[V12|V12]

I've been thinking for a WHILE, about what size and shape would be the most optimal for an airtrap. Through TONS of trial and error, I have not come as close as I would like. After countless hours looking at other people's ideas on what would suffice, I still don't really have an idea of what would say, be a standard airtrap/Res model for say, the avg person's Midtower. (Full towers don't count since just about anything can fit in them!) There are a few general problems I see with my and many designs:

1) SIZE- There are a lot of great designs out there, but they seem to be; either too small to effectively work and end up creating MORE air-bubbles than removing them, or they are just GIGANTIC and work well, but effectively suck up all the space in their cases, which makes repairing, cleaning and getting to stuff a huge burden of having to take out the trap etc... From experience, going bigger IS better! (Haha) For a simple reason of there is more space between the layer of air mixed w/ incoming water and water that has lost it's air mix at the lower "suction-zone." The smaller the airtrap, the less space between the suction point and the incoming air mixed water. Sounds sorta funny, but think of it as a cussioning zone. The further the air bubbles are away from the suction point, the more likely they will float to the top of the water container, and if there isn't much distance (liquid) between the suction point and the incoming air+water, more that likely, the air won't have a chance to escape to the top. It's a crude "science" explanation, which will probably warrant sticklers, but you should get the point.

2) SHAPE- There are all type of shapes Air-traps come in; The classic PVC- Joint (cylinder), Square, Rectangular, LONG tubes, even pop-bottle shapes! The problem I've had/seen with the shape is this; Most people, including myself, are thinking they are going to build a muli-purpose "Resevior/Air-trap," when in my trials, I've found that trying to have the function of both, didn't work too well. The function of a resevior is for holding EXTRA liquid for when your current supply runs out. Great idea, say for folks with an Evap-bong. Airtraps do 1 thing, TRAP AIR and let the water pass w/o it. But when I tried to mix the 2 ideas it seems to make matters worse. Why? Well why is this... My system has a pretty good amount of flowage coming from the CPU to the Air-trap/Res, and it holds about a cup of water. I keep it about 90% full and it works great (EXCEPT the foam problems), BUT let that 90% fall to about 75% and I'm in AIR BUBBLE CITY! The water hits the top of the Lucite, then has to fall a much greater distance, which creates air bubbles, which instead of rising to the top, like before, now get sucked in with the current b/c there isn't as much less-turbulent water between it and the suction-"zone." I've had to redo and REDO my designs in order to try and compensate for the increased amount of turbulent water resulting from lack of total water amount. I mean, what's the point of having a resevior that you ALWAYS have to have near full, in order to prevent bubbles from occuring?!
Again, BIGGER is better this case of trying to mix the 2 ideas. Just like the long-thin-tube-types, you HAVE to have as much water in them as possible, or else, you'll end up creating more bubbles than you started with. Of course "I could be wrong," since this is the "PRO-forums," in which there is ALWAYS someone out to prove your theories false, but I hope that my problems will lead other designs that will not create more bubbles than you started out having. If anyone has some radically SIMPLE design that could serve as both a res/Trap, plz let me know!

BTW- I wonder, since there is a section that is specifically about water block talk, how well would a section be for posting airtrap/Res designs go? Making a nice Trap/Res is NOT as simple as it seems. :/