Mixing Aluminum and Copper

platypii · 07-22-2001, 12:36 PM

Hey, I've been running a mixed Al and Cu system for about a week now, (new setup from my old aluminum only) and I understand that as a result one will corrode, and one will be plated, and that people recommend water wetter to suppress it. My questions are: 1) Which will corrode, and which will be plated? The copper water block, or the aluminum radiator? And also, is there any readily available alternative to water wetter available? I'm trying to save by not having to buy it online. Thanks.

GuyBFF · 07-22-2001, 01:36 PM

You will probably find water wetter at your local performance auto store. Other than this you could use a mix of 1:20 glycol antifreeze or I heard of mobil 1 having a anti-corrosion product just for the interaction between the two metals.

Only point is that water wetter will improve your thermals while these other two products will only make the transfer worse, this is why water wetter is so well recommended.

redleader · 07-22-2001, 11:35 PM

Some people will tell you that WW alone will prevent corrosion, while others will say that in their case antifreeze was required.

IIRC, the Al part will corrode, I've never heatrd of plating the other though. I thought basically particles of Cu dissolve in the water and end up on the Al and in doing so corrode it. There are articles out there that detail this nicely if you want more information.

Your call. You can probably get away with just WW, but on the other hand antifreeze is fairly conductive in and of it self, so adding say 15% to water will have a fairly marginal effect on perfromance.

07-22-2001, 12:36 PM	#1
platypii Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 22	Mixing Aluminum and Copper Hey, I've been running a mixed Al and Cu system for about a week now, (new setup from my old aluminum only) and I understand that as a result one will corrode, and one will be plated, and that people recommend water wetter to suppress it. My questions are: 1) Which will corrode, and which will be plated? The copper water block, or the aluminum radiator? And also, is there any readily available alternative to water wetter available? I'm trying to save by not having to buy it online. Thanks. __________________ 1.2Ghz Athlon @ 1.5Ghz 512MB PC150 SDRAM Prophet II Pro @ 220mhz GPU, 450mhz DDR 140GB RAID 0 (on a hacked Promise Ultra66)

07-22-2001, 01:36 PM	#2
GuyBFF Cooling Savant Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Winnipeg, MB, CA Posts: 242	You will probably find water wetter at your local performance auto store. Other than this you could use a mix of 1:20 glycol antifreeze or I heard of mobil 1 having a anti-corrosion product just for the interaction between the two metals. Only point is that water wetter will improve your thermals while these other two products will only make the transfer worse, this is why water wetter is so well recommended. __________________ A7V8X Danger Den Maze II Danner Mag Drive 350 Heater Core Style Rad Thunderbird 1400 (Soon Barton) 512mb PC2700 CL2 Promise SX4000 Raid 5 w/256mb PC133 Cache 4x40gb Western Digital 7200hdd Plus More...

07-22-2001, 11:35 PM	#3
redleader Thermophile Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: The deserts of Tucson, Az Posts: 1,264	Some people will tell you that WW alone will prevent corrosion, while others will say that in their case antifreeze was required. IIRC, the Al part will corrode, I've never heatrd of plating the other though. I thought basically particles of Cu dissolve in the water and end up on the Al and in doing so corrode it. There are articles out there that detail this nicely if you want more information. Your call. You can probably get away with just WW, but on the other hand antifreeze is fairly conductive in and of it self, so adding say 15% to water will have a fairly marginal effect on perfromance.

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