Using Isopropanol to clean Mayhem's Aurora "Pearl Staining" from tubing

snedie · 5 Oct 2012 at 18:36

First off sorry for the quality, this was recorded with an Iphone (3gs) so the lighting is pretty poor.

I purchased 5 liters of 99.9% pure Isopropyl Alcohol from "APC Pure" to test if it is any good at cleaning up tubing. As you can see in the video below it works extremely well, removing ALL of the pearlescent used in Aurora coolants and almost all of the staining which you get from any colored coolants.

A few safety precautions for those who may/do use this method:
- IPA is flammable, always store outside of your home and take common sense precautions when using it
- The fumes from IPA are toxic and can damage the lungs, affect the brain and can even cause death. Always use in a well ventilated room, with a fan(s) pushing the air out of an open window.
- IPA at this strength will damage acrylic/perspex (and probably other plastics/rubbers). In the video I used it neat (99.9%) and it caused micro cracks on my two reservoirs (no leaks).

Enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqlbP7gjReg

OptimaLnrg · 5 Oct 2012 at 19:22

Has it damaged the o-rings on your fittings?

Mayhems · 5 Oct 2012 at 21:34

a lot of ppl Use IPA, We get loads of ppl telling us its what they use all so we told ppl about it on our bit-tech interview. How ever you should not use it pure. What it does it literately does is melt the pearl and strips off its protecting coating.

hutzdani · 5 Oct 2012 at 22:38

I use IPA at work for cleaning Fibre Optics and its 99.9% also, i recommend you don't use it on any plastic's over 50% mixed !!!

I have used it in Deodorant can plastic tops to use for 10mins on site and it has eaten through the plastic.

Don't assume it wont do harm to tubing / Res used pure.

on a side note it smells nice and does indeed make your brain hurt.

snedie · 7 Oct 2012 at 10:35

OptimaLnrg said:
Has it damaged the o-rings on your fittings?

Not that I can tell. They don't leak and don't seem to be hoeing any signs of deterioration I would advise using the stuff diluted though, I'm going to experiment with the concentration and find out which works with the least IPA.

snedie · 7 Oct 2012 at 10:37

hutzdani said:
I use IPA at work for cleaning Fibre Optics and its 99.9% also, i recommend you don't use it on any plastic's over 50% mixed !!!

I have used it in Deodorant can plastic tops to use for 10mins on site and it has eaten through the plastic.

Don't assume it wont do harm to tubing / Res used pure.

on a side note it smells nice and does indeed make your brain hurt.

Yer I neglected to account for the fact that alcohols want to evaporate. Had the stuff running in a loop for an hour with an open res, suffice to say I had to go stand outside to get shut of the dizzies.

snedie · 7 Oct 2012 at 10:40

mlwood37 said:
a lot of ppl Use IPA, We get loads of ppl telling us its what they use all so we told ppl about it on our bit-tech interview. How ever you should not use it pure. What it does it literately does is melt the pearl and strips off its protecting coating.

Do you know what purity works? I was going to try starting from 10% and work my way upwards.

Mayhems · 7 Oct 2012 at 11:58

I dont know its not some thing i use my self. For cleaning i just run though the mains tap and flush afterwards not only does this work but all so it does not damage any thing.

andybird123 · 7 Oct 2012 at 12:15

in the semiconductor industry they often use 6% ipa for as they've shown it's as effective as 70% for they need it to do, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you found that 10% was fine (this should also be fine to use on plastics etc.)

snedie · 7 Oct 2012 at 12:25

andybird123 said:
in the semiconductor industry they often use 6% ipa for as they've shown it's as effective as 70% for they need it to do, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you found that 10% was fine (this should also be fine to use on plastics etc.)

Good information bud. I'll give 10% a shot some time and see how it performs