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Use anything besides clamps?

P

prdfy

n00b
Joined
Aug 14, 2005
Messages
24
I was wondering if you experienced watercoolers use anything besides clamps when securing the hoses?

What is the most common cause of leaks? How tight should I secure the clamps? If I make it too tight, it will split the hose right?

To save you the trouble, yes I am a COMPLETE watercooling noob and I bow at your feet for your brilliant wisdom.
 
zip ties if your feeling ghetto. I use the stainless steel worm drive clamps from ace hardware. there are also plastic clamps that MANY people prefer because they dont damage the hose.
 
I prefer the lower profile so I use heavy-duty zipties, tightened with a ziptie gun.
 
I don't use any. I decided they were pointless when I had to cut my 7/16" hose off my 1/2" barbs.
 
Tyrant222,

Can you elaborate on the "damage" caused by metal clamps?

Thanks for the responses guys :)
 
I use hose clamps paired up with a few layers of teflon tape to get a better grip, and prevent damage to the hose.
 
When I used larger bore tubing (1/2" ID) I was a fan of green and black plastic clamps used at the same time to spiffen up the colors. Luckily most of the things already had teflon tape applied and the stuff that didn't had an o-ring seal (like DD's barbs).

Now I use 8mm ID compression fittings on everything and black plastic clamps on my heatercore's 1/2" barbs reduced to 8mm with compression adaptors.
 
OK, now I'm really confused. Compression fittings, compression adaptors, teflon tape!

In every other thread I've seen about clamps, everyone said "stay away from plastic clamps because they break. Stick with standard metal hose clamps".

So are they wrong? What kind of damage are you talking about? Cosmetic or actual splitting of the hose and causing a leak?

Where did you buy the compression fittings?
 
heres the breakdown

zip ties: cheap and usually effective, will do in a pinch
plastic claps: nice at first, can and will break, plus they are a bitch to get off
regular metal hoseclamps: has a worm gear and grooved band, will bite into the hose
good metal hoseclamps: has a solid metal band and a screw to tighten them, thus they do not eat your hose

Compression fittings come in a variety of forms, but I don't know why people are talking about them in a hose clamp thread. You don't need hoseclamps if you have compression fittings.
 
Bbq said:
I use hose clamps paired up with a few layers of teflon tape to get a better grip, and prevent damage to the hose.
Click to expand...
?
How does teflon give a better grip? Doesn't teflon lower friction? :)

That's reason teflon tape is used for threads in pipes is because it has very little friction. If the coefficient of friction were large, you wouldn't be able to get the threads in the female connector. The tape is used for a seal, not for grip.

I would definetly not use teflon tape for your hose connections. If you want to protect the tubing, use regular tape. But tubing is fairly cheap, I wouldn't worry too much about minor damage to the hose.

But hose clamps IMO give the most secure connection (but I've heard good things about compression fittings too).

You can get all the parts mentioned here at home depot.
 
I used plastic clamps on my first build. Works perfectly, no damage to hoses, to leaks after initial testing and adjustments. That was 2 years ago and everything is still bone dry. The machine has now been relegated to my file server which is running 24/7 in my basement so I feel pretty secure in saying if they're used right they're just as good as the worm drive.

The only drawback to the plastic clamps is they are MUCH thicker than worm drives. If you're trying to set up using that DD three barm waterblock you're not going to have room for 3 of them on there.

Although it's off OT, I've now switched over to compression fittings myself and am much happier with them than the clamps.
 
i use hose clamps, and yes they cut into the hose slightly when fully tightened...what is the big deal with that?? if it bothers you that much, replace the hose!
 
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