bigben2k Responsible for 2% of all the posts here. Join Date: May 2002 Location: Texas, U.S.A. Posts: 8,302	That's a mystery, because there are many variables. First, you have to know that the water is able to conduct electricity, especially if it has additives in it. Second, the coolant has to effectively short specific areas of a VC/mobo in order to make damage: it could throw off a voltage regulator, and cause everything to fry, or mix a bunch of signals together, in which case you only see odd behavior. There are many other things that can happen. What's important is cleaning it properly, so that the leak or its residue doesn't do any more damage, when you start it backup. __________________ WBTA (Water Block Testing Alliance) Nordic Hardware WC 101

02-04-2003, 06:08 PM	#4
psychofunk Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	Thanks for the article BB. I think you are right about the jacket thing but I have a window and like showing everything off so I want to use plexi, like in the case of the CPU I want to make like one of those collars that people put on their dogs so they can't lick their wounds, that way it will direct the water but still look cool and i can use clear or colors with or without UV reactive paint on the edges, all sorts of stuff, maybe give it that satin tranlucent finish.

02-04-2003, 07:02 PM	#5
nicozeg Cooling Savant Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Santiago, Chile Posts: 403	Once I have a slow leak from my WB to the back of my GPU. :shrug: I noticed that games were terribly slow sometimes without reason, that was because every drop evaporated completely before the next, so only when wet it behaved funny! I had the luck of no permanent damage

02-04-2003, 07:15 PM	#6
golovko Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Purdue University, USA Posts: 141	my radiator ruptured once spilling water into my power supply, down my motherboard, onto my vid card, and started pooling up in the bottom of my case. my vid card sparked and then smoke started pouring out. the motherboard and ps were ok, the only think lost was the geforce3. a month later my maze3 with lucite top cracked and spilled water down my motherboard once again and onto my new vid card, a radeon 9500pro. this time none of the hardware was damaged thankfully, and the only reason i knew that something was wrong was because my monitor started flickering all weird-like so i turned off the comp and took a look inside...

02-04-2003, 08:03 PM	#7
joemac Cooling Savant Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Dallas Posts: 339	I was away when my rig started leaking. It had a maze 2 and pelt. The pelt overheated, everthing got so hot that the maze 2 solder failed and my Cpu died and scoket had heat damage (melted) . Recap I had a dead board,CPU,Pelt, video card and a soaked floor. Never found what led to the failure (other than the fact that the water leaked out from some place). Well you win some and that time I didn't.....

02-05-2003, 02:32 AM	#8
psychofunk Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	That's what I don't understand why does it fry sometimes but not all the time. Is only when the water hits something that holds power (like a cap) that there is a problem. So if I protected those things then I would not fry anything?

02-05-2003, 02:40 PM	#10
psychofunk Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	So then could I cover all vol regs and be safe. And would covering then cause a heat problem. Am I asking for the impossible? Maybe I'll just stick with the the pleixi shroud idea so that I can direct spray?

02-05-2003, 03:54 PM	#11
hara Cooling Savant Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Malta, Mediterranean Posts: 662	I think that all this is nonesens. Use quality fittings/clamps and tubes and you should be safe. The only thing that can leak then is the pump. Place it on the floor.

02-05-2003, 09:33 PM	#12
psychofunk Cooling Savant Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	hara?...first, the key words in your post are "should be". Maybe you don't mind flushing $300 but I do, so if I am going a little postal then so be it, that is my right. second, I want everything to fit in my case otherswise I would just put my rad outside and use a plastic tub for a res. thirdly, there are several hundred other posts, if you don't care to provide a constructive opinion or suggestion then please be my guest go read another "best pump" or "best rad" (I'm guilty of that one too) thread. fourth, for my $30 dollar investment in plexi, even if I never need this stuff the piece of mind that the extra protection is there is worth it and in addition to that this is constructive use of my time, beats watching tv and eatin bon-bons, well maybe not the bon-bons but definately the TV.

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