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Loop Shmutz

Riccochet

Riccochet

Extremely [H]
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Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
33,273
About 2 months ago I cleaned my loop, ran Primochill Reboot for 24 hours, drained and filled with Corsair XL8 clear. I was previously running XL8 clear for almost 2 years with zero issues. Just needed a freshen up. Today I was looking at my loop and noticed all this pinkish/tanish "stuff" in the blocks and in the res. Not sure what it is. Anyone seen this before?

I picked up another bottle of Reboot and going to try Utopia instead.

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the old fluid has always just been clear? if so, maybe some contamination started something growing? maybe different chems from different brands reacting? amy plastic or rubber of that color in the loop?
 
pendragon1 said:
the old fluid has always just been clear? if so, maybe some contamination started something growing? maybe different chems from different brands reacting? amy plastic or rubber of that color in the loop?
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Nothing changed. I had XL8 clear in there for almost 2 years. There was no growth of anything after all that time. Just some discoloration. Drained it, cleaned the blocks and tubes, ran Reboot for 24 hours, drained and filled back with new XL8 clear. 2 months later I get this.
 
pendragon1 said:
maybe run some distilled through it first before the fluid.
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well, that's my plan. I'm going to tear it apart, clean the blocks again, mix up another batch of Reboot to run for 24 hours, then mix up Utopia and run that as the coolant.
 
Seconded on plain distilled rinse. I throw a loop together after a clean, do a basic leak check, and then flush it a while (usually around a gallon of distilled (3 or 4 flushes). Seems to really lower stuff going weird in the loop.
 
Silver kill coil will keep mostly everything from growing.

I've also got a high flow fine filter in my setup but it wasn't meant for a computer cooling system so I have adapters to make it work. Way better than those trash inline screens / flow restrictors that they sell for water cooling systems.

I just run distilled water with water wetter or similar.
 
Riccochet said:
drained and filled

I picked up another bottle of Reboot and going to try Utopia instead.
Click to expand...

You do multiple rounds of flushing with distilled/dionized water between that drain and fillup? If not, probably contaminated the coolant with remnants of the Reboot.

Utopia if I recall has copper sulfate in it. Tended to stain my nickel blocks, but this was like 12 years ago when I last used it.
 
So, I pulled the loop apart today. And what do you know. It's copper deposits on the blocks, acrylic and tubing. I confirmed by being able to polish it off of the GPU block with metal polish bringing back the nickel shine. But from where, and why now? Only place with bare copper is the radiators.

And, yes, I flushed the Reboot out completely. I took the loop apart and flushed everything in the sink, then with distilled, then added the Corsair XL8. So, I don't know.

I have another round of Reboot running in it now. Worst case I have to redo the loop sooner than expected. I'll most likely buy all new loop components since I don't know where the copper contamination is coming from.
 
Riccochet said:
So, I pulled the loop apart today. And what do you know. It's copper deposits on the blocks, acrylic and tubing. I confirmed by being able to polish it off of the GPU block with metal polish bringing back the nickel shine. But from where, and why now? Only place with bare copper is the radiators.

And, yes, I flushed the Reboot out completely. I took the loop apart and flushed everything in the sink, then with distilled, then added the Corsair XL8. So, I don't know.

I have another round of Reboot running in it now. Worst case I have to redo the loop sooner than expected. I'll most likely buy all new loop components since I don't know where the copper contamination is coming from.
Click to expand...
Corsair XL5 used to be a Mayhems X1 rebrand. No one knows what the hell XL8 is.

Odd about copper deposits.
 
pendragon1 said:
youre running copper rads, right?
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Yup. Barrow rads, Barrow fittings, Barrow CPU block and Heatkiller GPU block, swiftech maelstrom D5 pump/res. Loop was built in 2019 originally with EK blocks. In 2022 I replaced the EK blocks with the Barrow and Heatkiller. Always ran Corsair XL8 coolant from 2019. Few months back I decided to do loop maintenance with Reboot and fresh XL8. And here we are.

Makes no sense.
 
Riccochet said:
Yup. Barrow rads, Barrow fittings, Barrow CPU block and Heatkiller GPU block, swiftech maelstrom D5 pump/res. Loop was built in 2019 originally with EK blocks. In 2022 I replaced the EK blocks with the Barrow and Heatkiller. Always ran Corsair XL8 coolant from 2019. Few months back I decided to do loop maintenance with Reboot and fresh XL8. And here we are.

Makes no sense.
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whoops, you even said so. the cleaner maybe pulled some copper off the rads? id try more rinsing.
 
I'm pretty much at a point where "fuck it" is the answer. Once I buy a new GPU I'll replace everything.
 
doyll said:
Just curious, how old are copper components?
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rads are the only thing with exposed copper. They're 5'ish years old. The waterblocks are 2 years old, but nickel plated. Fittings are also 5'ish years old and pained brass. I looked at all the fittings, none of them show corrosion or even signs of wear through the paint.
 
Riccochet said:
Kill coils don't actually do anything. Gimmick is a gimmick.

Utopia seems to be working ok for now.
Click to expand...
They make a wide range of biocides as well and your fluids are gimmicks too.
 
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Did you run DI through after using the Reboot? Could be an issue of either the crud that was knocked loose by the reboot didn't get flushed out or it could be reacting with the xl8.
 
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