battery effect
 

so, what exactly is battery effect? I have a copper water block and aluminum radiator, but I havn't experitnced it and would like to keep it that way. How can I prevent it? What causes it, other than having copper/aluminum in your system.

--MAtt

Battery effect is the transfer of molecules from a negative voltage (aluminum) to a positive (copper) in a conductive medium. This pits the aluminum and coats the copper with aluminum (clogging flow) and possibly eating the aluminum. Exactly how copper and lead seperated by sulphuric acid starts your can in the morning.

You could regularly connect a battery charger to your rad / waterblock and reverse the effect temporarily like your cars alternator, or take a couple steps.

First, for the effect to happen it needs a conductive medium, so use distilled water. However water becomes conductive as soon as particles become suspended in it.

Secondly, use a product which coats the metals against galvanic corrosion (battery affect) like glycol antifreeze or water wetter or a bit of both. This works in cars all the time, but I still prefer not to mix metals if possible.

On another note, you could also use a small piece of zinc as a sacrificial metal. What happens is the zinc is "eaten" before anything else, which keeps the aluminum from harm. Only problem is although this works for boats, the zinc may still clog everything when its "eaten".

interesting, I guess the water wetter is protecting me.

--MAtt

GuyBFF: If I remember correctly it isn't about the transfer a molecules, but about the transfer of electrons. This causes to form things like Al³⁺ instead of the normal metal Al.

The reaction is called a Redox Reaction.

OK, I thought it was a galvanic reaction, but it's been a while since chemistry for me ;) .
I remember making batteries in class and calculating the voltages by the metals we used (and stareing at the girls) though maybe I forgot the important part. I knew it had to do with electrons (due to the charges) but I thought they "dropped off" as standard particles of AL, thanks for the correction. :)


P.S. the battery charger part was a joke!

Yep, he's right. It's a Redox Rxn. Those crazy electrons! haha, what the hell was that I just said. Alright -- the other thing that just popped into my head was if crystals and etc start to build up due to "hard water" and that whole thing, you can actually use a magnet. I know I know, magnets + HD's = bad --- so if it was really a problem, run some line away from the CPU -- use gravity to make it work :)