Bitspower rotary ball valve fitting has some slop to it. OK or not OK?

[kamikazi]

I spent last evening draining/flushing my loop after leak testing with distilled water with primochill sysprep before putting koolance coolant in. In the process, I manipulated the Bitspower ball valve open and closed quite a few times and now it has a little side to side slop from the pressure of me turning the ball valve with the fitting unsupported. I had also tried to tighten the fitting into the distro-plate with some pliers because it didn't appear I had compressed the o-ring enough for my liking. It's almost impossible to get a grip on the grippy part as it's so close to the pump assembly that you can't fully rotate it around due to the handle hitting it. The fitting is not leaking and has been tested on for several hours since it got loosened up, but it definitely has a little horizontal wiggle to it. Should I worry about changing this out and replacing it or just move along and hope it doesn't spring a leak. I have no idea how these are constructed on the inside, so I don't know how much play is OK. It's this fitting:

Bitspower G1/4 Rotary Ball Valve $40 fitting.

 

[hititnquitit]

Picture a metal ball with a hole drilled thru it. When you turn the knob it swivels the ball to either expose the hole when draining or close the valve when turned again to cover the hole. Hope that makes sense.
I would keep a paper towel under it for a couple of days just to be certain it isnt going to leak. If it does leak while closed it will only be a very small amount so it may be hard to see. You could also cap the drain just to be safe.
It should be fine but worth keeping an eye on.

 

[kamikazi]

Picture a metal ball with a hole drilled thru it. When you turn the knob it swivels the ball to either expose the hole when draining or close the valve when turned again to cover the hole. Hope that makes sense.
I would keep a paper towel under it for a couple of days just to be certain it isnt going to leak. If it does leak while closed it will only be a very small amount so it may be hard to see. You could also cap the drain just to be safe.
It should be fine but worth keeping an eye on.

Thanks for the input. I have been keeping a paper towel under it and I do have a plug in the ooutflow end of it. I understand how the ball valve part of it works, but I'm more concerned about where the two pieces that meet to form the rotary joint. One piece has the threads that go into the g1/4 threaded hole and the other houses the ball valve itself. The little bit of slop is in that joint. I'm not sure if there is an o-ring in there or what to allow the two pieces to rotate. I would think there would have to be some kind of softer material in there.

 

[hititnquitit]

Ah i gotcha. In that case be wary. In my experience once the rotary section gets sloppy or feels loose is when they are most likely to leak or seperate. I had 3 or 4 xspc 90s that leaked once they started to feel sloppy. With one of them it seperated maybe a 16th of an inch until i turned it again and it snapped back into place. Essentially the ones that i needed to move around the most were the ones that were most likely to leak.
If memory serves most rotaries are pressed together which forms a metal on metal seal in between the two pieces. Im not positive tho.

 

[kamikazi]

Ah i gotcha. In that case be wary. In my experience once the rotary section gets sloppy or feels loose is when they are most likely to leak or seperate. I had 3 or 4 xspc 90s that leaked once they started to feel sloppy. With one of them it seperated maybe a 16th of an inch until i turned it again and it snapped back into place. Essentially the ones that i needed to move around the most were the ones that were most likely to leak.
If memory serves most rotaries are pressed together which forms a metal on metal seal in between the two pieces. Im not positive tho.

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[kamikazi]

I guess I'll buy a replacement to have on hand. Luckily, this fitting is on the back side of the distro-plate at the bottom. A leak there shouldn't destroy any hardware, it should just make a mess...hopefully. I think I may even be able to replace it without draining the whole loop. I'll have to drain out a bit of coolant, lay the computer over on it's front, then remove the pump and then the fitting.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Thanks for the input. I have been keeping a paper towel under it and I do have a plug in the ooutflow end of it. I understand how the ball valve part of it works, but I'm more concerned about where the two pieces that meet to form the rotary joint. One piece has the threads that go into the g1/4 threaded hole and the other houses the ball valve itself. The little bit of slop is in that joint. I'm not sure if there is an o-ring in there or what to allow the two pieces to rotate. I would think there would have to be some kind of softer material in there.

I had this worry with a couple of alphacool rotary Y fittings I used in my build. They turned much more loosely than I am used to with anything from bitspower, and wiggled a little bit.

After countless hours of testing not a drop has leaked from them, but it is good to be a little bit paranoid about these things. When you do have a leak it can be anything from a harmless slow drip onto something unimportant that winds up evaporating before you even see it, to a larger leak that misses anything important, but drains your loop when you are away from home one weekend and fries your pumps, to the nightmare scenario of soaking all of your components and frying them.

A while back I had almost all of my XSPC rotary fittings fail in my build. (this may or may not have been my own fault for accidentally running the loop without fans and letting it get too hot for one gaming session, no idea) They failed in a very slow drip manner. Most of them dripped down to the bottom of the case without hitting anything. One dripped on the backplate of my GPU. It was a very slow drip though, to the point where it evaporated before there was any accumulation. The only way I even noticed was because I found sticky dried EK Cryofuel coolant on my backplate. Then I took a closer look.

For what its worth, while I am sure it happens, I have never had a properly installed bitspower fitting of any kind leak on me. Its why I only use their fittings now. Well worth the price premium.

 

[kamikazi]

I had this worry with a couple of alphacool rotary Y fittings I used in my build. They turned much more loosely than I am used to with anything from bitspower, and wiggled a little bit.

After countless hours of testing not a drop has leaked from them, but it is good to be a little bit paranoid about these things. When you do have a leak it can be anything from a harmless slow drip onto something unimportant that winds up evaporating before you even see it, to a larger leak that misses anything important, but drains your loop when you are away from home one weekend and fries your pumps, to the nightmare scenario of soaking all of your components and frying them.

A while back I had almost all of my XSPC rotary fittings fail in my build. (this may or may not have been my own fault for accidentally running the loop without fans and letting it get too hot for one gaming session, no idea) They failed in a very slow drip manner. Most of them dripped down to the bottom of the case without hitting anything. One dripped on the backplate of my GPU. It was a very slow drip though, to the point where it evaporated before there was any accumulation. The only way I even noticed was because I found sticky dried EK Cryofuel coolant on my backplate. Then I took a closer look.

For what its worth, while I am sure it happens, I have never had a properly installed bitspower fitting of any kind leak on me. Its why I only use their fittings now. Well worth the price premium.

Good to know and glad you didn't fry anything. Based on Dan_D's advice I went all bitspower except for the some EK plugs that match what came in the distro-plate. So expensive, but I agree, worth it for peach of mind. I bet I have $300 in fittings. I think I am being a bit paranoid, but I have the new parts on hand and I'm going to need to drain a little fluid to add in a fill port. So, I think I'm going to go ahead and replace the fitting. Then, I guess I'll leak test for a day again.