question about dtek radiator

[NeoReaper]

i just read in another thread taht the dtek radiator traps uv dye, is this true and if so, is there anything i can do to try to make this not happen and if dye is trapped in the radiator does that affect its performance?

[bigben2k]

Where did you read that?

I always thought that the dye blended itself quite nicely with the coolant, but that silicone tubing (and perhaps Tygon) may absorb it.

[NeoReaper]

o, i just saw it in the maze 4 thread http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...?threadid=6973

the guy was saying that the aquacoil 2 wont eat up uv dye like the dtek radiator.

[bigben2k]

Well, I think that that might be jumping to conclusions: just because one person said so, doesn't make it so .

Now I'd like to see Sproket's claimed explained:shrug:

[Sproket]

Haha here am I.

Well here are the facts.

Draw your own conclusions. First I must ask show me someone with a Dtek Rad on this forum that UV Dye stays longer than 2 or 3 weeks. If such person exist then Question: Is your Dtek Rad the one with screw in Barbs, mine was.

The Facts:

First let me say that I have tried 2 different Rad from Dtek and same thing with both!!!

I start with a clean system everything running awesome, then add some UV Green Dye from Dtek and everything is glowing great. 24 hours later UV color is fading fast. Day 2 water is clear again. Thats the facts.

So I start with a clean system AGAIN. This time No Dtek Rad in loop. Add same UV green Dtek Dye and for 3 days it glows strong NO problems. Im actually running my system with no Rad. Then I add the Dtek Rad and what do you know within 24 hours UV Dye is getting weaker. The the next day water is clear. IT IS THE RAD.

BOTH times I took Rad off my system after UV Dye is gone and emptied the Rad into the sink and guess what came out at bottom of Rad, my UV Dye. It was stuck at the bottom tank of Rad.

Thats the facts make your own conclusion, or better yet go buy one and prove me wrong. At least report back.

Then I bought a AquaCoil II and guess what NO problems at all. UV Dye just as strong as ever.

Joe also reports his BIX works fine for 2 years with UV Dye.

OH and by the way with the AquaCoil II I see No little silver floaties in tubing, which I believe it was solder from the Dtek Rad.

[Sproket]

Here is the link about what Joe spoke of and his BIX.

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...5&pagenumber=3

[bigben2k]

Puzzling.

I don't have a problem believing you Sproket, but I would simply like an explanation, or details, as to what's actually happening.

You refer the problem to the "Dtek rad", but would it be safe to say that it would be applicable to any heatercore?

The aquacoil doesn't have any tanks...

It seems to me that the dye is actually the problem, where not only does it not blend with the water, it's also heavier than water, and will easily pool where it can.

So the fault would lie with the Dtek dye, not the Dtek rad

If that's the case, then the DTek dye would have to be composed of some kind of heavy oil. Does that jive?

I've been wanting to order the DTek dye, but the shipping costs make it prohibitive, when ordered alone.

This may explain why the dye doesn't always dissapear: if the rad/core is top-mounted, it wouldn't pool, at least not as easily.


[edit]*IMPORTANT*: this was only my view, and shouldn't be taken as fact! The oil may come from another, yet unidentified source!

[Sproket]

I have tested and tried 3 different UV Dye's.
I have spent 2 months coming to this conclusion.
Right now I have my own UV Dye that works very well, actually the best I have ever seen and it does not degrade. I tested this same UV Dye batch with the Dtek Rad and same thing happended.

I believe that all the water base UV Dye are heavier than water.
B/c when you add it to your system with the pump turned off you can see it snail/snake down the tubing. Then when you turn pump on it just spreads everywhere.

I think it has to do with Dye being heavy and Dtek Rad having big bottom tank.

I use a 1048 pump so maybe I dont have enough push for the dye to get back to top.

Edit: My Dtek rad was mounted barbs on top, standing upright.

I tried mounting Rad upside down, barbs at bottom same problem!

[bigben2k]

I think that *a lot* of us appreciate the time you spent in figuring it out. It's been stomping me for some time!

Can you confirm that the dye has an oily feel to it? I think you've already confirmed that, somewhat.

When picking up UV dye from an automotive shop, there are a few options. The dyes are available specifically for: refrigerants (A/C), Diesel fuel, radiator coolant, and engine oil.

I would suspect that all of them use different grades of oil, but I would think that the engine coolant dye would blend in fairly well.:shrug:

[Althornin]

i have a DTek rad, mounted in the top of my case, laying flat, barbs pointing down. I'll be adding some dye i bought a while back pretty soon (as soon as i have time/inclination to clean and refill the system, im lazy).
When i do that, i'll post back results.

[Sproket]

Althornin
Look foward to your results, What type or where did you get your UV Dye.

BigBen:

I have tried Auto uv Dye from Checker. Its the type for Rads in Auto's. Dye-Lite. Glows OK w/ one or two drops, anymore drops and you system will grow Algae. Same thing happened w/ that dye also.
My homemade stuff glows the strongest with little light and actually cleans the copper little by little but doesnt harm pump as far as I can see. Im using it now.

Dtek UV fades over 30 days, tested it in sealed gatorade bottle.

So I have tested these dyes:
Homemade stuff
Dtek
Dye-Lite
Directron UV dye which I believe is Dye-Lite also.

All these dye's showed same thing with my system, the water would just turn clear after 3-7 days. Usually within 3 days.

I feel no oil in dye.

[bigben2k]

Interesting. Got anymore to share, or should I just keep asking?

I'm not surprised that the oil would absorb the dye: it will absorb food coloring just as well, and if I remember correctly, can actually suck it straight out of water too!

So the question becomes: where did the oil come from?

An immediate source is our very own fingers. I can also easily imagine that a number of our components might have been sprayed, possibly for shipping purposes, to keep the product "shiny" when it arrives.

Good tip on the DTek dye: I guess we'll have to avoid it all together, no matter what.

I suppose that some kind of cleaning process might be in order. Maybe not something as drastic as what Airspirit did, but it would definitaly require some kind of surfactant, to extract the oil out of the loop...

I wish I had the time: I haven't even tested the Rit whitener, to see if it foams up!

Did you consider using a UV reactive highlighter pen, as a source for the dye?

[Sproket]

Thats my homemade UV Dye.
I use a Bic highlighter and distilled water.
The best stuff plus some of my secret additives.

Keeps Algae from growing.

ALSO

I tried cleaning the Dtek Rad with Lysol and Pinesol cleaner also.

Then uv prob again so I clean it w/ Drano and wow did some crap come out of there.

Still same prob.

[NeoReaper]

interesting, does that mean i gotta take my system apart and clean my radiator? i put in quite a bit of dtek dye and i always thought that the fading was just due to the fact that blue fades fast and stuff, didnt know it was suppose to last 30 days or nething. would my system have algae in it from putting too much dye in like u described about dyelite? i have zerex super coolant mixed in my system.

[Sproket]

No I have not seen Dtek UV Dye produce Algae just the Auto parts UV Dye.

The blue UV Dye does fade faster than the yellow/green.
How long did your Blue UV Dye last?????????
How many drops did you use???????????

If I was gone in like 3 or 4 days I bet it got trapped in the Rad. If it has been trapped in the Rad for a while then its probably gone now.

[NeoReaper]

well the uv dye seems to last me about 3 days come to think of it but then thats cuz i put like a ridiculous amount in there ^_^, i was on the hard forums chatting for a bit and i was like the first time i put 5 drops (recommended max on bottle) and i swear it didnt even last a day for me, the last time i put some in, it was more like 10-15 drops. ppl at hard forums told me it should be ok but it mite affect my temperatures, luckily it didnt so i never really gave it much thought. so far my system doesnt really look too blue nemore but its been over a week, my water basically looks purple from my zerex coolant and when i turn off my lights the dual blacklights seem to still make it bluish so it mite still have residual dye in the water, im not sure if its the water or maybe the tygon tubing, bigben noted that maybe the tubing is absorbing the dye in his first reply.

[Sproket]

Wow your are experiencing the same exact thing that has happened to me. Same Rad and same dye also. Hmmmmmmmmm.

As you can see from my 2 month experiment I have narrowed it down and you just help confirm it.

yes the first time I used my dye with Dtek rad I came home from owrk the next day and my water was crystal clear. I was like where did that dye go. Then I was told that air in rad can make the dye disappear. So I began all my testing. The more people told what was wrong the more testing i did and I started doubting other peoples advice b/c they had no facts or test results like what I was gathering.

Shoot Im almost a UV Dye (Green) pro now.
if I can create some kicking blue many people will Like That.

OK Im off my high horse now.

[NeoReaper]

if all my dye is trapped in the radiator if i shake the radiator or move it around a bit, would all my dye just magically enter my tubes for another day? my radiator is mounted on the back of my case standing up with the barbs on the bottom pointing out my case. where is the dye trapped exactly, i cant exactly picture it, weak imagination ^_^

[Sproket]

Wish I new where it gets trapped. Sometimes I took mine off and washed out with water using about 60 psi, standard water pressure, and no die would come out, then I would pour a little white vinger in there shake it around and then pour into sink and there is my UV Dye. So it also looks like it gets stuck to the metal.
I wish I had $45 to throw away b/c I would of cut that rad in half with a saw to see what was really going on.


You can try to shake it but it did no good for me.

[NeoReaper]

why would white vinegar dislodge the dye but water would not?

[Sproket]

Now isnt that the 64 dollar question.

Wish I new the answer.

[NeoReaper]

lol, i emailed dtek last night to ask if this is a known problem and stuff and they said it wasnt and told me the air thingy that i think u were talking about earlier. so what happens to the dye if theres air in the system anyway?

[bigben2k]

Damn! I guess I'll have to drop the UV dye from my rig: my additive is 50% mineral oil

How about a WD-40 rinse? As much as I trust Drano, it can be extremely corrosive.

[redleader]

I don't see how a heatercore is going to damage dye, its just brass and solder, the same stuff in all radiators. Furthermore I've never heard of this happening and there are tons of people running heatercores (not to mention BI, etc) with dye.

[Sproket]

Bigben:

I have always used the Anti-bacteria Lysol, the yellow/green color Mr. Clean (actually has UV Green properties also) with Great success of cleaning rig. I just used a bucket of water and about 1.2 cup of the stuff and run it through loop and it cleans like magic.

NeoReaper:

That line about having air in the heatercore is a bunch of BULL.
I know for certain I had no air anywhere and still same problem.
After they told me that, I submersed everything and connected system. Then added UV Dye and it was gone in 2 days.

Now I have AquaCoil II I have NO problems. Same Dye.
Air my a s s.

Wish Dtek would come out and say something, but they just got a big order of the heatercores in stock so Im sure they wont shoot there own foot.

The BIX is the only thing I have not tried and may work just fine w/ UV Dye. Why, not sure but Joe here at Procooling has had success. But I know for Sure that the Aquacoil II works like a charm!