What do you do for watercooling maintenance?

DarkDubzs

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
354
I would imagine you have to maintain a closed water loop regularly to prevent a leak or failure. What do you do to make sure you wont get a leak or the pump will fail or the loop will clog or anything? Ive always liked air cooling better because peace of mind, sounds like a dumb reason, but I dont have to worry about a loop springing a leak and probably frying parts. I feel like it is only a matter of time for a loop to leak or fail, but they probably are replaced and upgraded before they can fail or leak. So for you watercoolers, what do you guys do for maintenance, and how often? Has your loop ever had a leak, if so, how could it had been prevented or what went wrong? Why should one move from air cooling to water cooling?
Thanks in advance!
 
Closed loop units, (or AIO) do not require any kind of maintenance beyond just clean the radiator and fans.. my brother have a Corsair H50 and a Corsair H70 working in his 2 machines since launch... im running A LOT of machines all with AIO closed loop units.. the only maintenance I do its just clean the radiator and fans each 2 months (max). all my case have high grade dust filters, however I just like to keep my machines clean except my 2 servers one with Corsair H110 and the other with Kraken X60 I clean it every 6 months..

I had in the past custom cooled rigs and the procedure its exact the same.. just that every 3-6 months I used to drain the loop and change the liquid (some machines with PrimoChill non-conductive others with just Distilled water + Algicide + Biocide).. and done...
 
With CLCs, if the pump fails or something clogs up, you replace it. There's no maintenance that can be done with it. Besides the usual that you would do with regular air heatsinks.

CLCs have leaked before, and there's nothing you can do to prevent a hose from bursting or other freak accidents.

With custom loops, preventing leaks is a matter of proper leak testing (running the pump in the system, but everything else powered off for a few hours) and proper installation. Maintenance is simple, usually just involving changing the water once or twice a year.
 
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