Longer Drain Line - did I make a mistake?

lopoetve

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So built my first WC loop in 15+ years just recently - waiting to make sure I got the final leak taken care of (intermittent around the thermal sensor, I believe) - I added a drain line off the side of the res, but to make sure it was easy to drain, I actually made it a ~line~ - probably a good 8" of soft-tube looped into the back of the O11, with the ball valve on the end (drop it into a container, turn valve, boom).

Looking at all the builds, I seem to be the only one who has done this. Is it bad? Should I redo it? Fitting it in on the res seemed hard with the clearances, so I figured stick it out there... Ignore the tissue, that's my "pull out after a week to make sure leak is actually fixed" tester :p


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Stagnant water can have ill effects. It’s unlikely you’ll have any problems other than maybe needing to drain it from time to time if something begins to grow. It’s not a bad idea.
 
Stagnant water can have ill effects. It’s unlikely you’ll have any problems other than maybe needing to drain it from time to time if something begins to grow. It’s not a bad idea.

Yea, stagnant water was a primary driver behind the whole ek plating issue. Personally I don't ever waste any effort on drain lines because they don't work. Water still gets trapped anyways regardless.

Use a QDCs and then make two short sections with matching QDCs on one end of each piece. Point one to a bucket and with the other blow into it hard or use a datavac like I have for a decade and blow that water out.
 
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I don't see any issue, though I would have put the ball valve further up, only so I don't have to deal with it in a catch container. You could put a plug or pinch on the tube to avoid any drips.

I like QDCs at the blocks, but they are both pricey and bulky.
 
I don't see any issue, though I would have put the ball valve further up, only so I don't have to deal with it in a catch container. You could put a plug or pinch on the tube to avoid any drips.

I like QDCs at the blocks, but they are both pricey and bulky.

Bulk was the issues - I tried to get them on a few places but those things are freaking HUGE (especially on the video card; would have been lower than the lower rad in the end!).
Stagnant water can have ill effects. It’s unlikely you’ll have any problems other than maybe needing to drain it from time to time if something begins to grow. It’s not a bad idea.

Yeah, and I'm using a good premix - figured I'd be flushing every 2 years or so, unless I saw something start growing :)
 
I have had best luck using QDC away from the block and using a leader hose/tube to the block from the QDC. But it adds a bunch more tube length to deal with.
 
I don't see any issues.

If you are using proper anti-corrosive and anti-growth additives you don't need to worry about stagnant water.

Whatever is more convenient for your build is what you should do in this case.
 
I have had best luck using QDC away from the block and using a leader hose/tube to the block from the QDC. But it adds a bunch more tube length to deal with.

Given how close the CPU block is to where hte GPU block is going to be, that would get... interesting.
 
Given how close the CPU block is to where hte GPU block is going to be, that would get... interesting.

Generally speaking you skip the QDC between cpu/gpu unless you route it horizontally like going from right to left. But for the purposes of servicing your loop just one QDC is all you need to plumb into said loop. Then you can plumb in a filter or say a T to do fill or do a power flush. The options are myriad. I really have no idea why ppl keep slapping in drains when a QDC is 100x more useful.


T for filling
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Once fill, slap in the filter example...
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Hmm. When I rejigger this loop with a 3090, I may go ahead and do that.

The bright side to the cost of QDCs is that you pay for it once and reuse them forever in future builds besides the great flexibility they give.
 
The bright side to the cost of QDCs is that you pay for it once and reuse them forever in future builds besides the great flexibility they give.

Where's your pump in that setup?!? That's what's getting me - I can't figure out where to put them with this loop.

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Yea, stagnant water was a primary driver behind the whole ek plating issue. Personally I don't ever waste any effort on drain lines because they don't work. Water still gets trapped anyways regardless.

Use a QDCs and then make two short sections with matching QDCs on one end of each piece. Point one to a bucket and with the other blow into it hard or use a datavac like I have for a decade and blow that water out.

This has generally been my experience as well. I have a fairly good drain setup on mine and it doesn't really work all that well.
 
I'm pretty sure thesmokingman is running a cpu water block \ pump combo unit.

Lots of different ways to do it as everyone has pointed out. I personally stopped using drains.

I just use a large syringe and a flexible tube to suck the water out of the res. I prefer to run res \ pump combos so this normally works well enough.
 
I'm pretty sure he is running a cpu water block \ pump combo unit.

Lots of different ways to do it as everyone has pointed out. I personally stopped using drains.

I just use a large syringe and a flexible tube to suck the water out of the res. I prefer to run res \ pump combos so this normally works well enough.

He's using a res / pump combo. Not a waterblock pump combo.
 
He's using a res / pump combo. Not a waterblock pump combo.

Edited my post to clarify, I was talking about thesmokingman's build OP was asking about. That's what I get for being to lazy too grab the quote I was replying too lol.
 
Where's your pump in that setup?!? That's what's getting me - I can't figure out where to put them with this loop.

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The pump in that setup is in the cpu, ie. its the Swiftech Apogee Drive 2.

You can stick a QDC anywhere that's convenient. In your loop above I'd plumb it off the top rad/glass side where's it's out of the way yet easy to get to.

Here's you can see the QDC with filter attached, outside rad, easy placement. TR 3970x build...

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My personal rig, off the gpu.

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