oil instead of water..........???

supasoaker

supasoaker

supasoaker

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I have seen many bad cases of corrosion in watercooling setups, especially in mixed metal systems where Galvanic corrosion is unavoidable.........even with grounding the flow of water will produce a small current....

I know oil is not as good at cooling as water but it is at least inert so will save on maintenance and allow me to resale my cooling parts at a later date.....I am aware that mineral oil can corrode o-rings but a silicone based one will not.....plus you can buy food grade silicone oil quite cheaply so it is not too toxic......

So the question is will it work ok?

I might put some math together on the expected cooling performance and post if anyone is interested for peer review of my figures, but I await necessary slander of the idea just as equally :P
 
well theoretically, you could submerge everything in oil and use that too cool it and I suppose it would be quite efficient!!!

I might try it at a later date :p

Honestly though, just stick with water :)
 
thanks - I don't have a rig atm so cannot test it I am afraid......... :mad:

found this originally but I think it is a real waste and don't want EVERTHING covered in oil:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203.html

and things like this really should be avoided in my opinion:

215236d1308032159-running-aluminum-loop-gunk-corrosion.png


I will have a look at some figures later and post what I find just out of interest, I suspect it will run hotter unless you increase the flow but you may find it runs just as well in real life.......can only tell with a test.........
 
Heat capacity is a bit under half that of water. Viscosity is likely to be higher, so friction loses and flow rate will be lower. Much lower Reynolds number, so flow in the waterblock will be less turbulent. Conductivity is probably lower, but that's unlikely to register.

Oil attacks O rings, but with a little care in chosing which oil to use that shouldn't be an immediate problem. The laing DDC doesn't have lubricant exposed to the fluid, so I imagine most pumps dont. Oil wont leech useful lubricant away then. Lots of things attack acrylic, oil might do.

It's probably not worth it as a means of avoiding galvanic corrosion, but in the interests of finding out whether it works or not it's worth a shot. I'd say it'll work worse than water, but probably well enough for 24/7 operation.
 
JonJ678 said:
Heat capacity is a bit under half that of water. Viscosity is likely to be higher, so friction loses and flow rate will be lower. Much lower Reynolds number, so flow in the waterblock will be less turbulent. Conductivity is probably lower, but that's unlikely to register.

Oil attacks O rings, but with a little care in chosing which oil to use that shouldn't be an immediate problem. The laing DDC doesn't have lubricant exposed to the fluid, so I imagine most pumps dont. Oil wont leech useful lubricant away then. Lots of things attack acrylic, oil might do.

It's probably not worth it as a means of avoiding galvanic corrosion, but in the interests of finding out whether it works or not it's worth a shot. I'd say it'll work worse than water, but probably well enough for 24/7 operation.
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thanks JonJ678 - I agree with what you say, for Viscosity I think it also depends on the oil used as there are super low viscosity Silicone Oils that are very close to water.

lower friction loss is an interesting possible advantage but I agree there is an issue with a lack of turbulent flow in the water block......

My guess is that it will work, but with the right configuration maybe (hopefully - big guess here!) not as badly as it might seem......

Can you explain further why you think it might not be worth the effort to prevent galvanic corrosion?
 
Jokester said:
Just use corrosion inhibitors and don't put mixed metals in contact with each other and the water.
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There will always be some degree of galvanic corrosion with water even with corrosion inhibitors, it is a well known issue in cooling systems even if it is minimal.

sorry to be really picky I don't want the dialogue to degrade.....

It will be almost impossible to have a single metal type system, even manufacturers make mistakes (I remember one water block that had the top part alu and bottom copper!).....even the fact that you have acrylic pipe between 2 metals which will have a different temperature will produce a potential difference, not to mention the flow of a liquid......
 
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If you electrically isolate them then there's no path for the electrons to flow though, which is why the copper and plated aluminium blocks were a disaster when the plating failed.
 
Jokester said:
If you electrically isolate them then there's no path for the electrons to flow though, which is why the copper and plated aluminium blocks were a disaster when the plating failed.
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I agree, which is why I originally thought of grounding my cooling system, but research showed that even with grounding water will still corrode, even if very slowly.........
 
Jokester said:
You don't want to ground them, keep them completely electrically segragated.
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as far as I am aware the cooling fluid will allow the passage of electrons, especially if it is water, but I am willing to stand corrected if need be..........would rather the conversation moved on......

an engineer who designed automotive cooling systems in the UK discussed it with me, in their test rig they grounded all the components together so that the PD between them would be about the same, inhibitors work well for this too but still cannot be avoided.........if they are all separately grounded to a path with no resistance then I would def have to agree with you.....
 
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No, they're the bits you get when you remove electrons from metal atoms. The electrons flow through an eletrically conductive route (the metals) and the ions flow though an electrolyte (water).
 
are you trying to say that pure water will not allow the passage of electrons through it?

Everything is conductive simply to a greater or lesser extent than what you are comparing it to and water happens to be highly conductive........I agree that in some schools of thought the actual mechanism of transfer might be through ions only but pure water will do.........

any links to this profound source of knowledge?
 
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