Thickest tubing you would use to watercool?

Thickest watercooling tubing you would use?

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Apache0c

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Feb 16, 2010
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What is this thickest tubing you would use. I'm looking at some 5/32" wall tubing and wondering if that would be to think to bend tight enough.

I'm trying to balance between flexibility and kink resistance.
 
Do not know how to add to poll offhand, editing your post does not let me modify the choices. Interesting, but not interesting enough for me to figure it out .

-You've got to be one of us cool supermods or admins. :p -Oldie

The real thing is that wall thickness is not the only or the greatest factor in determining if tubing will kink. The hardness of the material the tubing is made of is more important as it determines how rigid the tubing is. For sure wall thickness is a factor but a secondary one.

Look at tubing on McMaster.com and check the bend radius which is given for most formulations. You can also get/use wire reinforced tubing which is almost impossible to kink but will have a larger bend radius. and there are sleeving/wrap devices to help prevent kinks as well.

OK to answer your question, I am over using 1/2 id thick wall "old school" tubing (has an OD of 7/8 inch) as the new watercooling equipment available no longer makes it desirable (if it ever really was) and space is tighter than ever as full tower cases are no longer needed for the multiple drive bays as a single 1T drive is cheap as dirt. My favorite size is 1/2 OD 3/8ID 1/16 wall as compression fittings and 3/8 barbs are easy to find and fit properly. This is also a fairly common size and you can find it in colors etc. You will run into trouble with compression fittings with thick wall tubing. You will run into trouble with a strong pump collapsing very soft tubing at the inlet (suction) side of the pump.

Mcmaster.com - tubing - you can spend days in there....
 
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Not looking up and wading through the standards listed, that appears to be high quality plain ole PCV low temp tubing, Very soft and prone to kinking and the suction issue I mentioned. It is cheap as dirt. If you have no tight bends and a small pump it might be ok but it is just too inexpensive to be the "good" stuff. I could be wrong. The good news it you can try it and if it does not work out you have not lost much.

here this might help you.
http://virtualrain.blogspot.com/2007/09/water-cooling-tubing-review.html


Since you are looking at the low/inexpensive range of tubing, I too would just recommend the masterkleer. Eveyone and their brother sells it (shop around) and it is very widely used for WCing and it is a good compromise in quality vs. price. As mentioned in the link above about the only bad thing about masterkleer is that it will cloud a little if you use antifreeze (glycol) in the loop. But what fluid to use is another post and been beat to death years ago anyway. I suggest you lay out your components in the case and look at what your bends are going to be like (even if just in your head), got some tight ones, you want the more rigid/harder stuff, if not masterkleer will do just fine.
 
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In my experience, 1/16" wall R3400 Tygon kinks too much and 1/8" is just perfect. Anything larger is just way too big.
 
I think mine is 5/32. Picked it up at Home Depot. $7 for 10ft of Black Tubing. I went from the 3/4 OD (1/2 ID) masterkleer to the 5/32 ID (1/2 OD) tubing and I have a lot more room. The only problem is you have to be more careful about kinking.
 
1/8" wall-thickness r3400 and r3603 (and maybe a few other types of) tygon, as mentioned earlier, are great.
 
Tygon R3603 leaches plasticizer too quickly.

For clear tubing I would highly recommend Tygon B-44-4x.

For black tubing I'd highly recommend Tygon R3400.
 
Leaks plasticizer? What kind of effects can be observed from this? I've never noticed anything... but I guess I took apart my loops too frequently while using r3603.

thanks for the info, Red.
 
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