Absolut Watercooling

KevC

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
6,365
Woah! I really want that! I would like the contents of the Absolut bottle in clear though. /meloves vodka.

Any chance of posting detailed instructions?
 
Originally posted by BermudaTriad
thanks :) The scotch tape did work out ok, I used it mainly to seal the closed cell foam (with adhesive backing) I applied to the block., and to seal around the tubing and clamps once the block was installed. It took a lot of insulation to keep condensation at bay, and even so there was a small bit on the top of the screws when I unmounted the block.

I'd used silicone to seal the front and back of the board around the socket, and dialectric grease in the pin holes. I placed a patch of the closed cell foam on the back of the socket just to be sure. I used neoprene around the socket and sealed it to the board with liquid electrical tape. for the tubing I used self sealing 1/2" foam insulation. around the reservoir I used about an inch of hard foam and wrapped it in duct tape.

In all it was a fun experiment, but a huge pain in the ass. if I were to watercool again I wouldn't go to such extremes :)

It sound slike my old setup. I had an Athlon 1.13 @ 1.66 back in the day :D I used a 156W TEC, dangerden block, and a water cooler. The kind that sits on your office. I filled the cooled water with ice. The best temp I ever got was -34C under load. Of course it wouldn't run like that all the time, not enough ice.
 
Originally posted by KevC
Woah! I really want that! I would like the contents of the Absolut bottle in clear though. /meloves vodka.

Any chance of posting detailed instructions?

Detailed instructions of what? The hi-liter bottle, the resivoir, or the block itself? Let me know, and I'll post them for the group.

Matt.
 
So if you exclude that shower head from the setup, you notice a large difference? I'd think that the water would evaporate either way, though it wouldn't look as cool.
 
Originally posted by AggieMEEN
Indeed! A cheap and highly effective method.

I wonder: what impact would Hi-Liter dye have on a watercooled loop? Would it create a film, or otherwise negatively impact performance? Has anyone tried this?

I had it in my old system, that is now beeing rebuilt. No problem what so ever. No film, no negative impact on temps, does nothing against the block.

I used highlighter "refiller", essentially highlighter ink in a small bottle.

Pics at http://galleri.sweclockers.com/galleri_visa.php?chassi_id=1497
 
Originally posted by Prajch
So if you exclude that shower head from the setup, you notice a large difference? I'd think that the water would evaporate either way, though it wouldn't look as cool.

Actually, the shower head helped a lot more than I thought it would. I was having some flow problems that turned out to be crap stuck in the trap of the shower head, and so I removed it. My flow is higher than ever before, but the brass nipple behind the head doesn't seperate or airate the water. As a result, I gained a few degrees, and the solution gets hotter over time. I think that the shower head was doing a lot more than I realized.

However, I think that I might be taking another completely different direction in my quest of insane cooling, one that involves going way beyond ambient water cooling, and like my other projects, it will be done with a reasonable budget. Excluding the cost of an FX-51 of course. I'll post more when I'm done with my latest project.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Absolut Vodka ...

Neyt ... in Soviet Union, the vodka drinks YOU!

:)

Nice setup, looks hella sweet with the blacklite. Your system would be an 17 year old raver's wet dream!
 
Originally posted by Spidey329
Neyt ... in Soviet Union, the vodka drinks YOU!

:)

Nice setup, looks hella sweet with the blacklite. Your system would be an 17 year old raver's wet dream!


Bwahahaha! Thanks for the words. I appreciate it.

Matt.
 
Detailed instructions of what? The hi-liter bottle, the resivoir, or the block itself? Let me know, and I'll post them for the group.

Instructions for the resivoir would be great =). I'm especially curious, since I thought you can't run evaporative cooling on a closed loop system. I mean, doesn't the heat released by the water condensing go back into the system then, instead of carrying the heat out?

But hey, if it works, it works, right? Plus you don't have to worry about having to refill, which seems to be the trouble of bong coolers....

Nice setup, by the way. Loosk rad :cool:. Now, if only I could get my hands to make something as good <drool>. :D
 
Originally posted by ponkan pinoy
Instructions for the resivoir would be great =). I'm especially curious, since I thought you can't run evaporative cooling on a closed loop system. I mean, doesn't the heat released by the water condensing go back into the system then, instead of carrying the heat out?

But hey, if it works, it works, right? Plus you don't have to worry about having to refill, which seems to be the trouble of bong coolers....

Nice setup, by the way. Loosk rad :cool:. Now, if only I could get my hands to make something as good <drool>. :D

The heat probably radiates out through the top and sides. I'm sure the evaporation here doesn't get rid of as much heat as in an open bong cooler. Personally, I'd like to try something similar to this except with a solid metal top that either A) has a couple 120mm fans or B) an aircooled pelt or two on it so that you'd make the top kind of like a cold plate for the water to condense on and transfer heat through. Ideally you'd want the evaporation to carry the heat out through the top of the unit but not the water so you could maintain a closed system.
 
Originally posted by ponkan pinoy
Instructions for the resivoir would be great =). I'm especially curious, since I thought you can't run evaporative cooling on a closed loop system. I mean, doesn't the heat released by the water condensing go back into the system then, instead of carrying the heat out?

But hey, if it works, it works, right? Plus you don't have to worry about having to refill, which seems to be the trouble of bong coolers....

Nice setup, by the way. Loosk rad :cool:. Now, if only I could get my hands to make something as good <drool>. :D

Thanks! The resivoir itself didn't really require much work at all. The 10 gallon tank is a fishtank from Petco. The hood is the same. The blacklight is a standard flourescent blacklight bulb. The rest is a little tricky.

The lucite (a kind of plexiglass that's very shatter resistant) top is made from a single sheet of lucite that I got from home depot. I paid about 10 bucks for it. The shower head is a high-dissipation, low flow unit. That was about six bucks. The tubing is nylon, with a 3/8 inch inner diameter.

Lucite is a pain in the ass to work with. The lucite was cut using a hacksaw and a lot of patience. The holes for the shower head and the tubing were made using an old soldering iron. Drillbits and lexan do not mix. Every time I would make a cut into the lexan, it would crack. Melting my way through seemed to cut a lot of frustration. After this was done, I simply used some silicone RTV to 'glue' a 3/8 inch brass nipple to the shower head. You can find a 3/8 inch brass nipple at home depot for about two bucks. Once all this is done, the only thing left to do is to fill the tank.

This part was a little tricky. The idea was to create a solution that would want to evaporate at room temperature, but would still keep nasty stuff out. In the end, I came up with a mix that was 9.9% Isopropyl Alchohol, 89% pure distilled water, and 1% blue dye. Oddly enough, that's the exact same emount that you would get if you mixed 1 gallon of windshield washer fluid with four gallons of distilled water. As to why this works, I'll get to it in my next reply.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Elec
The heat probably radiates out through the top and sides. I'm sure the evaporation here doesn't get rid of as much heat as in an open bong cooler. Personally, I'd like to try something similar to this except with a solid metal top that either A) has a couple 120mm fans or B) an aircooled pelt or two on it so that you'd make the top kind of like a cold plate for the water to condense on and transfer heat through. Ideally you'd want the evaporation to carry the heat out through the top of the unit but not the water so you could maintain a closed system.

Nope, the heat is actually used by the system to evaporate and condense the water on the inside of a tank. Look at it like this: Evaporation is not 100% perfect, as it does require energy to work. In this case, the energy is heat. When water evaporates, it requires energy to go from a liquid to a gas state. This is the whole reason that the body sweats. The act of water evaporating is what cools you. The same principle applies here, only I added alchohol and airation to the equation to help speed the evaporation of the water. Now, once the water has evaporated, because this is a closed loop system, it has no where to go. So, it begins to condense on the first surface it can. In this case, it's either glass or plastic. Now, condensation works much the same way that evaporation does, in the fact that it still takes energy to go from one state to another. So, more heat energy is used in going back from steam to water. In this case, the alchohol really doesn't have much affect, and the water just drips back down to the resivoir.

Now, with this theory crap out of the way, exactly how much heat can be dissipated by five gallons of aqueous alchohol in a 10 gallon resivoir in 80 degree ambient temp for an unlimited amout of time?

Approximately 100 watts. The same amount of output that a Barton 2500+ puts out at 1.95 volts. The same amount of output that an overclocked Opteron or Athlon FX-51 puts out.

That's it. That's why this works. Glass and plastic don't dissipate heat very well, and certainly not enough to get rid of 100 watts of it.

Oh, and the reason that I didn't want to use any fans in this setup is twofold. First, I hate fans. I hate the noise. Second, if I modified the hood to accept fans, this would just be another type of bong cooler. Third, if the system was open to air, it would be an open loop system, and would be likely to become contaminated very quickly, not to mention all of my alchohol would just evaporate quickly. You're metal top idea is actually very good. I wanted to do exactly that when I first built the system. However, because I made the block out of aluminum, and aluminum doesn't rust, I would need a sheet of aluminum to cover the top of the resivoir. Long story short, I couldn't find any. If you know where I can, please let me know, as my ideas are always open to improvements, and I would love to try that one. Maybe then the system would dissipate 110 watts.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Nope, the heat is actually used by the system to evaporate and condense the water on the inside of a tank. Look at it like this: Evaporation is not 100% perfect, as it does require energy to work. In this case, the energy is heat. When water evaporates, it requires energy to go from a liquid to a gas state. This is the whole reason that the body sweats. The act of water evaporating is what cools you. The same principle applies here, only I added alchohol and airation to the equation to help speed the evaporation of the water. Now, once the water has evaporated, because this is a closed loop system, it has no where to go. So, it begins to condense on the first surface it can. In this case, it's either glass or plastic. Now, condensation works much the same way that evaporation does, in the fact that it still takes energy to go from one state to another. So, more heat energy is used in going back from steam to water. In this case, the alchohol really doesn't have much affect, and the water just drips back down to the resivoir.

Now, with this theory crap out of the way, exactly how much heat can be dissipated by five gallons of aqueous alchohol in a 10 gallon resivoir in 80 degree ambient temp for an unlimited amout of time?

Approximately 100 watts. The same amount of output that a Barton 2500+ puts out at 1.95 volts. The same amount of output that an overclocked Opteron or Athlon FX-51 puts out.

That's it. That's why this works. Glass and plastic don't dissipate heat very well, and certainly not enough to get rid of 100 watts of it.

Oh, and the reason that I didn't want to use any fans in this setup is twofold. First, I hate fans. I hate the noise. Second, if I modified the hood to accept fans, this would just be another type of bong cooler. Third, if the system was open to air, it would be an open loop system, and would be likely to become contaminated very quickly, not to mention all of my alchohol would just evaporate quickly. You're metal top idea is actually very good. I wanted to do exactly that when I first built the system. However, because I made the block out of aluminum, and aluminum doesn't rust, I would need a sheet of aluminum to cover the top of the resivoir. Long story short, I couldn't find any. If you know where I can, please let me know, as my ideas are always open to improvements, and I would love to try that one. Maybe then the system would dissipate 110 watts.

Matt.

You obviously did a good bit of thinking before you took on this project. I like that :) I think you may have misunderstood me a bit though. Obviously the evaporation removes heat from the liquid in the tank (like sweating or a heatpipe or whatever). That's how you cool the water in the tank. Now the problem is, because it's a closed system, you want to DO something with that heat to get rid of it. You want the liquid to stay in the system but not the heat. Energy doesn't just disappear, so the heat has to get out of the aquarium somehow, which is probably through the glass or lexan. In an open bong system, you don't have that problem because the water evaporates and takes the heat (and water!) out of the system and into the room. While evaporation removes heat from your liquid, condensation removes heat from the steam. You could keep recycling this way, but the CPU is constantly adding heat.

I was simply suggesting that by having a "cold" plate on the top of the tank, you would encourage the vapor to condense (like the cold bathroom mirror when you take a shower), transfer its heat to the metal plate, and then have liquid drip back down into the tank. You could fan or pelt cool the top metal plate (QUIET fans, hehe) to keep it cool and eliminate heat. You'd have basically an oversized liquid-based heatpipe heatsink. The liquid would be the base where all the heat gets dumped, the vapor would be the heatpipe carrying heat away from the base, and the metal top/fans would be the "fins" where you radiate heat out of the system. It's sorta like a heat exchanger. I was thinking you could just mount the fans maybe an inch above the metal top. You want it to stay CLOSED but it'd be nice to have some airflow onto the surface to carry away heat. Dunno exactly where to get a sheet of aluminum, especially in small size. Hopefully somebody will have a suggestion.

I really like the look of your system and I'm hoping to try something similar within the next year or so. The concept is sound and it looks cool too :) I think it might be interesting to experiment with misters too, if you could get your flow rate up enough or use a big enough tank.
 
just read the whole thread and I gotta give you props. All I can say is wow...

as for the aluminum, would 1/8" thick alu plate work? what size would you need and where are you located?
 
Originally posted by Elec
You obviously did a good bit of thinking before you took on this project. I like that :) I think you may have misunderstood me a bit though. Obviously the evaporation removes heat from the liquid in the tank (like sweating or a heatpipe or whatever). That's how you cool the water in the tank. Now the problem is, because it's a closed system, you want to DO something with that heat to get rid of it. You want the liquid to stay in the system but not the heat. Energy doesn't just disappear, so the heat has to get out of the aquarium somehow, which is probably through the glass or lexan. In an open bong system, you don't have that problem because the water evaporates and takes the heat (and water!) out of the system and into the room. While evaporation removes heat from your liquid, condensation removes heat from the steam. You could keep recycling this way, but the CPU is constantly adding heat.

I was simply suggesting that by having a "cold" plate on the top of the tank, you would encourage the vapor to condense (like the cold bathroom mirror when you take a shower), transfer its heat to the metal plate, and then have liquid drip back down into the tank. You could fan or pelt cool the top metal plate (QUIET fans, hehe) to keep it cool and eliminate heat. You'd have basically an oversized liquid-based heatpipe heatsink. The liquid would be the base where all the heat gets dumped, the vapor would be the heatpipe carrying heat away from the base, and the metal top/fans would be the "fins" where you radiate heat out of the system. It's sorta like a heat exchanger. I was thinking you could just mount the fans maybe an inch above the metal top. You want it to stay CLOSED but it'd be nice to have some airflow onto the surface to carry away heat. Dunno exactly where to get a sheet of aluminum, especially in small size. Hopefully somebody will have a suggestion.

I really like the look of your system and I'm hoping to try something similar within the next year or so. The concept is sound and it looks cool too :) I think it might be interesting to experiment with misters too, if you could get your flow rate up enough or use a big enough tank.

Excellent reply. As I stated before, I think that the idea of a coldplate above the resivoir is a great idea. Your theory about the temperature delta allowing for more condensation is also 100% correct, and something I didn't think about. I'm definately going to have to use that one, if you don't mind. This also opens the possiblities of all sorts of other types of closed loop cooling. In theory, one could mount large surface area aluminum heat sinks on the inside of the resivoir to provide even more area for condensation, and as a plus, would conduct even more heat out of the resivoir and out to the top of the plate. Once on top of the plate, you could use almost any type of modern cooling system to dissipate it even further. Your suggestions about peltier cooling might even take the temperature way below ambient, as the water condensing off of the plate would definately be below the temperature of the air. You might even be able to construct a completely new design of super cooling system with this theory.

Sweet.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Leatherface
just read the whole thread and I gotta give you props. All I can say is wow...

as for the aluminum, would 1/8" thick alu plate work? what size would you need and where are you located?

Thanks, man. It's nice to hear my work is appreciated.

1/8 inch thick aluminum should work. I'm a little off in metelurgy, but I think that 1/8 inch aluminum spread over the area of the top of the reisvoir should definately support its own weight, plus the weight of the hood (weighs about 2 LBS) quite well.

As far as size goes, I'm pretty sure I used 18 inch by 36 inch Lexan sheets to construct the hood top. If you know of something close, please let me know, as I would be very grateful. The top is close to that. I'll measure tonight and get some exact numnbers.

As far as my location, I live in New Britain Ct. PM me if you need any more info.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Matt.
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Thanks for all the feedback, guys. Hopefully this will give you some more ideas to work with. Anway, as far as the fish thing goes, it's been discussed to death. The bottom line is that fish don't mix well with watercooling systems. Theoretically you could do it, but it would mean a few tradeoffs that don't make the system very appealing. Magnetic fish are a very real possibility, though. :D

Matt.

How about putting a smaller fish tank within that one. The smaller fish tank would have the fish and the larger tank would be for the cooling element.

Just a thought

BTW...
that is a sweet water set up. Looks very nice
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Thanks, man. It's nice to hear my work is appreciated.

1/8 inch thick aluminum should work. I'm a little off in metelurgy, but I think that 1/8 inch aluminum spread over the area of the top of the reisvoir should definately support its own weight, plus the weight of the hood (weighs about 2 LBS) quite well.

As far as size goes, I'm pretty sure I used 18 inch by 36 inch Lexan sheets to construct the hood top. If you know of something close, please let me know, as I would be very grateful. The top is close to that. I'll measure tonight and get some exact numnbers.

As far as my location, I live in New Britain Ct. PM me if you need any more info.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Matt.

yeah, measure to see what size you need and I'll see what I can do. 1/8" thick aluminum will easily support it's own weight andthe hood and 2 lbs.
 
I cant believe i Havnt seen this thread before......



EXCELLENT work man. I am very impressed :)

anyone that uses Absolut Vodka, citron, mandarin, etc... automatically gets all my respect for their mods :p
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Excellent reply. As I stated before, I think that the idea of a coldplate above the resivoir is a great idea. Your theory about the temperature delta allowing for more condensation is also 100% correct, and something I didn't think about. I'm definately going to have to use that one, if you don't mind. This also opens the possiblities of all sorts of other types of closed loop cooling. In theory, one could mount large surface area aluminum heat sinks on the inside of the resivoir to provide even more area for condensation, and as a plus, would conduct even more heat out of the resivoir and out to the top of the plate. Once on top of the plate, you could use almost any type of modern cooling system to dissipate it even further. Your suggestions about peltier cooling might even take the temperature way below ambient, as the water condensing off of the plate would definately be below the temperature of the air. You might even be able to construct a completely new design of super cooling system with this theory.

Sweet.

Matt.

Please do use the idea of a coldplate top on your tank. You've actually got a working setup while mine is still just an idea in my head. I'd love to see how it'd turn out. :)

The idea of having additional aluminum plates in the tank is probably a good one. If you could keep them cool, they'd certainly encourage more condensation than the glass walls of your tank. If you wanted to go all out, you could just build an all-aluminum tank, but that wouldn't look nearly as cool :D You just want to make sure that any heat picked up by the lower sinks will conduct into the top plate for removal from the tank.

It would be very hard but you could probably construct a vaporblock or something which would take in vapor, condense it, and output cooler water. Picture the inside of a waterblock (fins and ridges and all that stuff - lots of surface area) but bigger and with places for vapor to be blown in and water to run out the bottom. You'd probably have to cool it with pelts or phase change. This is sort of what I'm thinking about misters for. They can really blow out water in very fine droplets which would be good for a condensation-type cooler. You'd have to use a lot of them probably to get a sufficient flow rate back into the res.

A final KEEP IN MIND: once you start talking about pelts, you're probably going to get better temps and more efficient cooling by just strapping the pelt on your CPU, watercooling the pelt, and aircooling the water with a traditional rad/fan setup. Yes, I know, very boring, but obviously you're not going to get the water TOO far below 0C while a pelt might get your chip cooler. One possible advantage is that the condensation tank might be able to handle a lot more heat than a pelt/water setup. Hard to say for certain though.
 
Originally posted by M3at
How about putting a smaller fish tank within that one. The smaller fish tank would have the fish and the larger tank would be for the cooling element.

Just a thought

BTW...
that is a sweet water set up. Looks very nice

Thanks man. This is actually the best idea I've heard in terms of keeping fish and a watercooling loop in the same environment. The only thing I'd be worried about is the constant changes in temperature killing the fish. Fish don't particularly care for changes in excess of forty degrees in a matter of hours.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Leatherface
yeah, measure to see what size you need and I'll see what I can do. 1/8" thick aluminum will easily support it's own weight andthe hood and 2 lbs.

Awesome. Thank you. I'll check as soon as I can.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Absolut Talent
I cant believe i Havnt seen this thread before......



EXCELLENT work man. I am very impressed :)

anyone that uses Absolut Vodka, citron, mandarin, etc... automatically gets all my respect for their mods :p

Sweet. Thanks, dude.

I find it kind of funny that my alchoholic friends enjoy this mod more than my computer literate friends do....

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Elec
Please do use the idea of a coldplate top on your tank. You've actually got a working setup while mine is still just an idea in my head. I'd love to see how it'd turn out. :)

The idea of having additional aluminum plates in the tank is probably a good one. If you could keep them cool, they'd certainly encourage more condensation than the glass walls of your tank. If you wanted to go all out, you could just build an all-aluminum tank, but that wouldn't look nearly as cool :D You just want to make sure that any heat picked up by the lower sinks will conduct into the top plate for removal from the tank.

It would be very hard but you could probably construct a vaporblock or something which would take in vapor, condense it, and output cooler water. Picture the inside of a waterblock (fins and ridges and all that stuff - lots of surface area) but bigger and with places for vapor to be blown in and water to run out the bottom. You'd probably have to cool it with pelts or phase change. This is sort of what I'm thinking about misters for. They can really blow out water in very fine droplets which would be good for a condensation-type cooler. You'd have to use a lot of them probably to get a sufficient flow rate back into the res.

A final KEEP IN MIND: once you start talking about pelts, you're probably going to get better temps and more efficient cooling by just strapping the pelt on your CPU, watercooling the pelt, and aircooling the water with a traditional rad/fan setup. Yes, I know, very boring, but obviously you're not going to get the water TOO far below 0C while a pelt might get your chip cooler. One possible advantage is that the condensation tank might be able to handle a lot more heat than a pelt/water setup. Hard to say for certain though.

Thanks for the reply. I got about fifty new ideas just from reading your message. I'll keep you posted. Keep checking this thread, as any new ideas I have will definately show up here.

As far as the traditional pelt method, yeah it's kind of boring, and a little nerve racking. Condensation on a motherboard is just a very large pain in the ass that I hate worrying about. What I would like to do is try to keep the temperature as close to ambient as possible so I don't have to worry about insulating the whole board with neoprene. I don't want to do that again. I think that your idea about a couple of low wattage peltiers mounted on top of the cold plate might help shave a few more degrees off of the solution while still keeping it above ambient. Because the cold plate is not actually touching the water, and because the system only really starts working when heat is applied to the solution (it doesn't condense much unless the box is on...), I think that a phase change cold plate might just be a brilliant idea. That way, the water that is being cooled is water that has already evaporated. If the system is on for a while with very little load, condensation decreases, so the water that is being cooled by the pelts decreases. Hmm. I'm going to have to seriously think about this one.

Matt.
 
First of all, kudos to all who have caried on thius intelligent conversastion!

Second: Why don't you use something like absoloute Ethanol (Not vodka, but vacuum-istilled Alcohol, 99,8% pure). I admit, It costs quite a lot, but due to the better evaporation and non-corrosive nature you could use a much smaller reservoir, and if you put a small pile (half ounce) of sodium or potassium shavings into your reservoir, it would remove the las .2% water, thus eliminating corrosion. You could use all metal you want, in any combination.

It works for me in a closed circuit evaporation cooling system (similar to yours), using a .5 gallon metal tank, 3/4 full.
 
Just FYI.... Lucite != lexan. Lexan = Polycarbonate. It's the shiznit, not hard to cut. I use a coping saw.
 
Originally posted by enraged78
Thanks man. This is actually the best idea I've heard in terms of keeping fish and a watercooling loop in the same environment. The only thing I'd be worried about is the constant changes in temperature killing the fish. Fish don't particularly care for changes in excess of forty degrees in a matter of hours.

Matt.

I was showing your set up to a guy at work and we came to the conclusion that what you would need is a tank that was split right down the middle, front to back. The front portion would be for the water cooling and the back portion would be for the fish. This way, the fish would look like they are swimming in the "green water" and the "absolute" bottle when viewing from the front.

yes, I'm still stuck on this fish thing ;)
 
Originally posted by Little Grabbi
First of all, kudos to all who have caried on thius intelligent conversastion!

Second: Why don't you use something like absoloute Ethanol (Not vodka, but vacuum-istilled Alcohol, 99,8% pure). I admit, It costs quite a lot, but due to the better evaporation and non-corrosive nature you could use a much smaller reservoir, and if you put a small pile (half ounce) of sodium or potassium shavings into your reservoir, it would remove the las .2% water, thus eliminating corrosion. You could use all metal you want, in any combination.

It works for me in a closed circuit evaporation cooling system (similar to yours), using a .5 gallon metal tank, 3/4 full.

1.) Thanks! We appreciate it.

2.) That is just awesome. I'm speachless. Thanks for the ideas. Just out of curiousity, how expensive is pure Ethanol? Any ideas on where I could get something like that stateside? I think if I could use something like Ethanol in conjunction with a system that already runs well in a 10% Alchohol environment, I should easily be able to drop my temps down even more.

Thanks,
Matt.
 
Also, what kind of pump would you have to use with pure ethanol? And what about the concerns about flamablility of the alcohol.
 
I am thinking of starting a watercooling rig, and doing something very much similar to yours. I am fairly new to watercooling and I was wondering what mixture of liquids do you use! Cuz it looks really cool.

BTW Really nice setup!!

Thx
 
Hey I am thinking of building a water cooling setup very much similar to yours, and I was wondering what mixture of liquids do you use.

BTW your system is very nice!!

Thx
 
Originally posted by enraged78
1.) Thanks! We appreciate it.

2.) That is just awesome. I'm speachless. Thanks for the ideas. Just out of curiousity, how expensive is pure Ethanol? Any ideas on where I could get something like that stateside? I think if I could use something like Ethanol in conjunction with a system that already runs well in a 10% Alchohol environment, I should easily be able to drop my temps down even more.

Thanks,
Matt.

In Germany, Including obligatory TAxes, the shit costs about 35 bucks a liter. But I work at a lab, we have our own vacuum distilling equipment. I buy 95%, run it thru the vaccum distiller, and out comes Pure Ethanol at 98 cents a gallon. Hehe.

Originally posted by Disarray
Also, what kind of pump would you have to use with pure ethanol? And what about the concerns about flamablility of the alcohol.

Iy your system works with 10% alcohol, it will work with 99,8%. You don't need a special pump.

And flammability isn't really a concern, as the pressure, and thus the risk of a burst or leaky fitting in a closed-loop evaporation system is not too high.
 
Niiiice job. I love fishes too much to let them even near a contraption like this. Seems a bit dangerous. For them, at least.
 
Originally posted by amohedas
I am thinking of starting a watercooling rig, and doing something very much similar to yours. I am fairly new to watercooling and I was wondering what mixture of liquids do you use! Cuz it looks really cool.

BTW Really nice setup!!

Thx

Thanks! Right now, I'm using 9.9% Alchohol, 89% distilled water, and 1.1% blue dye. Basically, it's just one gallon of windshield washer fluid added to four gallons of distilled water.

Matt.
 
Originally posted by Little Grabbi
In Germany, Including obligatory TAxes, the shit costs about 35 bucks a liter. But I work at a lab, we have our own vacuum distilling equipment. I buy 95%, run it thru the vaccum distiller, and out comes Pure Ethanol at 98 cents a gallon. Hehe.



Iy your system works with 10% alcohol, it will work with 99,8%. You don't need a special pump.

And flammability isn't really a concern, as the pressure, and thus the risk of a burst or leaky fitting in a closed-loop evaporation system is not too high.

Don't have access to a vacuum distillery, but I should be able to dig up 95% purity Ethanol. I'm going to have to find a chemical supply store around here. The only place I've been able to find it so far is a drug store, and it's only 70%, and it's mixed with a lot of other nasty chemicals (Like Acetone) I don't want at $1.39 per 32 ounces. Acetone also has the wonderful property of eating through plastics. Might not mix well with Lexan. Looks like I have to find something else. Thanks a lot for the help.

Matt.
 
From what I understand, high purity isopropyl alcohol is expensive and hard to get. The vast majority is produced to supply chemistry and lab stockrooms. You could certainly go buy 750mL bottles of Everclear for around 18 bucks a pop, if you wanted to stay with the booze theme. You should get better evaporation, but I'm not sure how well ethanol holds heat as compared to water. I too would be concerned about flammability issues with a pure-alcohol setup. You're not going to have enough heat from the system to ignite anything but I'd sure as hell be nervous having someone smoking or candles or any open flame in the same room. Should be ok in a true closed system though. You'd solve the flora & fauna problem as nothing is likely to grow in pure alcohol. You might eventually have a problem with the alcohol drying out your tubes and hoses and making them brittle. And if you accidentally left the top askew and went to bed, you'd probably wake up hammered :eek: :D
 
Originally posted by Elec
And if you accidentally left the top askew and went to bed, you'd probably wake up hammered :eek: :D

Hehe lol...

About brittleness: The soloution to this would be to add a polar chemical to the alcohol, but in small quantities. Id suggest Methanal, aka Methaldehyde. Although you should so NOT leave the top open if your sexual prowness means anything to you. That stuff is _bad_
 
Acetone also has the wonderful property of eating through plastics. Might not mix well with Lexan. Looks like I have to find something else. Thanks a lot for the help.

Matt.

thats very true- just to let you know i had experience with that. Tried cleaning excess spray paint off a laxan RC car bodyshell with nail polish remover- got rid of the paint really well but then the lexan became really cloudy and ate right trough in some parts- pretty much ruined a £25 bodyshell there, so i wouldnt risk it with your wc setup :)
 
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