How do I clean a dirty water block?

R

robothunter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 19, 2008
Messages
369
I'm switching my computer over to a new case today and redoing/adding to my loop. When I took apart my CPU block I was a little disgusted to find it black with crud. I have attached a picture. The only thing I use in my loop is distilled water and silver. I spent a lot of time cleaning out my radiator before I installed it to try and get all the flux out and I thought it was clean. I guess the only thing I never cleaned was the inside of the tubing but I figured it was clean. My Rad and CPU blocks are copper so I'm not mixing any metals.

So how do I clean this thing? Vinegar and a toothbrush? How do I prevent this from happening again?


photowcx.jpg
 
Toothbrush and vinegar will work well. Ketchup works well too. I'm surprised this happened if you have silver and only distilled water in the loop. No dyes?
 
No dyes at all. I use Primochill black tubing so the only visible water is in the reservoir. Thanks for the reply.
 
I don't know what that gunk was. I scrubbed it with ketchup then vinegar then a concoction of ketchup mixed with vinegar. It would not come clean. I even let it soak with the ketchup and vinegar on it. I ended up with blotches on the bottom of the block that I could not get out because at one point I was scrubbing with it flat on the sink. So I got desperate and went to Target and found this stuff called Barmans friend. It's a powder for cleaning copper, brass ect. It got those blotches off the bottom and did a better job of cleaning the top. I could not get it 100% clean but it looks a lot better. At this point I scrubbed so hard with the toothbrush I bent several pins on my block.

I figure I'll just see what happens. So I put the whole thing back together and my new reservoir has a leak. It's going to be a few days for my replacement to get here so I'll find out then.
 
That may have been oxidation of the copper and not simple fungus.

In any event, simply soaking the block in a mild vinegar solution overnight would do fine, then scrubbing out the stubborn gunk in the morning, which sounds like what you did.

Because a watercooling system is not sterile, you'll never be without crud in the loop.:eek:
 
I can not really tell by that photo as it is a bit fuzzy, but is there any actual "crud"in those pins or are they just blackened? I am wondering if the kill coil, being pure silver, has deposited its oxidation in the block. Are your kill coils already black? Or are they still silver in color?
 
I use 2 Bitspower True silver fittings instead of a coil. They are still silver and not blackened at all. Looking at my original photo it does appear that it is just blackened. I guess there was no gook on the block, which would explain why it was so hard to clean. The Barmans Friend must have just helped clean off the oxidation. I didn't realize it would do that. Thanks for the info.
 
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