Glass reservoirs & tube?

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2014
Posts
2,328
Location
The "North"
Hi, I have recently been looking into a new watercooling loop and noticed that there is a distinct lack of glass reservoirs as most manufacturers seem to use Acrylic. I have only seen the XSPC photon series, Aquacomputer Aqualis and one really expensive EK version. Does anyone have any experience with these and if so would you recommend it?

Also, has anyone had any experience working with Mayhems new glass tube, if so how is it to work with and is it any better or worse than acrylic and would you recommend using it?

As always, any help is greatly appreciated :)
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Mar 2013
Posts
3,322
Location
Caistor
Hi, I have recently been looking into a new watercooling loop and noticed that there is a distinct lack of glass reservoirs as most manufacturers seem to use Acrylic. I have only seen the XSPC photon series, Aquacomputer Aqualis and one really expensive EK version. Does anyone have any experience with these and if so would you recommend it?

Also, has anyone had any experience working with Mayhems new glass tube, if so how is it to work with and is it any better or worse than acrylic and would you recommend using it?

As always, any help is greatly appreciated :)

Haven't ever used neither, simply due to cost, but from what I gathered Aquacomputer Aqualis is very premium, and with their Nano-coating it's just the best you can get.

In terms of glass tube, you can't bend it without seriously investing into some equipment, so you need to take quite a number of angle adapters in your build to substitute. But it is a lot stronger than acrylic, and are not prone to staining.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jun 2007
Posts
2,617
Location
Watford, UK
Aqualis is good. I have the non nano coated version and don't have a problem with stuff sticking to it. I suspect this would be more relevant with a coloured coolant or pastel in particular.
The Aqualis XT has a fill level sensor and a temp sensor in it - which is handy. Connects either by USB or by Aquabus if you have an Aquaero.

Mayhems glass tube is really nice. Easily cut to length by scoring it, snapping and then sanding the edges. Fits the EK fittings well - not too tight, not worringly loose. Cannot be bent unless you have a kiln and stuff. Does come in a pre-bent 90 degree version though.
One thing to note is the ID is much smaller than expected so you may want to go for the 16mm OD to get the ID non-restrictive. I've posted the IDs according to Mayhems on the OCUK product reviews for each.

In the interests of full disclosure (or whatever) I should not that although I have a length of 12 and 1mm ODs and have tested both in an EK fitting, I haven't actually cut or built a loop with it yet. It looks really nice empty though :D
 
Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jul 2005
Posts
20,482
Location
Aberlour, NE Scotland
I have a Photon 270 and it used to be a pain to fill until I modded it. They really didn't put a lot of thought into the design of it apart from making it look good. The problem is that there is a central solid acrylic pole going from top to bottom and on the bottom of that pole is a baffle (more about this in a minute) while on the top is a disc. When you are filling there is only a single hole at the top and the water hitting the disc stops any air from getting out so the water goes everywhere. As for the baffle at the bottom the idea is to stop bubbling from the inlet. The only thing is that when bleeding because the inlets/outlets are all close together the water with the air in it comes into the res, hits the baffle and get's sucked back into the loop through the outlet. Should you finally get it bled the water in the res just more or less sits there doing nothing. It really is a terrible design.

What I have done is stripped it down and removed the top disc. This has made filling simple and what they should have done when they designed it. It's not as if that disc does anything either. The other thing I have done is drilled a 11mm hole in the baffle and fitted a tube similar to this (the one I got had a G1/4" thread) on the inside thread of the inlet so that any liquid returning to the res not goes through the baffle via the tube into the actual res. Now not only is it simple to fill it's also simple to bleed plus all the coolant available is used.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jun 2007
Posts
2,617
Location
Watford, UK
The top disc was probably to create some sort of fountain effect if you input at the top. You know, so you can have constant aeration of your coolant and a nice noisy loop :D
 
Associate
OP
Joined
29 Dec 2014
Posts
2,328
Location
The "North"
Thanks everyone, it looks like glass might be suitable for my next build then although I'll be going with the Aqualis as I want a easy to use top fill port :D

I may need to invest in a glass tube cutter though as on the Mayhems channel they make it look very easy to just snap after going round with the cutter :)
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Jun 2007
Posts
2,617
Location
Watford, UK
That or apparently a diamond Dremel disc is also good. I've also seen it done with just a file to scribe a line round it. Just some alternatives in case they're of help.
 

zia

zia

Associate
Joined
29 Jan 2007
Posts
711
My xspc 170 has a top inlet and bottom outlet no major issues.yes filling is slow but not annoying.

zia
 
Back
Top Bottom