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Reservoir Benefits

T

ThirtySixBelow

Gawd
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
846
I did a search on the forum and have been reading reviews on watercooling and noticed that some setups have reservoirs and some don't. What are the benefits of having a reservoir in your cooling system. Also, is it best to have the hot water from the components go through the radiator and then the cooled water sits in the reservoir and is pulled in by the pump to be pushed to the components again?
 
People use them because they can make bleeding easier. Some say it helps the pump to have that volume of water to pull from, so definitly put the res directly behind the pump. I think many do it for looks though, especially in the case of the acrylic bay type or the clear tube type.
Personally, I've never had trouble bleeding a T-line myself.
 
36, Jonsey is right on all points and the more water you have the easier it will be to keep your water temps down. I'd say you should have one but if I had to choose between a great radiator with no res and a good radiator with a res I would take the great radiator and upgrade to a res later. So in short, it looks sweet(really sweet if you light it up), helps with cooling, easier maintenance, but not the most important part of your system.
 
If you use a large reservoir behind the pump it helps alleviate back pressure and makes the pump's job easier. Other benefits I can think of is that it bleeds faster (if at the highest point in the loop), and large reservoirs like dualbay ones require less need refilling or "topping off" of your loop because of evaporation.
 
The only real benefit from a resevoir in a loop is the abillity to bleed the air out of the system easyer and faster then other methods fill and drain points as well ( i run a res and I dont fill or drain from that point I use a fill port into the res and a drain valve out the back and low.). The other reason is purely looks only. For one they normally dont hold enough fluid to make any difference. The other thing is that the fluid in our loops are under constatnt movement, Not anywhere does it just sit. So the temp for the most part will always be the same through out the loop. So it really makes no difference where you put it in the loop...But i say if you should put it somewhere put it to where it will be the most benificial for you to use it to fill, drian, bleed your system as well as look good. Now the only time that the above does NOT follow is when you have a LARGE resevoir like a fish tank or a big volume of watter. BUT then the temp will still only be as good as the ambient temp of the room that the water sits in. The only other way to make an effective difference is to chill the water with a chiller.
 
zeebs said:
If you use a large reservoir behind the pump it helps alleviate back pressure and makes the pump's job easier. Other benefits I can think of is that it bleeds faster (if at the highest point in the loop), and large reservoirs like dualbay ones require less need refilling or "topping off" of your loop because of evaporation.
Click to expand...


Ummm. In a sealed system like we run evaporation will not happen and if it does you have worse problems.
 
Don't get all "ummmm"y with me. Is your system 100% sealed? Over a long period of time (several months to a year) water slowly evaporates through crevacies that are seemingly un-noticable. Go to procooling and anyone will thell you. Even with all the fittings and everything your system isn't completely sealed and very small amounts of water vapor are continuously leaking out and will eventually result in your coolant levels becoming low. It is a fact.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that most tubing used in water cooling loops is also somewhat permeable, tygon included. This is also a factor in the evaporation.
 
Here is a link to a discussion @ XS about the tubing breathing, I would take the time to find a link about fitting leakage but I don't want to thread hijack any further. Let us just say, unless you have welded all the parts in your water cooling loop together, water molecules will find a way to get out.
 
Lord_Hadronous said:
36, Jonsey is right on all points and the more water you have the easier it will be to keep your water temps down. I'd say you should have one but if I had to choose between a great radiator with no res and a good radiator with a res I would take the great radiator and upgrade to a res later. So in short, it looks sweet(really sweet if you light it up), helps with cooling, easier maintenance, but not the most important part of your system.
Click to expand...

Unless you have a 50 gallon res. it will have no effect on the temp just by having MORE coolant in the system and even at that it will become what the ambient temp of the room iss eventually and possible warmer depending on the amount of energy dumped into it. As I stated before the only way to increase the cooling effect on a water cooling loop is eithe larger/better heat exchanger or chill the water.
 
zeebs said:
Don't get all "ummmm"y with me. Is your system 100% sealed? Over a long period of time (several months to a year) water slowly evaporates through crevacies that are seemingly un-noticable. Go to procooling and anyone will thell you. Even with all the fittings and everything your system isn't completely sealed and very small amounts of water vapor are continuously leaking out and will eventually result in your coolant levels becoming low. It is a fact.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that most tubing used in water cooling loops is also somewhat permeable, tygon included. This is also a factor in the evaporation.
Click to expand...

Dont get all snotty about it..... The ummm wasnt meant badly ;) For what its worth the type of evaporation you talk about is so minimal that you would not see any difference unless you left the water in your system for a very very long time. Year or longer unless your system is not very well built and sealed.(and I Know about procooling been there many times for years) Its recomended that every 6 to 8 months to do a water change for proper maintanece. Not long enough that it would ever be noticed with that up-keep. Not once has anytime in that time period my water level changed. Its something that you shouldnt notice ever.
 
a T-line does just as well as the res at feeding the pump an even stream of water, provided that both the T and the res in question are located right near the intake of the pump. a T line is also dead easy to keep topped up. a T line bleeds out air automatically and constantly.

as for the ease of filling, i have never run with a res, so i do not have a baseline, but filling a T is a bit of a pain. not the worst that i can imagine, but certainly not the best.

pump and T at the bottom of the case, rad at the top. loosten one of the gear clamps holding tube to rad, holding the tube inplace, to let air out as you fill.once the coolant is almost to the opening, re-tighten the gear clamp, and fire up the pump. top up coolant as bubbles work their way out. it takes the coolant a few hours to clear up, and you shouldn't power on the system during that time, but i regard that period as being my leak test time so it's not a total loss.

by contrast, filling up a loop with a res involves filling the loop as best you can, then twisting everything around to get air pockets into the res, then topping up and repeating as necessary, which doesn't sound to me like it is a whole lot easier.

i like my way because i just walk away and let it leak test, as opposed to messing with it.

i guess that others like to use a res because the computer is usable sooner, if you are willing to forego the leak test.
 
Captin Insano, I respectfully diagree. Evaporation does occur and having a res does help temps. When running a system the cpu will be under load off and on and having more water in your system will help to keep temps down. I do agree that if you have your computer under load for a long period of time or under no load for the same period that the water temp will only get so cold. Evaporation does occur on small levels. A low flow system may not be leaking but may also not be sealed completely. Interestingly enough, I never fill from my res either. I thought I was just the only one.
 
DFI Daishi said:
by contrast, filling up a loop with a res involves filling the loop as best you can, then twisting everything around to get air pockets into the res, then topping up and repeating as necessary, which doesn't sound to me like it is a whole lot easier.
Click to expand...

nope. Each time i've put my loop together (aways with a res) I put it together, filled it with the pump running and she bled on her own just fine. I use one of teh HDPE res's that have that nice little step, so that may be part of it. But still, the res's arent really harder or easier to fill.
 
Greetings most exalted ones...

My experience with evaporation is that I would say "maybe." I would tend to agree with Captin Insano though I have noticed occasionally my Koolance EXOS needs occasional filling maybe once a year, but it might come from fluid loss when I undo the quick disconnects as it really is quite a small amount of liquid. Reservoirs are for only a couple of reasons IMHO:

Filling
Bleeding
Looks
Pump filling (so it doesn't have to work hard)

I also use a DD Fill-port connected to my reservoir for ease of use and a T valve to drain the system on the bottom.
 
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