never run just distilled - explained by der8auer

[pendragon1]

db shows whats happening while only runnin distilled (i would assume with just a kill coil too). ive always ran an antifreeze/distilled mix, no issues


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pIpKetQlZs

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Yeah, some kind of corrosion protection is a good idea.

With just DI + silver kill coil metals will corrode over time.

I used to be a big fan of basic glycol solutions as the glycol performs all three functions (corrosion protection, growth inhibition, and surfactant) but you have to be careful what with how much plastic is in modern loops.

Certain concentrations of glycols do not like acrylics and can break them down. The concentration differs whether it is ethylene glycol or it is propylene glycol. I can't remember the details though.

Glycol mixes at the concentrations required to have these effects will also increase the density of the coolant to where flow rates will be reduced.

I have been using EK's coolants for a long time (first Ekoolant, and then the rebranded cryofuel) and it works well as long as you don't leave it more than 5 years. (No corrosion, but it will tend to gunk up and clog blocks if left too long)

On my big project I am working on now I am going to try XSPC's "Pure" concentrate, as I need a lot, and it was cheap and reviewed well. Since I bought it however, I remembered one of the early additives, PrimoChill Liquid Utopia.

I'm temporarily running liquid utopia in a loop until I am ready to fill the big overkill loop, and I am quite liking it. Haven't seen any long term tests of it though. When it is time to replace the coolant, I may just go with liquid utopia.

 

[Dan_D]

I've always run pre-mixed coolants. As long as they didn't have particles in them for a visual effect I've not had any issues with any of the major brands. Specifically, I've had great experiences with Koolance's fluids and even EKWB's Cryofuel. I've used a few others over the years without any issues either. I've got radiators that are over a decade old and still work fine. I recently disassembled my custom loop and found no issues after running it pretty solid for two years. The loop is four years old but I did drain it and change the fluid at one point because I upgraded one of the blocks.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I've always run pre-mixed coolants. As long as they didn't have particles in them for a visual effect I've not had any issues with any of the major brands. Specifically, I've had great experiences with Koolance's fluids and even EKWB's Cryofuel. I've used a few others over the years without any issues either. I've got radiators that are over a decade old and still work fine. I recently disassembled my custom loop and found no issues after running it pretty solid for two years. The loop is four years old but I did drain it and change the fluid at one point because I upgraded one of the blocks.

I used clear Cryofuel in my loop up until very recently.

I had intended to replace the fluid every 1-2 years but time has no meaning since the pandemic, so I guess I just never got around to it

It was great when I opened the loop to remove the GPU after 5 years and 10 weeks. No gunk, no corrosion, perfectly clear.

Then three weeks later the CPU block clogged up with gunk

So I have learned that fluid can be great, and then it can go very very fast.

I'm not sure what the gunk was. If it was broken down fluid, or if it was plasticizer leaching out from the tubing.

 

[motqalden]

Im lazy af with loop maintenance. I have not changed the cryofuel in my loop for 3.5 years.... seems fine and i just keep topping it up. My blovks are clear and i cant see any blockage.

 

[D-EJ915]

Recommending people flush rads with coolant is not the way. Flush with water then fill with coolant / water + inhibitors and you'll be fine.

A lot of special comments in there lol, what "forums" are you reading, rgb bling influencer culture reddit? They couldn't care less about performance, reliability or maintenance they just want likes.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Recommending people flush rads with coolant is not the way. Flush with water then fill with coolant / water + inhibitors and you'll be fine.

A lot of special comments in there lol, what "forums" are you reading, rgb bling influencer culture reddit? They couldn't care less about performance, reliability or maintenance they just want likes.

I'd flush with DI or distilled water to minimize loop conductivity, but yeah. Why waste coolant for something like that?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Im lazy af with loop maintenance. I have not changed the cryofuel in my loop for 3.5 years.... seems fine and i just keep topping it up. My blovks are clear and i cant see any blockage.

As I mentioned above, eventually it does start degrading. A 1-2 year replacement routine is best practice, but you can push it and get lucky..

...for a while.

 

[Tsumi]

This is my Heatkiller 3.0 after 10 years of distilled + silver killcoil with maybe 3 coolant flushes in its lifetime. Not in perfect condition, but not terrible either and still perfectly functional. I'm running Primochill Liquid Utopia now only because my tubing kit came with it.

 

[pendragon1]

lots of those channels look really clogged up or corroded, and it looks like you had some seepage past the oring...

 

[Dan_D]

This is my Heatkiller 3.0 after 10 years of distilled + silver killcoil with maybe 3 coolant flushes in its lifetime. Not in perfect condition, but not terrible either and still perfectly functional. I'm running Primochill Liquid Utopia now only because my tubing kit came with it.

I was initially going to ask: "Who was running just distilled water in their cooling loops" but I have my answer now. Some people actually do that. I'm sorry, but that block looks like its been to the bottom of the ocean. They've pulled rusty shit up from the Titanic that looks better than that. (OK, I'm kidding there but you get the idea.) Regardless, that is terrible. I have blocks that are ten years old that look brand new. All I've run are fluids without bullshit particles in them and I've never experienced issues with corrosion of any kind.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

This is my Heatkiller 3.0 after 10 years of distilled + silver killcoil with maybe 3 coolant flushes in its lifetime. Not in perfect condition, but not terrible either and still perfectly functional.

Man, that looks kind of gnarly.

Not only are some of those micro-channels likely clogged, but heat transfer through oxidation is much lower than it is with direct metal contact.

I would expect the performance of that block to be significantly compromised.


For reference, this is what my Heatkiller IV Pro block from my Threadripper running on the same EK Cryofuel (75% clear, 25% blue) looked like after ~5 years and 4 months withotu changing the fluid. (ignore the cat hair, that shit gets everywhere, but it was not inside the loop)

While I intended to, I lost track of time, and never changed the fluid until it clogged.

The reddish brown stuff in some of the channels is not corrosion, but rather some sort of gunk.

I was able to scrub everything out with a toothbrush and various solvents and put it back into service, and it has been performing good as new.

Now this is only half the service life compared to yours, but I still think it did pretty well!


All of that said, after 10 years, does it really matter?

We often buy water blocks to get the absolute best performance out of high end new gear. 10 years later we are unlikely to be pushing it the same way anymore as we have probably moved on to a newer faster chip that probably required a new block.

At least that's what I do.

10 years later, I am likely no longer overclocking anything. If it is still in service at all, it is likely just as a backup or incidental system. It may not even be water cooled anymore.

I'm running Primochill Liquid Utopia now only because my tubing kit came with it.

I am temporarily using Liquid Utopia in this loop right now, but that's because it was all I had handy. Once the new build is complete, it will be broken down, the parts flushed, and I will be using something else (I went with "XSPC Pure" as I needed a lot of fluid, and of the fluids that review OK, that is the one I got the best deal on.

I have read that Liquid Utopia - while excellent on pure copper blocks - maybe doesn't protect nickel plated ones as well. Especially EK blocks.

(It's funny that all of these years later EK's nickel plating is still subpar compared to everyone elses)

 

[Tsumi]

I will say that it kept my E5-1680V2 below 80 C throughout its life and that I intend to continue using it in my secondary system after cleaning it out a bit. It was slightly overvolted; I believe I had it running at 4.6 ghz which is the highest it would go without massive voltage increases. I now have a Heatkiller Pro IV for my AM5 system which replaced my LGA2011 system.