why you shouldnt neglect proper loop maintenance

[Bubo]

I still have two unused bottles of Feser UV green and two bottles of Feser UV Blue up in the loft from when I was building my first ever loop about 20 years ago and chickened out of using them at the last minute after hearing the horror stories after buying, but before I actually built the loop. Used coloured tube instead always. The Feser green now actually has clumps of god knows what floating around in the bottle!

I think it is true though that it is the famous pH levels which dictate what happens to different dyes an pigments and so forth, so I think dyes can be done, but unless you know exactly how the pH in your loop as at the start, and also crucially how it may change with time, and how that might affect a specific type of dye, then it is going to be pot luck. Safer just to not bother with it.

 

[cavemanoc]

Funnily enough I'm hoping to go the other way - the UV blue I got is more white than blue, and quite subtle - I'm thinking of going Nuke Blue (UV) on the refill to get a proper colour under UV - hopefully no separation from that either

 

[DBT85]

I put EKWB blue in mine when I first did it in 2016, but it went a funny colour so I cleared it all out and just ran the water since. I actuallyh ave 2 bottles of purple sitting on a shelf that have been there for about 4 years .

Can't say I've done any maintenance at al though.

 

[Parsley]

I put EKWB blue in mine when I first did it in 2016, but it went a funny colour so I cleared it all out and just ran the water since. I actuallyh ave 2 bottles of purple sitting on a shelf that have been there for about 4 years .

Can't say I've done any maintenance at al though.

What sort of funny colour? Brown? A friends old loop from back then had red dye that went a really strange colour, stained everything horribly as well.

 

[DBT85]

What sort of funny colour? Brown? A friends old loop from back then had red dye that went a really strange colour, stained everything horribly as well.

No it was more of a weird pale green. It was probably a small rainforest trying to grow or something, or it didn't like being in a little sunlight.

Oddly now that I look at it, it's only the tubes from the reservoir to the GPU and the GPU to the top Rad that have any staining on, and both are about to get deleted for the time being anyway!

 

[Five.Stars]

This is why I gave up the watercooling game. Maintenance was just far too time consuming.

 

[Jay85]

This is why I gave up the watercooling game. Maintenance was just far too time consuming.

Do it right and you never have to. Longest streak i did without changing coolant was 6 years. Regular maintenance like cleaning fans etc are the same for aircooling.

The only annoyance with watercooling is changing components.

 

[Five.Stars]

Do it right and you never have to. Longest streak i did without changing coolant was 6 years. Regular maintenance like cleaning fans etc are the same for aircooling.

The only annoyance with watercooling is changing components.

Yeah I used to get upgrade itch quite regularly in my younger days, which wasn't really compatible with having custom loop. I did eventually design a loop with quick disconnects to make changing components easier but the quick disconnects caused issues themselves. Just decided to make a clean break and go with an AIO based system for ease and have now even ditched that to go fully air cooled.

 

[Parsley]

Do it right and you never have to. Longest streak i did without changing coolant was 6 years. Regular maintenance like cleaning fans etc are the same for aircooling.

The only annoyance with watercooling is changing components.

It's only annoying when fixing something . It's fun when upgrading!

 

[Mercutio]

Plasticizer build up is a thing, regardless, unless using glass. Adding dyes and other stuff to the mix... eh, always seemed like it was asking for it.
Running simple clear liquid (with anti-algae etc additives, sure) and ZMT. I don't think I've touched mine in about 2 years.
Had a good check around it all recently and there's clearly nothing weird happening. It just works.

Mixing water cooling with "gotta look nice for reddit" always seemed a bit... silly. Keep it simple, it'll run nicer for longer

 

[pugheaven]

Do it right and you never have to. Longest streak i did without changing coolant was 6 years. Regular maintenance like cleaning fans etc are the same for aircooling.

The only annoyance with watercooling is changing components.

Agreed, my recent loop was 4 years old, cleaned out when I did major upgradfe recently and was asotunded just how clean everything was... jack corrosion at all which was surprising as I didn't even look at what metals I was mixing just used EK Cryofuel and it has done it's job incredibly well. Nothing came out of the system , was cooling perfectly with little maintenance... maybe I got lucky... who knows... BUT I would say yeah, when upgrading it's a pain in the ass with a custom loop... just putting new GPU in would mean a whole drain... what I might do in a couple of years is build a CPU loop and a GPU loop and have them seperate in a larger case with their own fluids... and some shut off valves... might be easier then to upgrade a bit. BUT when it's all setup it's fun... it's only upgrade time that it's a pain!

 

[Drumroll]

Coloured coolants, LED, then RGB… if someone like/don’t mind the extra maintenance and potential issues, fine. After all the fever for bling, I had my last custom loop with chrome fittings, all acetal/nickel, clear coolant and ZMT tubing. Classy. No RGB.
But for the 7800x3D and the 4080, any decent case with T30s and a Phantom Spitit Evo is plenty, and quiet.
The biggest issue one may find is debris from radiators. Unbelievable the amount of crap is there, flush after flush.

 

[jabski]

Coloured coolants, LED, then RGB… if someone like/don’t mind the extra maintenance and potential issues, fine. After all the fever for bling, I had my last custom loop with chrome fittings, all acetal/nickel, clear coolant and ZMT tubing. Classy. No RGB.
But for the 7800x3D and the 4080, any decent case with T30s and a Phantom Spitit Evo is plenty, and quiet.
The biggest issue one may find is debris from radiators. Unbelievable the amount of crap is there, flush after flush.

I always use distilled water. Haven't used coloured coolant for many years

 

[Jay85]

Agreed, my recent loop was 4 years old, cleaned out when I did major upgradfe recently and was asotunded just how clean everything was... jack corrosion at all which was surprising as I didn't even look at what metals I was mixing just used EK Cryofuel and it has done it's job incredibly well. Nothing came out of the system , was cooling perfectly with little maintenance... maybe I got lucky... who knows... BUT I would say yeah, when upgrading it's a pain in the ass with a custom loop... just putting new GPU in would mean a whole drain... what I might do in a couple of years is build a CPU loop and a GPU loop and have them seperate in a larger case with their own fluids... and some shut off valves... might be easier then to upgrade a bit. BUT when it's all setup it's fun... it's only upgrade time that it's a pain!

This is my experience in general when it comes to change over time. If you do a good and proper prep job, you'll never have issues in the long run unless its something out of your control like the quality of the Nickel plating.

Honest opinion and experience, the only time i've ever had issues is when using pastel type coolants where it separates and leaves your blocks and rads all gunked up.

I tried the whole dual loop thing in my Lian Li build, though it was convenient, it made it exceptionally more expensive since i needed an extra Reservoir and pump. It's far cheaper to use QD's now in my experience and yes you can still use them in hardline builds provided you have enough space to manoeuvre and manipulate the tubing to free it from the quick disconnect.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

@Jay85 that's very Interesting
Didn't think you would be able
To use QD with hard tubing
Regretting selling my QD they made
Removing cpu or gpu so much easier