Silicone / Vinyl Hose Comparison
 

That was a good review, but I miss a high temperature test that would simulate the failure of the rad fan or the pump. Since silicone can stad temperatures up to 200C+ and vinyl would go soft at about 50c if would be nice to know if there would be leakes in the system with vinyl hoze.

It is too bad Una didn't include this in his review but I can tell you my experiences with high temps and tubbing. About 5 months ago or so I had a Rio pump die on me when I was not at home with a 156 watt TEC setup. was running a "bong" cooler, or PVC cooling tower when it happened. The IN tube to the MAZE 2 was silicone, and the OUT tube was vinyl. Basically the system ran for app 25 minutes without a pump before my sister (my only roomate at the time, thank god she was home) smelled it and threw the switch on the surge protector. The 1GHz AXIA was toast, the KT7A-RAID it was on was toast, and the MAZE 2 got so hot the solder melted out and dripped on the video card!! Amazingly the silicon tubbing was fine!! Not even discolored, the vinyl tubbing on the other hand was a mess. About 4-5" of it had melted and the tube had fallen off of the barb. It turned a funny black color and had started to burn (it STUNK in my computer room for a while after that). I am damn lucky my sister had hit the switch when she did else I have no doubt it would have caught fire. Yesterday I moved to silicone in my current 1/2" fill tank system, but I used to have 1/2" vinyl. I went to Vegas one weekend for 4 days and left my Danner 5 running without a fan on the radiator. The heat from the pump accumulated and the water got HOT. I checked the hose...it was soft, drooping, and leaking from 3 fittings :( This was a big reason for me to ditch this lousy tubbing and go to silicone once again.

Wow diesel! Crazy story!
-kev

Kinda wish it had never happened myself, but it does make for a good horror story. :p

Kinda like last friday in mexico...

Kev even though you didn't enjoy it, the mexico story was so enjoyable :)

Thats one nighmare... Someone should start to manufacture small boards that you place on the power ready wire to the MB(from PS) and a probe that you can place on the block. If it reaches more than 50c if would turn the pc off. I believe there is a article about it here, but it would be nice as a product :)

heh, I'd make them if people would pay me :P

Yah I know. As I tell more friends about the worst night of my life, the males respond by laughing and the females respond by telling me I need to be more careful. Now that it's over, this is one story to remember. Hell! I think i'll make a post of it in the Pro/BS forums :).
-Kevin