vegetable oil for my watercooling actually works

phil128

n00b
Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
9
This morning I thought what if i could use vegetable oil for my watercooling loop. So i tried it and actually it works pretty well!!! Dropped my temps from 23 (on water) to 19 (on oil).

Has anyone else tried this?

Let me know of ure results.
 
hmmm i would have assumed water would have cooled better...i would be afraid the oil would go rancid after a while though. have you tried something like low viscosity engine oil?
 
what was you room temp during the water and during the oil

what else did you change?

what CPU are you using, what speed and voltage are you running?
 
If you try mineral oil, send me a PM :) The cooling might be worse but it would be nice to know the result.
 
The thicker the liquid, the more heat conductive it should be. But also the quicker you'd kill your pump, which probably isn't designed for this type of liquid. The flow rate would drop, and youd lose pressure head. I'd also expect that vegetable oil would contain more impurities than "specially" made fluid, as that usually isn't on the list of priorities when making such liquids. So expect a much higher level of conductivity (no material is non conductive even air). Plus being organic would mean corrosion especially if it contains sodium.
Also you cannot reduce your tempreture below normal room tempreture (20c). So 19 would be pretty low, unless you live in a cold assed house (like 15c).
 
The thicker the liquid, the more heat conductive it should be. But also the quicker you'd kill your pump, which probably isn't designed for this type of liquid.
That's what I would be worried about, I don't see the pump lasting long.
 
For a couple degree drop in temps if this is real, you just trashed all of your watercooling equipment. That is a lot of cash down the toilet. Vegetable oil will gum up everything.

Plus water and the oil will heat up at similar rates, however, the water is able to release its heat very rapidly also. The oil will take much longer to cool off, reducing the efficiency of your rad. This means over time the oil in your system could maintain a much higher long term temperature than water would. Either way oil in a WC system is not a very bright idea.
 
what was you room temp during the water and during the oil

what else did you change?

what CPU are you using, what speed and voltage are you running?

Looking at your sig makes me want whatever cooling you are running, what is it and how do you avoid condensation?

To the OP, won't the oil make your pump work much harder due to the higher viscosity? Hopefully you have a quality unit.
 
Looking at your sig makes me want whatever cooling you are running, what is it and how do you avoid condensation?

To the OP, won't the oil make your pump work much harder due to the higher viscosity? Hopefully you have a quality unit.

he has/had a home made/custom Phase cooling unit


as for OP, watch your pump....will probably burn out soon as has been said
 
Thanks for posts people. I'm shocked at the results though! But as I thought my pump starting to smell weird so i've took every apart and i'm gonna play around with some more stuff (fluids)in the future! OH Btw the rad i used was from a scrap metal yard, just a yard away from mine :-D, and it has a HUGH ASS fan too!!

I'll try and post some pictures of the soon.
 
Oh BTW this isn't : "that is why I call BS"

If you would like to know my computer is placed right next to my window which is huge!! Obviously i would get different temps if the window was closed!!
 
this statement is not true by any means

true dat yo!!

Generally speaking the thicker the fluid the higher heat capacity not conductivity.

example: mineral oil has a higher boiling point ( 360C...ish )when compared to water's boiling point of 100C
 
true dat yo!!

Generally speaking the thicker the fluid the higher heat capacity not conductivity.

example: mineral oil has a higher boiling point ( 360C...ish )when compared to water's boiling point of 100C

Mineral oil (least the one I'm using, medicinal mineral oil) has 0.9 the density of water, lower heat capacity, lower heat conductivity.
 
Mineral oil (least the one I'm using, medicinal mineral oil) has 0.9 the density of water, lower heat capacity, lower heat conductivity.


nightbird thank god you are here to disprove basic water cooling truths... if it where not for you we would all mindlessly just run water in our water cooling rigs :rolleyes:
 
so many people talking out of their asses. do people not know how to google? wikipedia will explain specific heat to whoever has a computer (everyone on this forum)

TRUTHS:
Specific Heat = the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a substance by 1*C. a higher specific heat means that a substance can soak up more energy before raising in temperature.

Viscosity (thickness) has NO link to specific heat! Neither does density! c'mon people... water has a VERY high specific heat because of its molecular structure. that is the ONLY reason. so anything with a higher or lower density or "thickness" will NOT be better or worse in terms of specific heat.

however, a high specific heat does NOT mean that it is the best way to cool your computer. it something has a low specific heat, it will raise in temperature more when it passes over your CPU, but it will loose a lot more heat when it goes through your radiator. the same amount of heat will most likely be taken off of your CPU and out of the system.

It might be better to get a substance with a LOWER specific heat, so that when you are stress testing, you can know if your cooling is sufficient for the load. if not, the temp will keep rising. with water, it will keep rising as well, it will just take a MUCH longer time.

Also, WATER DOES NOT CONDUCT HEAT. heat can ONLY move through water via CONVECTION. in the video below, you can see ice and boiling water in the same test tube.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LGZilQKCf-g?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LGZilQKCf-g?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
 
well that was a fail. but still, i dont understand any of your guys' thinking. like what the heck does boiling point have to do with how good a water cooling fluid something is? (assuming you NEVER reach that point.)
 
nightbird thank god you are here to disprove basic water cooling truths... if it where not for you we would all mindlessly just run water in our water cooling rigs :rolleyes:

uuuh since when was a relationship between viscosity and heat capacity a truth?
 
Has anyone tried automotive radiator fluid?

Radiator fluids and various low-conductivity coolant mixes have been used in the past as corrosion inhibitors. They lower the conductivity of the coolant, preventing galvanic corrosion in mixed-metal loops. They don't improve heat transfer.

If all of your blocks/rads are copper then plain distilled water is what you want. All you need is some exposed silver or a tiny bit of CuSO4 solution in the loop to prevent microorganism/algae growth.
 
this thread should be deleted before some idiot reads this and actually tries it. the few factual posts in here are drowining in a myriad of garbage.

I agree 100%, who would run anything but KY personal lubricant in their loop?
 
Back
Top