91% Isopropyl Alchohol - eat plastic?

[Orkan]

If I add this to my water loop, will it eat my bayres/tubes? I intend to use it to fight bacteria/baddies that grow in my system, and I don't like the green color I get when using anti-freeze /etc.

I figure alchohol should stop things from growing in there, and it is clear.

Opinions?

[stev]

That's the wrong type of alcohol to use. You'll be better off with ethyl alcohol. Now what is this exactly? It's a corn alcohol basically known as Ethanol. Or down at the Beer-n-Wine store as 200 PROOF Vodka.

Use about 10% Propylene Glycol, 10% Ethyl Alcohol, and 80% Distilled Water. Sorry, you'll still need a very small amount of the green stuff to prevent corrosion in the system; if dis-similar metals are used in the cooling loop.

If your reservoir is made of HDPE, it will be safe. Likewise, if your using something like (Superthane) Ether Polyurethane tubing.

Peace!

Stev

[Orkan]

You want me to pour vodka in my cooling loop? Isopropyl seems to clean just about anything I want to clean... and leave hardly any residue, is easy to come by, and is relatively cheap. Hence my wanting to use it.

I can't imagine anything would be able to grow with like 20% isopropyl in my loop.

[Joe]

Just FYI Orkan, when you ask a question, and get a very clear, very reasonable answer... why do you reply saying essentially you dont care, and you are going to do your original thought anyway.

Theres a good chance that guy knows more that you may about this, and I would recommend you listen to what he says.

[Orkan]

Lets recap... pretty sure I didnt say that I didnt care. Simply looking for MORE input.

Do you base decisions off of what one person says? I didn't get to where I am today by listening to one person, and doing what they say just because they SAID it.

Is there a problem with me using these forums to gain multiple opinions on a topic?

[Joe]

Yeh, I do take input from one person if its a dude as respected as Stev. Hes pretty well known around the cooling scene.

NO no problem with wanting multiple oppinions, but you arent fostering people to want to reply with more since you just showed that when one person said it, you just were going to do what you wanted to anyway.

[Orkan]

Ok... I can see this is a perfect example of someone taking something that was typed COMPLETELY out of context. Let me break it down.

STEV: THANK YOU for your input! I will weigh your suggestion very heavily against whatever I decide to do. Please harbor me no ill will if I choose to post on this forum and others looking for more people to either agree with you and/or offer other options and opinions. Even though I have never met you, It would seem that someone thinks I have disrespected you in some manner. I assure you I have not.

Please accept my formal appology for any ill will you may have come by as a result of my post. I wish you and your family only the best... and look forward to future advice from you on this and other forums.

Joe: How am I suppose to know that Stev is the foremost expert on cooling solutions/additives? His post count? I used to frequent these forums back in the day... as you can see my join date of oct2003. However, the forums seemed to stagnate... so I left and went to [H] and XS for my primary overclocking/cooling discussions. I JUST started posting again as a result of the apogee discussions. So why do you insist on jumping down my throat as a result of a false interpretation of something that was posted with me NOT EVEN KNOWING if stev's advice was worth a crap.

Instead, maybe you could have said... "hey, Stev is pretty much the expert... if he says it... it's probably right." Would have made this whole thing go a little easier... yes? Furthermore... regardless of his expertise... I would also like more information to back up his reccomendation. Data... thermographs... corrosion testing results... ... etc. As I am not the kind of guy to just take things at face value.

regards.

[Anonymous]

Ethyl and isopropyl alcohol are quite similar, especially their flash points, boiling points, density, flammability,and reactivity. Both are used effectively as disinfectants.

A comparison of physical properties:
Isopropyl alcohol:
Specific heat: 2.6 J/g*K
Viscosity: 2.43 cP @ 20 °C
Molar mass: 60.1 g/mol
Vapor pressure: 7879.33 Pa at 30°C

Ethyl alcohol:
Specific heat: 2.44 J/g*K
Viscosity: 1.2 cP @ 20 °C
Molar mass: 46.07 g/mol
Vapor pressure: 14000 Pa at 30°C

I would only use these in a closed system and avoid contact with aluminum for isopropanol. No data on correlation between concentration and effects as a biocide (too lazy to dig). Both should be fine with popular WCing tubings like Tygon, PVC, etc.. and HDPE reservoirs. Acrylic products may not. Iso has more desirable properties other than higher viscosity. Could you elaborate stev?

[Orkan]

Awesome post anonymous. I'm looking up more info too.

[bigben2k]

Fyi, I'm with you Orkan; nothing is verified unless it also came from at least two more independant sources (frustrating, but scientific method dictates...).

The only plastics that have a problem with alcohol is acrylic; pretty much everything else ought to be ok. (chemical) Compatibility charts exist...

[Joe]

jesus Christ Orkan, I don't have time to spoon feed you. I was just saying it was bad form to ask for help , when help was given, you kept on with seemingly no fore thought to what was said.

[Orkan]

Originally Posted by Joe

jesus Christ Orkan, I don't have time to spoon feed you. I was just saying it was bad form to ask for help , when help was given, you kept on with seemingly no fore thought to what was said.

WTF...

Did I screw your wife in a former life or something? Spoon feed me? For real man... This is getting a little out of line don't you think?

[plywood99]

Originally Posted by Orkan

You want me to pour vodka in my cooling loop? Isopropyl seems to clean just about anything I want to clean... and leave hardly any residue, is easy to come by, and is relatively cheap. Hence my wanting to use it.

I can't imagine anything would be able to grow with like 20% isopropyl in my loop.

That does ideed sound like you totally disreguarded what stev said to help you.
If you would have done research on what he said, you would have found it informative and accurate. Wanting a second or third opinion is fine, but that is not what you implied in your response...

Anyway, as was mentioned alcohol and acrylic are a bad combination. It will cause cracks to form. Acrylic is used on some block tops, res's.

If you are worried about critters, Stev's solution will work just fine. Or you can use a little Pine Sol in the loop.

[Orkan]

I have a dual bay-res... UV Blue... is that acrylic? It is like 3/8" thick... shouldn't crack because of type of liquid in it... will it? I know this was a problem with those tube resevoirs... but they were thin. Same thing happen to thick material?

[plywood99]

Originally Posted by Orkan

I have a dual bay-res... UV Blue... is that acrylic? It is like 3/8" thick... shouldn't crack because of type of liquid in it... will it? I know this was a problem with those tube resevoirs... but they were thin. Same thing happen to thick material?

Yes it happens to thick material too. Iv'e seen 12mm thick acrylic tops crack from alcohol.

How bout a link to your bayres...

[Orkan]

http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=165

[plywood99]

That bayres is made from acrylic. I would skip the isopropyl alcohol. There are plenty of other additives you can use...

[tinman5555]

Originally Posted by Orkan

.. Isopropyl seems to clean just about anything I want to clean...

That's part of the problem, All alcohols are somewhat agressive to some plastics and some metals.
As far as cooling it's hard to beat pure h2o, but you do need something to act as a biocide and prevent ionic corrosion, 10-15% antifreeze does both well

[Orkan]

Originally Posted by plywood99

That bayres is made from acrylic. I would skip the isopropyl alcohol. There are plenty of other additives you can use...

Most of those additives have a green or red tint to them. I don't want to go that route for color reasons only.

For testing purposes, I'm running 100% isopropyl alchohol through a identical bayres. We'll see how long it takes to crack up.

Any additives that are clear in color aside from alchohol?

[Angry_Steel]

Most of those additives have a green or red tint to them. I don't want to go that route for color reasons only.

For testing purposes, I'm running 100% isopropyl alchohol through a identical bayres. We'll see how long it takes to crack up.

Does it really matter when it will crack? Just because it doesn't crack when your watching it doesn't mean that it wont crack down the road when you least expect it.

I'm running 100% isopropyl alchohol

Fire extingusher handy?

Any additives that are clear in color aside from alchohol?

MCT, Fluid XP, Primochill clear...off the top of my head

[Orkan]

Well, it definatly eats the exposed edges of the res. that is for certain.

The divider in the middle of the res, where the section was cut to length, has started to crack. This is only over the course of about 4hrs.

[stev]

Y-I-K-E-S!

I only posted something to assist somebody and a war breaks out.

As the title of the question asks if, "Isopropyl Alcohol - eat plastic?" It doesn't eat plastic, but due to the evaporation with air in the system, it will dry out plastics. Also, Isopropyl isn't good due to a permeation with plastics and the general tubing used in WC'ing setups.

Vodka or better know as Ethanol, or best from a chemical engineering point of view as Ethyl Alcohol is a safer bet. Fuel pumps, o-rings, and regular fuel line hose can run upwards to 85+% Ethyl Alcohol without any issues.

I only offered the Vodka since 200% PROOF is 100% Ethyl Alcohol without any additives or by being watered down.

And yes, Isopropyl Alcohol will react violently with aluminum over a period of time given the concentration and other materials in the cooling loop. http://www.camd.lsu.edu/msds/e/ethanol.htm

Another plus Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol) has is: Ethanol is soluble in water because its OH group is essentially half a water molecule. That's why people get drunk quickly when drinking Vodka. The human body is 90+% water. Now, Isopropyl alcohol forms an azeotrope with water at 67.7% alcohol.

Now, another type of alcohol, Isopropanol, is not wise to use in a WC'ing setup. This is commonly know as Dry-Gas that a person pours into a vehicle's gas tank.

ALL BETS ARE OFF if using any type of alcohol with an acrylic reservoir. Don't even dare risk adding alcohol to the cooling loop! The acrylic will get cloudy and the wall joints will come apart causing leaks!

Isopropyl alcohol and Isopropanol alcohol are very good cleaning agents and often used for cleaning electronic devices such as contact pins (like those on ROM cartridges), magnetic tape deck and floppy disk drive heads, the lenses of lasers in optical disc drives (e.g. CD, DVD) and removing thermal paste from CPUs. It is also used to clean computer monitors.

Orkan, I can understand getting information from a single source. As the old saying goes, an educated consumer is our best customer. The forums here are a great resource for learning and pondering the information given. I'm basically know in other forums around the WC'ing arena. And yes, I can make a mistake too. I'm human as well. Some people have called me a WC'ing guru. My wife calls my a WC'ing nut. Why? I can do WC'ing as my main day job without a problem! But when the basement flooded, I wasn't much help for her.

Peace!

Stev

[Orkan]

Thanks for the info stev... much much appreciated. As you can see by the above post, I experimented with isopropyl alchohol, and it ended badly. hehehe

So I just go find some 200 proof vodka and I'll be set? Any brand or name you prefer?

(and I mean in the water loop... not to drink.) lol

[Joe]

Denatured alcohol available at home improvement stores sometimes is pure Ethanol. (but many times has some other alcohols mixed in to make it unfit to drink) Most states have controls on Ethyl alcohol at 100% (200 proof) so you wont see it sold anywhere. And transporting alcohol over state lines via shipping is illegal in most states so getting it shipped is not too likely.

Denatured alcohol is what you are going to need to look for and isnt hard to find, you can find it at Home Depot in the paint department. Otherwise you are going to need to stick with the highest proof of drinking alcohol you can find depending on your state.

[TerraMex]

Otherwise you are going to need to stick with the highest proof of drinking alcohol you can find depending on your state.

and thats a bad thing?