weird condensation
 

I'm making my own blocks, and they suffer from a strange condensation prolem: when they get heated up, water condenses on the block

my CPU block was waterproof, ran several days fine in a spare loop. check the block after two weeks: there was water on the CPU that evaporated leaving calcium residus, the CPU started to oxide, some weird dirt got under the CPU and in the socket... it survived but it scared the hell out of me

I'm not 100% sure, it also might have been a tiny leak in the taps for the screws that hold the block together

I sent over a GPU block to a friend for testing & reviewing. when he heats up the bottom with a lighter, there comes condensation on it :confused:
http://users.pandora.be/patrick.fier...m/AUT_2251.JPG

http://users.pandora.be/patrick.fier...m/AUT_2255.JPG

http://users.pandora.be/patrick.fier...m/AUT_2256.JPG

and there's no leak on the side of the block nor in the screws, what the hell :mad:

I've also opened up my CPU block after it's been used for those two weeks.. all my blocks suffer from that grey dirt too, what's causing that?

I'm using pure distilled water, copper blocks and alu radiator. It's one week I've got antifreeze in my loop, and the grey stuff doesn't get away. I can still see it on the top of the barbs of my GPU/NB block.

The is allways residue inside rads and as even the cleanest block/tubing has dust everywhere... you should allways run through with normal (cheap) tap water to rinse the worst of it our before you go to the more expensive distilled.

~ Boli

that is called condensation and it occurs when the metal is colder than the air around it. its normal and is worse the more humid the air.. best option is to insulate the whole damn thing (i tihnk)
the grey stuff im thinking is caused by battery effect between the copper and the other metal bits on the cpu because of the water...altho thats just a guess and i may be completely wrong

There is a battery effect you get when you mix metals in this sort of enviroment (such as copper and aluminium) but the often overlooked part is the thing could just be dusty.

~ Boli

The condensation is from the burning of the fuel. Heat it with a hair dryer and it should be dry.

no the condensation is of the hot areas warming up the air to a big difference of temp witht he cold bits of the copper so the hot humid air condenses there. get a metal ruler and stick it on a hotplate or sotve and same thing will happen on the cold bits

Edit: The server was having a fit when I first replied. Somehow my comment didn't show up.

No. Razor6 is right. Burning butane (or other lighter fluid) results in water being produced, and it is this water vapor that is condensing on the 'cold' waterblock.

hrmm a match does same thing on my ruler... anyway insulate it all again

burning creates water.
look at the chemical formulas sometime - say you are burning methane:
CH4 + 2O2 --> CO2 + 2H2O
or butane:
C3H4 + 5O2 --> 3CO2 + 4H2O
or any hydrocarbon...

/me waits for mindless arguement of "Im right your wrong!" to ensue...

yeh burning things does create water i know (chemistry student). what i meant was the water in hotter air condesing on colder parts, but im not going to argue it anymore.it may well be the water from burning. i meant this in nicest possible way.. im not looking to start an argument so ill leave it at this

btw butane is c4h10.. just pointing out ;)
di-propene is c3h4 and your last equation isnt balanced, but i get your point anyway...