7/16th tubing versus 3/8th tubing - is 7/16 being phased out?

MooCow

MooCow

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I run all 7/16'' tubing with a bunch of 7/16th compression fittings. I'm pretty locked down into this size.

I helped a friend convert to water cooling and had him use 7/16'' as well.

Now we are seeing a lot more support for 3/8th fittings and adapters. Especially from Koolance for their Quick Disconnects. When you buy a watercooled 580 or 680 such as the EVGA hydrocopper cards, they come with 3/8th compression fittings.

My friend was shopping around 2 weeks ago and noticed a shortage of Black anodized Bits Power 7/16'' compression fittings, not enough in stock at Frozen CPU or Sidewinder. However there plenty of 3/8th compression fittings in black. He had to settle with brass and silver fittings instead, which was not a big deal, but 3/8th fittings in black was never a problem.

Is the water cooling community suggesting that 3/8th is the only standard that should be used for now on?
 
Hasn't 3/8 been the default barb size since we stopped using aquarium pumps? I had no problem finding 7/16 compressions on performance pcs when I did my last build.
 
7/16 is good if you want to use barbs without clamps. DangerDen Fatboy 1/2" barbs were the choice barb for the method, but... they're gone now. :(

At least i have a stash of them :D

Compressions are 3/8, 1/2 or 3/4 these days.
 
Yes the whole 1/2'' barb compatibility was the whole reason I got into 7/16''. You can still squeeze 3/8th'' over 1/2'' barbs also... just takes more force. Its useful to use 1/2'' barbs since they are cheap and abundant with a lot of water cooling products, but after 3 years you start to put more money into it. My friend's budget was nearly unlimited (got 580 hydrocopper, then 680 hydrocopper, now waiting on Titan hydrocopper), so he went for compression fittings on everything.

There is one bit of caution when using 7/16'' over 1/2'' barbs... make sure the barb has textured rings down the middle, such as the bits power barbs. If the barb is smooth along the sides, and only has a barbed tip, it might leak after a year, since the hose stretched wider and the tight seal loosens up, so any movement of the hose can cause a small amount of water to leak out. I noticed this while making changes to my year long running loop, luckily the PC was already unplugged on the bench.

With this being said, the seal between a 7/16'' over a smooth 1/2'' barb still probably won't leak even after a couple years, but avoid any movement of the hoses.
 
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From a manufacturer's perspective, it costs more to produce three sizes of fittings, and since 7/16 has always been the least popular, it gets the axe so the company can cut costs. Now, not only does the manufacturer have less set up costs, it can produce 3/8 and 1/2 in greater volumes and reduce costs (and prices) even further.

From a retailer's perspective, it costs more to store three sizes of fittings compared to just two. With 7/16 out of the picture due to decreased demand from consumers and decreased supply from manufacturers, the retailer can (1) inventory more of its existing 3/8 and 1/2 fittings and/or (2) use the newly-freed space for other products. The retailer can also order 3/8 and 1/2 fittings in greater volume and therefore potentially reduce its per-unit costs.

As far as 7/16 tubing goes, I don't think that will ever disappear. The computer water cooling market is a ridiculously microscopic segment of the tubing consumer base, so the tubing manufacturers will continue to produce 7/16 tubing for all its other customers as well.
 
Cruiza said:
From a manufacturer's perspective, it costs more to produce three sizes of fittings, and since 7/16 has always been the least popular, it gets the axe so the company can cut costs. Now, not only does the manufacturer have less set up costs, it can produce 3/8 and 1/2 in greater volumes and reduce costs (and prices) even further.

From a retailer's perspective, it costs more to store three sizes of fittings compared to just two. With 7/16 out of the picture due to decreased demand from consumers and decreased supply from manufacturers, the retailer can (1) inventory more of its existing 3/8 and 1/2 fittings and/or (2) use the newly-freed space for other products. The retailer can also order 3/8 and 1/2 fittings in greater volume and therefore potentially reduce its per-unit costs.

As far as 7/16 tubing goes, I don't think that will ever disappear. The computer water cooling market is a ridiculously microscopic segment of the tubing consumer base, so the tubing manufacturers will continue to produce 7/16 tubing for all its other customers as well.
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Color me a skeptic that retailers cutting 7/16 will save any meaningful amount of money.

I doubt that Frozen CPU or Jabtech are ordering 7/16 fittings by the shipping palette full... And they certainly aren't ordering by the 53' shipping container full. Cutting these products probably won't save much money at all in storage or warehousing. IMHO.
 
I'm using 7/16 compressions and tubing. If they got rid of 7/16 I would use 3/8.
 
That's wierd. I'm using 7/16 as well. I haven't had any trouble finding compression fittings.
 
I had one other question... While I know its very dangerous to mismatch sizes when it comes to compression fittings, I happen to have a small handful of bitspower compression fittings that aren't all the same. I know for a fact that some are for 3/8th, and some are for 7/16th, but there are no other sizes besides those two.

The compression fittings look very similar by eye, but how can I test to see which are 3/8th and 7/16th?

Should I use a caliper to measure the barb's diameter? What barb diameters should I see with 3/8th and 7/16th barbs? I will be measuring the flat wall around the barb, not the sharp ring seal of the barp tip itself.

Also, the other question I had in mind was why bits power compression's have longer barbs than others. Some are short, and the others are long, I seem to see longer barbs on 90 degree compression fittings.
 
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My Gigabyte motherboard had the 7/16 fitting for the NB cooling and it was a tad small compared to the 3/8. I had to use a adjustable band to make sure the tube didn't leak.
 
XFaega said:
My Gigabyte motherboard had the 7/16 fitting for the NB cooling and it was a tad small compared to the 3/8. I had to use a adjustable band to make sure the tube didn't leak.
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That didn't exactly explain my question... 7/16th tubing is larger than 3/8th, by the way...
 
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