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I recently purchased a Typhoon Repack Reservoir as seen here:
http://www.primochill.com/images/products/repack_clear_front.jpg
There were a few things that attracted me to this reservoir:
- 5 1/4" bay installation
- looks
- variety of colors
- G 1/4" fittings for tubing options
- three rear holes plus top fill hole for more flexibility
- optional lighting module
- shallow depth in 5 1/4" bay so it doesn't protrude into the case area
After installing it in my case, I knew this would be a looker:
But this is when I started noticing some of the flaws of this reservoir...
Because of the shape of the internal area, the fill port hole protrudes down into the reservoir. This is in my opinion a huge design flaw since it sits below the water level if you fill up the reservoir more that ~3/4 - 7/8 of the way. This creates trapped air and makes it almost impossible to bleed. With the top off, air has no way to get to the hole.
I managed to get rid of most of the air and fill it to about 98% capacity by laying my case down on it's front-end and filling up the reservoir from one of the back plugs. That temporarily helped but was extremely difficult.
But then, all the bubbles that were still bleeding out of the system would then accumulate into the reservoir again. SO i tilted forward and bled it again. But inevitably, the little micro-bubbles that stuck to the inside of the res and tubing started to come free and accumulate once again. - creating more air pockets.
Another issue -
As I mentioned before, this reservoir needs to be filled nearly to capacity to prevent the larger air pockets. This makes it succeptible to sloshing and splashing when running the loop with a plug removed when attempting to bleed.
Straw > Camel's back:
another issue that arises from the design flaw -
Because of the relatively high flow of the setup I was running (DDC + Plexi top -> Apogee -> MCW60 etc), there was a considerable amount of flow going into and out of the reservoir.
What would happen was that inflow would come in hard on to the left side of the reservoir (when looking at it from the front) and push all the trapped air to the right side which is the location of the outlet hole since it's the lowest hole in the reservoir.
Then, because the flow to the pump / suction was high, the air pocket that was now on the right side would be sucked down into the outlet hole in the form of a mini 'tornado' and introduce air into the loop once again. Rinse and repeat...
Conclusion
Good looking reservoir?
Yes.
Does this reservoir have potential?
Absolutely.
Would I recommend this reservoir in its current form?
No.
With some basic modding, one could eliminate the protrusion to the fill hole and address most of the issues arising from this reservoir. But at ~ $50, it's a hard sell to have to take power tools to this pretty piece of acrylic right out of the box.
hope you enjoyed this review.
SS
http://www.primochill.com/images/products/repack_clear_front.jpg
There were a few things that attracted me to this reservoir:
- 5 1/4" bay installation
- looks
- variety of colors
- G 1/4" fittings for tubing options
- three rear holes plus top fill hole for more flexibility
- optional lighting module
- shallow depth in 5 1/4" bay so it doesn't protrude into the case area
After installing it in my case, I knew this would be a looker:
But this is when I started noticing some of the flaws of this reservoir...
Because of the shape of the internal area, the fill port hole protrudes down into the reservoir. This is in my opinion a huge design flaw since it sits below the water level if you fill up the reservoir more that ~3/4 - 7/8 of the way. This creates trapped air and makes it almost impossible to bleed. With the top off, air has no way to get to the hole.
I managed to get rid of most of the air and fill it to about 98% capacity by laying my case down on it's front-end and filling up the reservoir from one of the back plugs. That temporarily helped but was extremely difficult.
But then, all the bubbles that were still bleeding out of the system would then accumulate into the reservoir again. SO i tilted forward and bled it again. But inevitably, the little micro-bubbles that stuck to the inside of the res and tubing started to come free and accumulate once again. - creating more air pockets.
Another issue -
As I mentioned before, this reservoir needs to be filled nearly to capacity to prevent the larger air pockets. This makes it succeptible to sloshing and splashing when running the loop with a plug removed when attempting to bleed.
Straw > Camel's back:
another issue that arises from the design flaw -
Because of the relatively high flow of the setup I was running (DDC + Plexi top -> Apogee -> MCW60 etc), there was a considerable amount of flow going into and out of the reservoir.
What would happen was that inflow would come in hard on to the left side of the reservoir (when looking at it from the front) and push all the trapped air to the right side which is the location of the outlet hole since it's the lowest hole in the reservoir.
Then, because the flow to the pump / suction was high, the air pocket that was now on the right side would be sucked down into the outlet hole in the form of a mini 'tornado' and introduce air into the loop once again. Rinse and repeat...
Conclusion
Good looking reservoir?
Yes.
Does this reservoir have potential?
Absolutely.
Would I recommend this reservoir in its current form?
No.
With some basic modding, one could eliminate the protrusion to the fill hole and address most of the issues arising from this reservoir. But at ~ $50, it's a hard sell to have to take power tools to this pretty piece of acrylic right out of the box.
hope you enjoyed this review.
SS
