What kind of WC disasters have you had?

[Gooserider]

BladeRunner: I suppose it depends on how you view it, but to me the majority of the above descriptions indicate user error of some type or form.

I agree, in the same sense that driver error is the cause of nearly all car accidents. But note that the person experiencing the disaster might not be the person making a design or assembly error that caused a later problem (IE the person who had multiple problems with a Koolance case) However it is more likely that the person who forgot to turn a pump on is also the user experiencing the result.

So there are multiple sorts of 'user errrors' ranging from the direct action that caused a near immediate failure (forgot to turn the pump on) to the somewhat indirect effect of poor workmanship leading to a delayed problem, to the very indirect effect of making poor design choices (possibly because of lack of knowledge) that cause later problems by component failure.

While all can quite accurately be described as 'User Error', just lumping them all together doesn't really seem to be useful as an educational tactic.

I feel it is better to find out what kind of problems people had, what the causes were in as many cases as people are willing to admit to having a problem at, and find out what specific failures are occurring. This tells you what kind of user errors are being experienced, and points to the defensive strategies giving the most effectiveness for the effort. (or showing which ones aren't worth the trouble...)

For instance, CPU / Block separations are seemingly rare, which means there isn't much payback in trying to do extreme measures to prevent it, or do detection and handling when it does. Drippy leaks are much more common, which says that putting more efforts into assembly quality, sealant application, clamp useage, etc. will have a payback that makes the added effort worth while.

Its hard to categorise every happing, but maybe to be of real world use your poll should distinguish between real pump failure and the usual user error induced "not turning it on". My guess is the majority of that vote % on pump failure is actually user error, but that wouldn't be obvious to someone just looking at the poll.

Again, I sort of agree, but bear in mind that I am limited by the board to 10 responses. I made a list of every failure type I could think of, or recollect someone complaining about having had on the board, and got about 15 possible items. I had to whittle things down, so I took those items that I thought were less likely and combined them, hoping that the stories people posted would tell enough detail to figure out how to break down the combined responses. In the case of the pump failure, you might just be wrong! I just did a search on 'pump' and found 11 described failures out of 16 reported for that response.

2 drippy leaks
3 'induced' failures where something else caused the pump to die
2 failures of a connection to the pump
2 total failures (both in the same case)
and just TWO 'Forgot to plug it in' UE failures.

(Some of the classifications might be subject to interpretation, but that's what I would call them)

The problems with the poll as I see it,

1. Not enough granularity in the responses (not enough choices).
2. Not all responders told their tale of woe.
3. Some responders may have checked multiple boxes for the same failure (i.e. forgot to plug in pump, so the block melted, so it leaked water all over the place, so it electrocuted the cat should have gotten one response, but might have gotten four)
4. While I tried to be specific in my questions, people may have interpreted them differently.
5. Nothing prevented votes being cast for 'extreme cooling' failures which, while interesting, were NOT the subject of the poll and could skew the results. (IE plumbing freeze-ups, or condensation drips are not problems that a non-extreme cooler would ever have to worry about)

The only way I see that could realy get around some of the problems is if people just told their failure stories, and ONE person analyzed them and put them into a chart so that the classifications were as consistent as possible, but that would be harder to manage.

Gooserider

[BladeRunner]

I'm not trying to be negative as I think your idea of a disaster data base would be good for worried water-cooling virgins to check out. It however needs to be based in reality to be valid, and although what you say about the 11 described failures out of 16 reported pump leaks or failures maybe true, when displayed as a poll like that doesn't tell the story and could lead to people thinking pumps are a real problem part, (which they are not if you accept it is the heart of the system, and buy & use accordingly).

I think there is mileage in something useful though & wonder if Joe & the Pro-cooling team could give any input to a way to do this?

I still stand by my statement that most of the problems are caused by the user in some way, and this is something anyone thinking of water-cooling should take on board first.

[winewood]

http://www.overclockers.com/articles772/

This link goes here I think. Very funny read.

[Gooserider]

BladeRunner: I'm not trying to be negative as I think your idea of a disaster data base would be good for worried water-cooling virgins to check out.

Exactly my concern, and why I started this exercise... I had seen many mixed reports of what one needed to be concerned about in setting up a system. They were all probably sincere, but each was based on the author's individual experiences. IMHO a collection of what sort of things ACTUALLY happenned to a large number of people would help to demonstrate where the priorities should be placed, and what sorts of issues are 'must do right or else' vs. what one might decide to let slide a bit. (i.e. I am building a system to operate 24/7, which means often unattended. I arguably need a better quality pump, and more fault detection than a gamer who only has the system on when sitting in front of it. OTOH, we both need to use good quality tubing and good sealing technique when building our systems.)

It however needs to be based in reality to be valid, and although what you say about the 11 described failures out of 16 reported pump leaks or failures maybe true, when displayed as a poll like that doesn't tell the story and could lead to people thinking pumps are a real problem part, (which they are not if you accept it is the heart of the system, and buy & use accordingly).

True, and it is worth noting that while there were only two "didn't plug in" direct cause user errors, one could argue that the rest were indirect errors - The leaking pumps were cheap pumps that the user over-torqued fittings on and cracked. The induced failures were either bad material choices, or operator error in a different area. Even the two total failures were arguably the result of a case supplier using a poor choice of pump.

I think there is mileage in something useful though & wonder if Joe & the Pro- cooling team could give any input to a way to do this?

Good thought, any ideas about the best way to approach them with the idea? (I have a great idea for a title - 'Water Cooling without Diapers' with a photo of a mobo sticking out of a diaper.... ;D )

I still stand by my statement that most of the problems are caused by the user in some way, and this is something anyone thinking of water-cooling should take on board first.

Agreed, and it should be a prime focus of the survey / articles. Probably something to the effect of 'these are the most common USER INDUCED problems, and how to best avoid them.

winewood: http://www.overclockers.com/articles772/ This link goes here I think. Very funny read.

Agreed, certainly a wonderful case study of how to do things wrong. While he certainly appears to be learning, and his latest setup is a BIG improvement over his first effort, I still see a lot of problems with it. One of the biggest is probably that he is still engaged in that evil 'mixing of metals' practice. He got rid of the copper pipes, but nothing in the article suggested he wasn't still using the copper rad, not to mention those brass barbs sticking out of the aluminum block.

I would suggest that he should consider signing up with 'Silicone Abusers Anonymous' - There is a place for sealants during assembly of things like pipe threads, and possibly as 'insurance' when fitting a hose to a barb or the like; but IMNSHO globbing sealant onto an existing leak is an abuse of the technique which might buy a bit of time but is fundamentally another leak waiting to happen.

With the exception of sealing fitting threads and other APPROPRIATE applications, if your system isn't leak free without sealants you have fundamental problems that no amount of external sealant application will solve long term!

[BladeRunner]

The only thing I'll add is this poll here isn't the be all and end all, it would need to be far larger to even hint at that. Generally from topics I have seen in the community that indicate some form of water-cooling disaster pointing to the pump, when you read through it it's really the user, not turning it that is the error. A lot of the time people getaway with it because they are using the system and it either crashes when the CPU gets hot or shuts down at a certain temp.

If the pump actually fails because you skimped on cost and bought a cheap and nasty one, that is 100% user error imo, and you would also deserve a slap , (a pump is the Heart of any water-cooling system). If you bought a known quality, (expensive), one and it fails, then you at least did the right thing and man made things sometimes do go wrong, however good they are. A pump relay is quite a simple thing to do & it should be on every water-coolers list of must do's. I do not personally favour 24/7 pump operation, for the same reason I don't favour 24/7 PC operation.

Apart from the possible fire risk leaving a PC unattended for long periods, (especially when sleeping), my opinion is when it doesn't need to be on TURN IT OFF!. If everybody worldwide left their PC and Pumps on all the time think how many more unnecessary polluting power stations we would need in the world. Parts of the US are struggling to cope with record electricity demands atm anyway.

[Gooserider]

BladeRunner: The only thing I'll add is this poll here isn't the be all and end all, it would need to be far larger to even hint at that.

Agreed, but it seems like a somewhat better starting place than anything else I've seen.

Generally from topics I have seen in the community that indicate some form of water-cooling disaster pointing to the pump, when you read through it it's really the user, not turning it that is the error.

Right in theory, although THIS survey doesn't bear that out necessarily.

...If the pump actually fails because you skimped on cost and bought a cheap and nasty one, that is 100% user error imo, and you would also deserve a slap , (a pump is the Heart of any water-cooling system).

Somewhat agreed, although defining 'cheap & nasty' can be a challenge at times. I can think of at least one brand that some users describe as a total POS, and others swear by and describe it as the great WC cooling bargain. (and this brand is sold by at least one major WC specialty vendor as well) The two total failures I've seen described in the survey were in a commercial WC case, and were selected by the case vendor (who was charging a high premium for the case, and should have known what he was doing.) I think I've seen something rude said about every brand that people commonly use, with the possible exception of Iwaki. (and some say those make to much noise...)

If you bought a known quality, (expensive), one and it fails, then you at least did the right thing and man made things sometimes do go wrong, however good they are. A pump relay is quite a simple thing to do & it should be on every water-coolers list of must do's.

Perhaps, though I've heard some persons arguing that pump life is shortened by powercycling, and that it is better for long term pump health to keep it running 24/7. (Or that a relay adds another possible point of failure...)

I do not personally favour 24/7 pump operation, for the same reason I don't favour 24/7 PC operation. Apart from the possible fire risk leaving a PC unattended for long periods, (especially when sleeping),

IMHO about the same as leaving any other appliance w/ similiar power consumption unnattended, IOW, negligible. PC's are probably better about this in some ways, since the flamable bits are enclosed in a metal case (or cases), and all of which have been designed to be very fire resistant / self extinguishing.

my opinion is when it doesn't need to be on TURN IT OFF!. If everybody worldwide left their PC and Pumps on all the time think how many more unnecessary polluting power stations we would need in the world.

Actually NONE... Electrical generation capability has to be built to handle PEAK loads, and significant %ages are left idling during off peak hours. By and large, the times when peak loads are being encountered are also the times the computers would be on anyhow. Leaving them on the rest of the time at worst keeps the off peak demand from dropping as much.

OTOH, there is a significant amount of evidence that suggests leaving a PC on 24/7 significantly increases it's lifespan and reduces the odds of hardware failure. This is due to the fact that most failures appear to be caused by thermal cycling and inrush current induced power surges, both of which are eliminated by leaving the system on. I find this evidence convincing in terms of hardware life expectancy.

The question ultimately comes down to whether the costs of operating 24/7 (Which I calculate to be roughly U$7-10/mo/PC at current rates, or about the same as a refrigerator) are greater than the replacement cost (including 'hassle factor') of prematurely failed parts.

Parts of the US are struggling to cope with record electricity demands atm anyway.

This is TOTALLY due to the governmental interference in free market operations. There are a great many factors, but among the largest is the refusal of many gov't. entities (espec. California) to permit construction of new generation plants, and the regulation of prices causing artificially low electricity rates which encourage overconsumption and discourage new plant construction. (Again, CA is a textbook example of this...)

However this is getting away from the subject of watercooling failures so if you want to discuss the economics of power systems, we should probably take it to a new thread...

Gooserider

[sunblade]

Ooohhhh, let's see.

I had the poly-top on my D-Tek spiral crack between the two barbs. After coming back from vacation I peeped in through my window and saw something. Luckily the dripping was so slow it evaporated before it dripped off the block and left a water stain on the lexan. Needless to say, I was very lucky. I put my old maze2 on temporarily while I contacted D-Tek. Their customer service was great and they sent me a free aluminum top once they were finished with manufacturing. Very nice.

Most of my other leaks have been during testing. I was trying a new rubbermaid resivoir that leaked because the goop around the barbs wasn't fully dry (user error ). Another leak was from a 90-degree elbow I ordered from dangerden. The seam down the middle of the fitting caused the tubing to not fit uniformly -> leak. I suppose that was a sign that 90-degree elbows are evil

My best story is when I was fiddling around in the case and forgot to plug all my case/rad fans back in. I started playing some ZSNES for a half hour then checked my temps and they were in the low 50s. So I felt the radiator which was warm, heard no fans, and turned the comp off. Yeah -> user error

[Zhentar]

I loosened a clamp to move it out of the way of the mounting screws and didn't tighten it all the way again. Got water in the CPU socket. Definatly user error....

[kibbles]

1. The tubing pushed the waterblock off the die, and when I powered on, it would crash during POST. Tightened the mounting, and everything was fine.

2. Hose clamp was so tight it was grabbing the hose, putting a little gap in it. Caught the error just before the water was going to drip onto the mobo.

I suggest mounting the motherboard upside down, so all slow leaks drip away. (desktop case upside down)

[Gooserider]

kibbles: I suggest mounting the motherboard upside down, so all slow leaks drip away. (desktop case upside down)

Interesting idea kibbles, but I'm not sure it would work well...

It would make drippy leaks have less of an impact on the mobo, but as Bladerunner and others have pointed out, if the plumbing is done right you won't HAVE drippy leaks

1. While WC'ing the CPU helps, there are lots of other heat makers in a PC. Putting the mobo at the top of the case means it's now in the hottest possible area.

2. While mounting upside down would keep drippy leaks from going onto the mobo, it might or might not help the rarer but more problematic 'sprayer' leaks. Also if the mobo is at the top, this implies that everything else is under it, so where do the drips go???

3. Remember that guy Isaac and his apples? Think about what hanging upside down is going to do to keeping cards in their sockets, stress on WB mounts (remember that many WB's and HSF's exceed AMD and Intel weight specs) etc.

4. This would make the WB the highest point in the system, which could make bleeding the system very difficult, and leave any air bubbles sitting between the CPU die side of the WB and the coolant - not a good thing for heat transfer.

Gooserider

[kibbles]

You have come up with many valid points. The suggestion of changing case orientation is really only for leak testing, but your response was so lengthy that I feel I should address all of your points. Also, since you don't speak from experience, I have returned your disrespectful sarcasm with some more.

1. I think some case fans solve the heatbuildup problem. You test it with a fully watercooled pc (CPU,GPU,North) and then get back to me. I want hard data, not your opinion.

2. We agree on the spraying water being catastrophic. OK.
2a. Everything is NOT below the mobo. Water will go straight down in the case of drips, and there is nothing directly over my sockets except for the case lid.

3. Your sarcasm is unappreciated. I am well aware of gravity. I have not only thought about mounting things upside down, but I have also done it. I see in your signature you WANT to have a watercooled system, so I don't respect your opinion.

4. Put your pump-res-rad in a separate case ABOVE the PC, and the CPU blocks are no longer the highest point. Case closed (pun intended).
4a. Will the heat transfer suffer because the block's weight and the water within pulls it away from the die? I have definitely thought about the mounting system, and my waterblocks are going nowhere.

[Gooserider]

Also, since you don't speak from experience, I have returned your disrespectful sarcasm with some more.

First off, I would like to start by apologizing for coming accross as sarcastic. That was not my intention, as I don't normally go out of my way to upset others. I will admit to a sometimes caustic sense of humour, sorry if it rubbed you the wrong way.

You did NOT make clear in your original post that you intended the upside down operation for leak testing only. I thought that your suggestion was for permanent operation, which seemed to me like a very bad idea for the reasons I mentioned. If you are suggesting just flipping the system for leak testing, then I have far fewer problems with it. My biggest concern would be whether the plumbing was designed for upside down operation (especially if the plumbing was all in the case). For instance a res that fed the pump from the bottom normally would be feeding from the top when flipped; if the res wasn't totally full, then the pump would be sucking air which isn't good... Also was all the hardware secured enough to handle a flip. Some builders put pumps, HDD's, and other such things in the case setting on a layer of foam without much securing - if the case were flipped they might dangle and do damage.

If those concerns (which I think you'd agree make sense) aren't a problem, then the flip isn't a bad idea. However, all reports suggest that for a non-conductive coolant, a spill onto a non-powered board is not a big issue as long as it's dried completely.

My objections were mostly targeted at the idea of running a flipped PC on a continuing basis.

1. I think some case fans solve the heatbuildup problem. You test it with a fully watercooled pc (CPU,GPU,North) and then get back to me. I want hard data, not your opinion.

I don't have hard data, however I do know the conventional heat flows in a case, and that it is FAR better from a noise standpoint to design a system to avoid thermal issues to begin with rather than trying to solve them by adding fans. I also haven't seen many setups that address the layer of stagnant air between the board and the case. On a vertical layout, that air gets changed by convection flow at least. In an upside down case it would be trapped unless extra work was done to remove it.

2a. Everything is NOT below the mobo. Water will go straight down in the case of drips, and there is nothing directly over my sockets except for the case lid.

I'll buy that, especially since I haven't seen your case, but if there is any accumulation can it run to somewheres that it could be a problem? Is ALL the plumbing only above the lid, including the pump, rad, hoses, etc.? (a drip might run down a hose and along it before falling...) I also wasn't replying just to you, but to anyone else that might read the thread and consider your idea as well.

I am well aware of gravity. I have not only thought about mounting things upside down, but I have also done it.

I have seldom done it long term in any system that I have designed, but I have had to work on many a setup designed by others that had things mounted upside down. One of the things I've learned from long experience is that upside down socketed parts are a frequent cause of problems. A standard PC card is a particularly bad potential problem because the only things holding it in are the spring tension of the contacts and the single screw in the mounting bracket. Cards (especially the old 8 and 16 bit ISA cards) have a tendency to come loose even in regularly positioned systems. One of the things you'll see long time techs do as a first step when setting up a new box is take the cover off and push on all the boards to make sure the seating is still tight. It has always amazed me that so few people do this considering the number of times I've found problems that way before I've even powered up a system. The tendency of many people to hang big heavy heatsinks and waterblocks off their video cars doesn't help either.

I see in your signature you WANT to have a watercooled system, so I don't respect your opinion.

Yup, and I'm using 20+ years experience in the PC business, (including 5 years working in systems for the telecom business where 99.999% uptime is a contractual requirement) to design and build my box, mostly from scratch, including component selection, machining my own blocks, etc. Right now I WANT to have a system. When I'm done, I WILL have one that is as rock solidly reliable and bullet proof as I can make it. I am also quite respectful of those who have gone before me in this area, and who share their knowledge. I started this poll as the result of a discussion of failure detection and handling where I realized there wasn't a real good accounting of the actual problems people had. My goal was to find out what sort of problems were found in the real world so that I could focus my design efforts back on preventing them. I respect you as a person, regardless of what I may think of your ideas (which as I said weren't all that bad, just perhaps a bit problematic). While I would appreciate your respect in return, I don't require it, and won't loose any sleep if I don't get it. I might ask you to consider that if I thought you were a fool I wouldn't be spending the time it takes to make this reply...

4. Put your pump-res-rad in a separate case ABOVE the PC, and the CPU blocks are no longer the highest point. Case closed (pun intended)

Not so fast... You are correct in an absolute sense, but there is still a problem. I make the assumption that your blocks follow the fairly standard design of barbs sticking out of the side opposite the die surface. (I'd normally say the 'top' but since this discussion is dealing with an upside down case, I wanted to be clearer) If so, then the hoses coming to and from your pump/res box HAVE to go at least some distance below the block, make a bend and then come back up in order to make the connection. This means that the die side of the block is still the high point in that section of the loop. Any bubbles going into that section will stay trapped in the block unless the flow pressure and volume is high enough to push them down the exit hose and around the bend going back up.

4a. Will the heat transfer suffer because the block's weight and the water within pulls it away from the die? I have definitely thought about the mounting system, and my waterblocks are going nowhere.

While that is a possibility (especially long term) it was not the primary issue I was concerned about - I assume that a well designed mount can handle being upside down w/o major problems.

My main concern was bubbles getting caught in the block. (see above) since the block is upside down, any trapped bubbles will form a layer of air between the block's die contact surface and the water. This would be a major barrier to heat transfer. Think about the following ascii diagrams, and you'll see why...

Upside down:
 __die_surface_______
++++B+L+O+C+K+++++++++
+****A*I*R***********+
+~~~~W~A~T~E~R~~~~~~~+
++ I +B+L+O+C+K++ O ++
 + N +          + U + 
 +   +          + T +
=================================
Right side up:
 + I +          + O +
 + N +          + U + 
++   +B+L+O+C+K++ T ++
+****A*I*R***********+
+~~~~W~A~T~E~R~~~~~~~+  
++++B+L+O+C+K+++++++++
 __die_surface_______

As should be obvious, in the top case, the air isn't going anywhere unless either the system is tipped, or there is enough flow volume to force the air out. OTOH, in the bottom case, the air will naturally exit.

However if one assumes that the air does stay in the block for some reason, the bottom situation is still better, as the coolant which has better heat capacity is in contact with the cooling surface of the block. In the top case the air acts as a high thermal resistance insulator and will block most direct heat transfer to the coolant. Instead the heat must travel across the block and up the sides in order to reach the coolant. This increased thermal resistance could easily be enough to fry the chip.

Hope this clarifies things, and again, I apologize for the unintended upset.

Respectfully,
Gooserider

[kibbles]

It's OK.

I'll take the air in the block more seriously too, and give you some performance differences in about a week.

[ralf_c]

well, lets see. i had 2 misses. the first was self inflicted pump failure. i was getting the small bubbles out of my loop, my rig was valved at the time and i was shutting the flow on and off while tilting the case to get the bubbles out, i had to leave the area to do something and forgo to turn the flow back on. came back and the comp crashed, i realized my goof and turned the rig off immediately, i opened the case and took a look, nothing looked wrong so touch the copper toped maze3 and OUCH, got a nice burn on my fingers! after all that i let the system cool off for a few hour and turned back on, it worked fine. the second goof i related to the first; the water block got so hot the tubing on the outlet got loose from the heat and suddenly started dripping, so went to home depot ad got a few hose clamps

[Got KarmA?]

With my first watercooling setup, coincidentally also a dual 120w peltier setup ... condensation killed my motherboard and processor. Took a LONG time though. I did everything perfectly, including insulating around the back of the motherboard, around the waterblock, etc ... but although I applied dielectric grease to the socket, I didn't fill it up and flush out all the air that was in there entirely, as I didn't know it needed that much at the time. Over time, the pins rot and messed with the stability. I eventually took it apart (months after first assembly) and when I took the processor out, some of thepins stayed in the socket. D'oh!

The processor was a stubborn overclocker, and the motherboard had cold boot issues long before I ever went to watercooling anyways, so it wasn't a huge loss.

with my bong setup, I've had some close calls with running out of liquid, but never had it overheat and shut down, thankfully. I'm more careful now.

I did have a MAJOR catastrophy though with it. I added an extension to the top of the bong ... and the tubing I had cut was cut for the old setup, which was about 8" shorter. It caused the hose to pull sideways on the bong, and although I had it duct taped to the windowsill as a temporary stabilizer, it pulled it over the next day while I was at work.

Gallons and gallons of water spewed over the carpet ... pushed up hardwood floorboards, but thankfully they settled down in a few months. No damage to the carpet ... water was clean, no additives because it was a bong.

The whole assembly now sits inside a plastic tub-thingie and the bong is tied to the wall with a few fisheye hooks or whatever you call them. No possible way for it to tip over ... and its highly doubtful that any water would make it over lips of the bottom unit even if the entire reservoir emptied.

Picture of current setup:




I've never had a waterblock or connection of any sort leak on me with the PC running at all (this is of course excluding the obvious leaktesting phase).

[Gooserider]

Nice setup. I'm no bong expert, but I'm suprised that you don't incorporate some sort of liquid level switch in the bong bucket to give an alarm if the level gets low, and shut down if it gets dangerously low.

I've been thinking about how to do that on my rad cooled system, which is a challenge because most switches won't fit in my res. I would think your bucket is big enough to make that much easier.

Of course the ultimate might be to plumb the bucket into the house plumbing using some version of a toilet tank fill valve so that the level maintainance would be automated.

Gooserider

[Got KarmA?]

That will be one of the many projects ahead. I've got a new pump coming (MD20RZT) to help increase flow. I also need to clean out the lines with cleanser since they're starting to gunk up.

I intend to put a flowmeter in the loop as well, which I can affix an alarm to in case of any blockage, but yes, if I can figure out a way to have an alarm go off when the reservoir reaches a critical state, I will. If you come up with the means to do so, let me know!

[BladeRunner]

I have an optical liquid level sensor, (that I haven't had time to set-up yet), but it could be ideal for a bong system, especially as it is solid state, (no moving parts).

I'll dig out a URL if you want to know more

[BladeRunner]

Got KarmA?

As said in the PM reply to you, others asked me so I've put details here. Can't give you a direct link as you need to start a session, so go to www.rswww.com

On the front page top left search box paste in this code 183-559

there are a few to choose from but they all do the same thing.

It could simply be set up using a system fan with rotational detection on the CPU header to shutdown the system on low level, in exactly the same way as my no-flow detection detailed in this article HERE

I'll do a simple circuit diagram if you need.......

[Cossey3]

1. cracked inlet on my 1250 sorted using enough ptfe to mummify a small child.

2. forgot to plug in fan, nothing happened worked fine as long as i didnt run it at load for more than a couple of hours cpu never got above 60oC

3. rad leaked (screw holding fan on and punctured it) no idea why as ive used the same fans and screws since i got it. fixed with solder and radweld, pc not on at time so i dried everything before i turned it on.

4. res constantly leaks but it is so small than theres no noticable drop over long periods of time and the water just evaporates.

nothing killed.

[Gooserider]

Got KarmA?: ...but yes, if I can figure out a way to have an alarm go off when the reservoir reaches a critical state, I will. If you come up with the means to do so, let me know!

Off topic for this thread, but two simple / cheap approaches come to mind.

1. The sump pump approach - a microswitch mounted on the top of the bucket, with a float hanging off it. If the water drops to far, the float comes out of the water and the weight of it trips the microswitch.

2. The reed switch approach - similar to the above, but put a magnetic reed switch on the side of the bucket, with a float that will pass by it carrying a magnet. The advantage is that it would be very simple to have a series of switches giving a cheap form of level guage and / or graduated alarm (first switch operates a noisemaker, second shuts down the system...)

Gooserider

[Boli]

Back on topic:

I had a nice little disaster today :*(

I have finally decided to go with the hose barbs on all my fittings to stop these but of course it found a way round it. I hadn't tightened my clamp on the inlet to my nice new maze4 GPU cooler and a steady drip started.

Now I have had the drip drip before but this time I didn't know where it was coming from... it just found the puddle at the bottom of the case when I went away (always in a differnce place). and I could hear air entering the system (i.e. water is leave it somewhere else)

I did notice that the system would act up freeze and sometmes refuse t boot up but I had just upgraded my motherboard and was having a few prob with earnign the BIOS I ignored it.

It wasn't untill I was reinstalling windows and I noticed that windows kept asking for 20 PCI devices (I had 3 out of 5 in??) I realised that somethign was up.

Found the problem in the shaoe of a very damp sound card LAN card and modem. found also the only wet barb. I hope the cards are OK, gonna leave them to dry for about a week. now fixed but it just shows how resillent the PC is to a water attack . - working fine now

~ Boli

[Csoft]

I've had one home made rez have a slow leak onto my hard drives (hard drive water cooling ).

I've had a swiftech pump start to fail when It was mounted on its side and turned all my stuff brown, took the blocks and heatorcore to carwash to clean, trashed the hoses, RMA'ed the pump.

Besides that its just been stupid stuff like spilling a little on the motherboard or video card when filling the system, or condesasion. Just proves that most of the time a little water wont hurt a computer.

[Brians256]

It's fascinating seeing all these problems people have had with watercooling. I must have the luck of the Irish since I've NEVER had a watercooling issue, although I've only done H20 on three systems.

My only problem was with my first waterblock design trying to use a tranny oil cooler. It just didn't cool well enough, and I was watching the CPU temps to shut things down in time.


*knock on wood*

[sevisehda]

A few days ago I got a new desk. I put my computer on it rather than on the floor like it used to be. I woke up to a loud crash the next morning. The computer had rolled off my desk and taken a nice 3ft drop onto the floor. Results: Caster brackets shattered, fbottom and corner of case severely dented, dead NF7S, HD dead(there goes the RAID0), yet the pump kept pumpin and I didn't have a leak.

My replacement parts should arrive in a few days and while I'm waiting for the deveilery guy I'm going to make some chocks so this won't happen again.