Poll: Distilled Water VS Coolant

Water or Coolant?

  • Distilled Water + Biocide

    Votes: 48 81.4%

  • Purpose made coolant

    Votes: 7 11.9%

  • Something else

    Votes: 4 6.8%
  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .
T

Taranabas

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
107
My first loop is in the mail as I type this. XSPC Raystorm RX240 kit. I wanted to gather some opinion on what the experts on the [H] recommend.

Am I better off with distilled water with a silver coil or some other biocide, or an ethylene glycol based coolant?

Comments, suggestions?
 
Distilled water, of course. No need to even ask. No point in bothering with ugly, disgusting coolants. Not to mention that they sometimes just fuck up and you get to clean all that shit off the blocks... not so nice.
 
If you use coolant, you better like the colour you pick first.
Or you better like cleaning blocks.

Distilled water is pretty foolproof.
It's the least conductive and has great thermal transfer properties.
 
Not all coolants are bad; Swiftech HydrX is good if you like green. However, nothing beats distilled water + silver or a little bit of iodine.

I have my own little secret concoction I make white coolant with. All I have to do is change the led color of my system and the white "absorbs" the color making the coolant appear any color I want although most of the time I leave the color on white lol.
 
wiammaren said:
Not to mention that they sometimes just fuck up and you get to clean all that shit off the blocks.
a15
k3
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I think you're a little late to the punch there buddy.
 
There's Hydrx coming with my kit, community opinion is largely anti coolant so distilled water it is, I'm intrigued about the iodine as a biocide.. anyone else tried that? How much is required?
 
If you want a coolant, you can get the CoolerMaster Thermal Conductivity Fluid with the anti-freeze. It's not like any other coolant in it's mix of formula. Looks very nice as well, and doesn't leave much shit behind it. I used to fill half of my Reserator with it.
 
Taranabas said:
There's Hydrx coming with my kit, community opinion is largely anti coolant so distilled water it is, I'm intrigued about the iodine as a biocide.. anyone else tried that? How much is required?
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The HydrX is fine. I've used it personally several times without any residual effects. Mix 1 bottle to 1 liter of distilled water and you'll be good to go. Just don't mix the HydrX and Iodine as the HydrX has biocide as well and you could get a weird reaction.

If you're set on using just distilled, depending on how much water is in your loop you only need a very small amount. For the Rasa kit I'd say approximately a 1/4th of a soda bottle cap. It won't hurt anything at all if you put a little extra but you don't need much and despite the brown coloring of the iodine it goes clear in your loop.
 
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Taranabas said:
There's Hydrx coming with my kit, community opinion is largely anti coolant so distilled water it is, I'm intrigued about the iodine as a biocide.. anyone else tried that? How much is required?
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Hydrx is Swiftech stuff if I recall.
It is nothing more than dilute Xerex antifreeze. (ie ethylene glycol)

Use distilled water and a kill coil......if you want colors, buy colored tubing.

I only use distilled and coils. The two systems I have running currently have been up and running for 13 months and have no algae or other bio-burden in the lines.
 
magoo said:
Hydrx is Swiftech stuff if I recall.
It is nothing more than dilute Xerex antifreeze. (ie ethylene glycol)

Use distilled water and a kill coil......if you want colors, buy colored tubing.

I only use distilled and coils. The two systems I have running currently have been up and running for 13 months and have no algae or other bio-burden in the lines.
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The HydrX is mainly comprised of ethylene glycol, Potassium 2-ethylhexanoate 2 to 3%, Para-hydroxybenzoic acid 0.15 to 0.5%. This is from their website.

Look guys, it's been recommended several times to OP that distilled and a kill coil is optimal. I've seen evidence that refutes this but oh well.

However, if he's already ordered HydrX it's been out on the market for a long time and having used it personally it works great without any negative effects. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it unlike Mayhems, Feser, etc. Next time he makes a purchase he can get a kill coil but I'll leave that to him.

I don't run a kill coil because it's unnecessary for me or ethylene glycol based coolant. I like my rig to stand out and colored tubing just doesn't do it for me. I run 97% distilled water with an oil based preparation. If I wasn't then I'd go coil preferably or pt nuke/iodine + distilled all day.
 
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GigabyteZ said:
Look guys, it's been recommended several times to OP that distilled and a kill coil is optimal.
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Yes no. :p

Cooler Master anti-freeze coolant FTW. :p :D

In all honesty, yes, distilled water IS the most conductive and the easiest to clean. It really IS the way to go. Don't bother with the disgusting coolants as I said before. End of story.
 
GigabyteZ said:
The HydrX is mainly comprised of ethylene glycol, Potassium 2-ethylhexanoate 2 to 3%, Para-hydroxybenzoic acid 0.15 to 0.5%. This is from their website.

Look guys, it's been recommended several times to OP that distilled and a kill coil is optimal.

However, if he's already ordered HydrX it's been out on the market for a long time and having used it personally it works great without any negative effects. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it unlike Mayhems, Feser, etc. Next time he makes a purchase he can get a kill coil but I'll leave that to him.

I don't run a kill coil because it's unnecessary for me or ethylene glycol based coolant. I like my rig to stand out and colored tubing just doesn't do it for me. I run 97% distilled water with an oil based preparation. If I wasn't then I'd go coil preferably or pt nuke/iodine + distilled all day.
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I've used Hydrx.
It's antifreeze unless you can prove to me otherwise......the same stuff that's in my car radiator.
I'm sure Gabe at Swiftech buys it in 55 gallon drums and then repackages it......nothing wrong with that, but look at it sometime, feels like antifreeze, smells like antifreeze, you get the picture.

If you use it in your loop it will discolour a clear reservoir or clear tubing over time.......plus its yellow green in clear tubing.

I've had it put a slime inside my CPU blocks.

Now don't get me wrong, I've got plenty of Swiftech stuff and it is all top notch. I've called Swiftech in the past and Gabe has had me on the phone for over an hour sometimes talking about blocks and various designs and performance. He is a real standup guy and a pleasure to talk to. I just don't think Hydrx is the best thing to run in a loop.
 
I run 1$/gallon distilled + silver coil. Haven't changed the water for 2 years, and its still perfectly clear. Ive even run tap water for 6 months with nothing added and had 0 problems.
 
magoo said:
I just don't think Hydrx is the best thing to run in a loop.
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Everybody knows the Cooler Master anti-freeze coolant IS the best thing to put in a loop ever since sliced bread and anything else is "wrong". :p :D
 
johnnydoe said:
Everybody knows the Cooler Master anti-freeze coolant IS the best thing to put in a loop ever since sliced bread and anything else is "wrong". :p :D
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Anything that isn't clear and pure, like water is "wrong". CoolerMaster probably buys Hydrx and rebrands it.:eek:
 
The SAG-K01 came out WAY before the Hydrx. The Hydrx came out in the past years while the SAG-K01 came out in 2004 w/ the Cooler Master AquaGate liquid coolers. And it's formula and looks are also different. It's the damn best coolant out there.

If anything Swiffy stole the idea from CM.
 
johnnydoe said:
The SAG-K01 came out WAY before the Hydrx. The Hydrx came out in the past years while the SAG-K01 came out in 2004 w/ the Cooler Master AquaGate liquid coolers. And it's formula and looks are also different. It's the damn best coolant out there.

If anything Swiffy stole the idea from CM.
Click to expand...

That CM coolant looks like good stuff too.


magoo said:
Anything that isn't clear and pure, like water is "wrong". CoolerMaster probably buys Hydrx and rebrands it.:eek:
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I really don't want my loop color to look like everyone else. There are coolants that work and without any other adulterants don't produce "slime" or residue. Maybe you didn't mix enough in :)
 
I'm not trying to start an argument or anything.

I've done watercooling for over 10 years now, and gone through both branded kits and custom loops.

Ive used a bunch of different parts from nearly every manufacturer. Ive never been a fan of colored water and Ive seen first hand on more than one occasion what kind of residues are left behind by colored fluids.

If you don't want to believe me, no problem. Just do one simple thing.....take 2cc of Hydrx and 2cc of distilled water, place that on a dish or in a glass, let it evaporate on it's own and tell me what you see a couple days from now.

Do the same thing with some clear Tygon tubing.:D

I'm sure whatever you choose will be fine, just make sure and maintain the equipment. I generally change fluid and tubing about once a year or during an upgrade, and rinse out all the hardware with a small amount of dilute chlorine and copious hot distilled water.
 
Are you serious?

Don't tell me you didn't really see that I was being sarcastic lol.

"Cooler Master coolant FTW. Anything else is "wrong"."

There's no way that kind of thing to say would be said serious. I was just giving a shit. :p
 
magoo said:
Use distilled water and a kill coil......if you want colors, buy colored tubing.
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I just isn't the same. If you are picky on visuals.
Yet I can't be bothered with coolant issues and just use water these days.

johnnydoe said:
Yes no. :p

Cooler Master anti-freeze coolant FTW. :p :D

In all honesty, yes, distilled water IS the most conductive and the easiest to clean. It really IS the way to go. Don't bother with the disgusting coolants as I said before. End of story.
Click to expand...

I would recommend water over any other though it's conductivity thermally can be beaten by other liquids and it's electric conductivity is quite low.
 
JayJapanB said:
I would recommend water over any other though it's conductivity thermally can be beaten by other liquids and it's electric conductivity is quite low.
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I was joking... man you guys are brutal. :p

> "I'd only recommend water!"

> "I'm a 10 year WC'er and never been a fan of coolants!"

Obviously nobody with half a clue about WC'ing is. And if you re-read the first reply in this thread (guess who wrote that? John who? Who's John? :D) it tells all you need to know in a single paragraph.
 
johnnydoe said:
Are you serious?

Don't tell me you didn't really see that I was being sarcastic lol.

"Cooler Master coolant FTW. Anything else is "wrong"."

There's no way that kind of thing to say would be said serious. I was just giving a shit. :p
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When someone asks for advice, I generally don't try to make them figure out if I'm serious or not.;)
 
magoo said:
When someone asks for advice, I generally don't try to make them figure out if I'm serious or not.;)
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Well, the thing is, I was completely serious on my first post.

I mean, really. Saying such shit can't be taken seriously. It screams sarcasm all over.
 
I also added a splash of water wetter. dropped my temps about 2 degrees and helps keep pump condition up. But distilled and some water wetter....this thread reminds me, it's time for a flush.
 
SticKx911 said:
I also added a splash of water wetter. dropped my temps about 2 degrees and helps keep pump condition up. But distilled and some water wetter....this thread reminds me, it's time for a flush.
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Great idea with the water wetter. I've used it in the past with great results and it's darn cheap at Walmart or the Auto store. Good stuff for pump lubrication too. If you're interested in what I'm using now for color I can shoot you a link if you promise to keep a secret :)
 
Water and a silver coil is all you should use. Anything else is superfluous and will degrade your performance.
 
Mr. K6 said:
Water and a silver coil is all you should use. Anything else is superfluous and will degrade your performance.
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I want my machine to stand out. I hate doing the same thing everyone else is doing. Plus, I've seen people still have algae growth in their system with a kill coil in their system. Whether they don't have enough silver for the volume of water I don't know. But as you'll see it's not 100% foolproof.

Here are two good examples in one thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/1174948/algae-problem-while-using-silver-coil
 
GigabyteZ said:
I want my machine to stand out. I hate doing the same thing everyone else is doing. Plus, I've seen people still have algae growth in their system with a kill coil in their system. Whether they don't have enough silver for the volume of water I don't know. But as you'll see it's not 100% foolproof.
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You can do whatever you want to make your case stand out, it's just going to be less effective.
GigabyteZ said:
Here are two good examples in one thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/1174948/algae-problem-while-using-silver-coil
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Read further, it's plasticizer from his crap tubing, not algae. The water in his res is clear.
 
Mr. K6 said:
You can do whatever you want to make your case stand out, it's just going to be less effective.

Read further, it's plasticizer from his crap tubing, not algae. The water in his res is clear.
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I could care less about 1c. I have plenty of cooling capacity. However to be honest, I haven't seen a difference in performance between what I'm using now (97% water, 3% oil) and some distilled with iodine I had been running for almost a year prior. If there is any performance loss it's negligible.

Good to see it was just the Tygon tubing everyone here is so quick to recommend leaching plasticizer. Regardless, I've seen several instances of algae growth in loops with kill coils just like another user mentioned in that thread.
 
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Mr. K6 said:
The water in his res is clear.
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That doesn't mean much. I had some algae problems recently since I decided to try feser protector with no biocide or killcoil.

My durelene turned a similar color in a month. The water in my res looked clear other than a little algae in the end cap. It might just be that algae doesn't like to grow on acrylic.
 
Feser protector.... Is that a corrosion inhibitor? I've used the concentrated Feser One UV Blue and mixed with water until color is desired. Never had bacterial growth issues and I didn't drain the loop for almost a year. To my surprise everything was spotless besides some minor oxidation. I don't know if it does have a biocide or not but it didn't even stain the reservoir or anything.

HydrX is mainly just antifreeze but it does have some kind of biocide and UV reactant in it as well. F1 and HydrX are the only two coolants I've used for the past 5 years I've been watercooling. Both have performed admirably in thermals and aesthetics although the only color available for HydrX is green, but it's a really nice shade of green especially when the UV light hits it.

This gentleman was using F1 for 6 months without any residual or algae buildup : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwQDLeCz9FI. I agree with him that most instances where people get some kind of buildup in their blocks it's from some other chemical substance or contamination unrelated to the coolant.
 
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Feser protector is just ethylene glycol afaik.

I don't know what to tell you. I had no issues with that same tubing for months beforehand with ptnuke and a kill coil. I've also never heard of durelene plasticising green in a month either.

My point about the res is that acrylic is non-porus, most tubing is a little porus.
 
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