Water Additives..need some suggestions.

[Dr_Strangelove]

Originally Posted by nikhsub1

Found a pic with the clearflex in action, you can clearly see it being not so clear.

That is exactly what my clearflex looked like when I just took my loop apart last week.

I have ordered some Tygon to try with my new loop with the hope that it wont cause the same clouding.

Do we have a definitive answer yet on what kind of mix we should be using? I am ready to make my mixture later this week and need to order some stuff.

[Dr_Strangelove]

So can anyone offer any conclusive anything about this topic?

I need to come up with ordering some stuff for making a solution this weekend.

Is there anything I can mix together that is safe and will last for a while with a blue color?

[Dr_Strangelove]

Originally Posted by gmat

I have the blue antifreeze as well. Got the white film in about 6 months... I suspect it's some kind of lifeform, either bacteria or algae, that lives in hot water, and survives to antifreeze

Where can I buy this stuff? Can I pick it up from a store?

[gmat]

Around here we can get pre-mixed antifreeze in supermarkets and auto stores. The supermarket variant is blue in color, the auto store brand names (Shell, etc.) have other colors (i've seen yellow). The blue stuff is based on glycol and is dirt cheap :P

[jman]

I use This with CF60 and have not had problems. http://cool-cases-usa.com/Zen-Cart-v...&products_id=2

[Dr_Strangelove]

Ok the VW dealership has some Ethylene Blue Anti-Freeze for me. I am going to get a gallon of it this week.

[gmat]

If it's not pre-mixed, remember to get distilled water. 25% antifreeze is enough for our purpose, still it doesn't prevent the white film from appearing after a while.

[TMonte]

I assume someone has run PurpleIce as an additive - any results with that? According to Royal Purple, it's a synthetic. I was thinking it might not be as harsh as a glycol based solution. Not sure about Water Wetter's makeup, but I know it stunk when I used it years ago in one of my loops! I run PurpleIce in my race car with distilled water and it works well, though I can't speak about long term buildup since it doesn't see constant use (drag car).

By the way, I'm getting back into liquid cooling after 4 years of being on air, so this is a very interesting topic as I get acclimated with the latest techniques.



Tom

[bigben2k]

Some Googling reveals:

http://www.geocheminc.com/pvcfaqplasticizers1.htm

http://www.specialchem4polymers.com/...e.aspx?id=1293
(requires registration)

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?scri...92003000400012

http://www.dcchem.co.kr/english/prod...tr/p_petr4.htm

I haven't found anything on clearing it up, yet.

[Dr_Strangelove]

Ok guys i have the Blue stuff as well as some steam distilled water. According to what I read here, I should shoot for 70/30 or maybe 60/40.

Any reason make it any stronger or weaker?

I am shooting for a nice blue color as well as not hurting the cooling or algeae killing properties of the mixture.

[BillA]

5 years into this and the same circle jerk
not critizing anyone, but all of us together

still the same film buildup

BTW, do dump WW and PI

[andy497]

I've got a rig that's been up about a year with basically no clouding. Much better than nikhsub1's picture anyway.

I'm running plain hardware store vinyl tubing and a high percent of ethylene glycol. 40% with distilled water. I'm not sure if I call that a solution, as you're starting to pay a pretty large performance penalty. The other x-factor is I've got Cu and Al in the loop. Amazingly the surfaces still look very good.

I would guess the precipitate is trace metal oxides. CuO2 is green...maybe tiny bits of tin or lead oxide from solder in the radiator or something?

[BillA]

thats the right mix for cu and al, but more than most want
interesting that it is still clear

I dunno

[Dr_Strangelove]

Hmm...yeah it does suck that we go round and round, but then again, ya won't know unless you ask. I think people's water mixtures are so different that it is hard to get any evidence in the right direction.

I am going to try the mix of about 75/25 or 70/30 tonight and see how it goes for me. If it's too much I could always change it out and start over. As it is, I am at the leak testing phase right now so it won't be that mouch trouble to change out the solution.

[BillA]

the difficulty is that a loop needs to run for say 6 months, different loops with different sloutions
I should have tried it when I had a box of cheap pumps, missed opportunity

[Brians256]

Ethylene glycol based antifreeze seems to be the only guaranteed safe additive Bill? Really, I don't know of anything else I'd trust (long term) other than the stuff swiftech used to sell and the stuff that dangerden used to sell.

[BillA]

not at low concentrations, either one
I've run at this 10 times w/o any progress
humbling

[Senater_Cache]

now I know that the system has no clear or PVC parts (right?) whatsoever, but maybe the MAC G5 WC unit is worth examining in terms of coolant?
That is of course if we are assuming that the film is NOT from the tubing.

Just for kicks, does anyone have any insight on what it is they actually put in that zero-maint setup? It has to be something that does not break down over time.

[BillA]

I have heard that it will burn holes in carpet
an exaggeration I presume, but caustic no doubt

[gmat]

Won't a very caustic mixture attack the copper itself ? I heard that bleach would eventually do more harm than good.
On my next refill i'll try a commercial product made by alphacool - it's a special additive made for WCing. I'll tell in 6 months if it's snake oil or not :P
(see why we're running circles - unless you can run multiple test loops for that purpose only it will take years until we find an acceptable solution)

[andy497]

Yes strong bases (like bleach) or strong acids will be very caustic to metals. Are people having problems with algae growth? I thought copper itself was a pretty good biocide.

Does the alphacool stuff mention the contents? I suppose probably not...