What happens when you go too long between swapping out your tubing (pics + questions)

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DanNeely

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 26, 2005
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Shortly before Christmas my WC system sprang a leak and ran itself dry while I was at work. I've been busy with other stuff over the last few weeks; so aside from swapping my HDs to a spare box and trying to dry out my 5870 to revive it (failed), the only thing I did until today was to order a replacement pump.

With the new pump here I went to ID exactly what failed (had only localized it to a single barb) and start putting my new loop together. Once I pulled the kink coils away from the tube the crack in it was obvious:

TubeFail.jpg


It was about the same all over; visible (non penetrating) cracks along the length of the tube with the inner two thirds degraded and crumbly. MY camera's autofocus refused to cooperate and show it, but when pinched slightly cracks opened throughout the rotten plastic.

TubeCrossSection.jpg


Inside my block was a real mess. There was a gloppy mass of tygon debris piled up around the intake port. I was able to pull the big globs out with a toothpick but some of the yuck is still clogging up the channels. There was some smaller fragments scattered in the pump when I opened it up; but since it ran dry I bought a new one and am not really concerned about those.

BlockBefore.jpg

BlockAfter.jpg
 
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My questions now are:

1 Obviously 3 years is too long between tube replacement with Tygon (planned on doing it last fall, but Bulldozer's fail and Intel hexes staying at the $550 price point discouraged my building urge), how frequently should I be swapping out tubing as preventative maintenance?

2 The plastic top of my GTZ block appears permanently attached to the copper base; so how do I clean the remaining crud out of it?

3 Besides repeatedly half filling, sloshing, and dumping is there anything I can do to make sure there isn't any junk in my rad before putting everything together? The water from doing that appeared clean, but I don't know if that means it was clean or just the junk is stuck deep inside.

4 If not, does anyone sell a filter I could put in place to skim out anything carried away by the loop before it reaches my new pump?
 
Pretty sure tubing shouldn't normally do that. I'm sure i've had some of my tubing(masterkleer) about 3 years and mine doesn't even look close to that right now. What are you running in terms of liquid? Something other than distilled water?
 
I've NEVER seen a WC system that gunked up. My current WCsystem has been running without problem for 5 years and the tubes are as clear as the day I got them. WTH, are you using Coke as a coolant? There has got to be different bare metals like steel and copper that are exposed in different parts of the loop.
 
Holy crap... Distilled water and a kill coil... all I ever use and my loops are as clean as when they went it even up to a year later.

Why on earth do people use anything other then distilled water?!?!?
 
criccio said:
Holy crap... Distilled water and a kill coil... all I ever use and my loops are as clean as when they went it even up to a year later.

Why on earth do people use anything other then distilled water?!?!?
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I dont run pure distilled water (glycol and distilled water etc.) and my loops are just as clean after 1.5 years without fluid change. This isn't a typical or expected end result from not using temple sanctioned distilled water (in a sensible loop, no mixed metals etc.). :p
 
DeathPrincess said:
I dont run pure distilled water (glycol and distilled water etc.) and my loops are just as clean after 1.5 years without fluid change. This isn't a typical or expected end result from not using temple sanctioned distilled water (in a sensible loop, no mixed metals etc.). :p
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Yeah i run some G11 in my distilled instead of silver, and i've had my apogee and 655 for nearly 5 years and both are spotless inside and my tubing clouds some but hasn't ever gotten brittle.

I agree i don't know why people run the super pricey non water fluids only to have all these issues, seems like we get a couple threads a month like that.
 
Found the bottle.

The front of the label says: Valvoline racing supercoolant - zerex

The ingredients list on the back is: Water (7732-18-5), Ethylene Glycol (107-21-1), Potasium Hydroxide (1310-58-3), 4-Hydrobenzoic Acid (99-96-7), 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (149-57-5), Corrosion Inhibitors, Silicone Silicate, Defoamers, and Dyes.

On the grounds that it seems to be the likely offender, I'll be swapping it for a different brand in my new loop; once I find a way to finish de-crapping my waterblock.
 
i think simple distilled water with a few drops of algae inhibitor is recommended, coolant is unnecessary if i'm not mistaken
 
That's really odd that your tubing ended up like that unless that combo of zerex and ptnuke did something weird to it. Maybe the tubing was super old before you bought it?
 
I think it is that coolant that did it.

Just use distilled water with some sort of growth inhibitor like a silver killcoil or PT Nuke.
 
Why would anyone use coolant in a water-cooling setup? if your water is getting hot enough that you need to increase the boiling temp. you have bigger problems on your hands.
 
Wow....that is horrid. If you keep things clean during assembly and use proper fluids loops can go a very VERY long time without build up. I run 90% distilled, 10% antifreeze (green shit), a cap full of 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol (about a table spoon, 10 ~ 20ml), and a few drops of algaecide. This has kept my same loop build up free for 3 years now. Includes 2x 120x2 rads, a res, 3 water blocks and a pump. Good luck man...get that block super clean :/
 
darkstarcow said:
Why would anyone use coolant in a water-cooling setup? if your water is getting hot enough that you need to increase the boiling temp. you have bigger problems on your hands.
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If your mixing metals it's important. It helps protect against corrosion.
 
darkstarcow said:
Why would anyone use coolant in a water-cooling setup? if your water is getting hot enough that you need to increase the boiling temp. you have bigger problems on your hands.
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I use G11 cause its blue. I mix about an ounce into 10oz of water. Also kills anything that could grow in the loop. I've had zero issues but i'm also not running tygon tubing.
 
ziggo0 said:
If your mixing metals it's important. It helps protect against corrosion.
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Imitation said:
I use G11 cause its blue. I mix about an ounce into 10oz of water. Also kills anything that could grow in the loop. I've had zero issues but i'm also not running tygon tubing.
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I used a Swiftech 320 rad and an EK Supreme HF with just distilled water and kill coil. I wasn't aware of this mixing metals issue and I was fine. Are they different metals?

I still see no reason for these "coolants". They always seem to end with threads like this.
 
Most radiators use tubing made of brass. Your Swiftech is one such radiator. Brass does not react with copper.
 
Imitation said:
That's really odd that your tubing ended up like that unless that combo of zerex and ptnuke did something weird to it. Maybe the tubing was super old before you bought it?
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There's no date on the tubing, but I ordered it direct from McMaster Carr instead of an intermediary shop.
 
Yeah, that is not tubing failure that is whatever you used for coolant eating away the tubing. I had the same tygon tubing in my first WC rig for at least 3 years with no issues other then clouding. I still use pieces of that tubing when I do flushes and bypasses.

That is some crazy looking stuff. How did you not see that before?
 
DanNeely said:
Found the bottle.

The front of the label says: Valvoline racing supercoolant - zerex

The ingredients list on the back is: Water (7732-18-5), Ethylene Glycol (107-21-1), Potasium Hydroxide (1310-58-3), 4-Hydrobenzoic Acid (99-96-7), 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (149-57-5), Corrosion Inhibitors, Silicone Silicate, Defoamers, and Dyes.
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Yes that has a load of extra stuff not normally found in premixed solutions!

I think 2-Ethylhexanoic acid eats away at plastics, Potasium Hydroxide is used in batteries for it's conductivity. So you can spot the likely offenders.

4-Hydrobenzoic Acid is fine as is Ethylene Glycol, corrosion inhibitors etc. usually found in premix solutions. This wasn't because it wasn't pure distiller water with runes cast, it's because it had the extra stuff for motors included which normal PC specific coolants would lack. Using this wouldn't be the same as using any premixed solution. Even crazy expensive ones.

As for removal. Though my chemistry isn't up to date (plus i'm not sure what tygon is made from other than silicone), you've probably made Hydroxyl aluminium bis (part of napalm) and something called dimethylsilane. Need something that emulsifies silicone to remove it!

Not exactly sure whats best for that!
 
Do you have any idea what might work as a solvent?

At this point I'm tempted to try running a gallon or two through the block 1-way Res-Pump-Block-Sink drain; and if that fails to dislodge it just put everything together and see how well it works. My box not seriously overheating before the tubing failed indicates it's probably not a major hit.
 
I would cheack any o rings in your block if it ate the tubes it might have ate them. I just run antifreeze and water in my chiller and so far so good
 
DanNeely said:
Do you have any idea what might work as a solvent?

At this point I'm tempted to try running a gallon or two through the block 1-way Res-Pump-Block-Sink drain; and if that fails to dislodge it just put everything together and see how well it works. My box not seriously overheating before the tubing failed indicates it's probably not a major hit.
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There seems to be a few answers here: which might work?
 
I managed to get my block cleaned earlier today. Sometime in the past week whatever stiction was holding the copper and plastic parts together released allowing me to open it up and scrub it clean with a toothbrush.
 
I used to run red coolant which caused my koolance block to gunk up with a red paste which left residual residue behind for a year but NEVER after 2 years of running my loop has it ever gotten near that bad. I was running distilled for another year until my pump decided to blow up (guess I didn't flush it well enough) and so now I am going air cooling until I upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Still don't have anything like that in my loop, that is just nasty bad.
 
lol you gave your computer atherosclerosis! Stop feeding it hamburgers.
 
I'm suprised your machine didn't just overheat with all the gunk before it sprung a leak...
 
Found the following coolant formula years ago, and runs fine in my loop:
- 1 liter distilled water
- 3-4 capfuls of water wetter
- 1 capful of iodine (kills the bugs)

Tubes are fine after many years, and coolant works fine in both same metal and mixed metal loops - I've tried both with no issues with the above formula coolant.

The water wetter does stain your tubes a bit, but I run with red/UV colored tubing, so doesn't really matter to me. I do also try to do a liquid change once a year or so (sooner if I'm upgrading the loop).

If you want to clean out your block and its copper on the inside, ketchup works wonders. Put the ketchup in a bowl and the inside of the block face down in it, and leave it for 10-30m. The acid and vinegar in the ketchup cleans out the nastys. The take an old toothbrush and scrub out the gunk/ketchup, rinse and repeat until your happy. Down this with many blocks and it works great.

Good luck...
 
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