Found a bad leak onto GPU !

martian1 · 29 Jan 2019 at 21:10

Hi all just after a little advice recently I have moved pc to install a sound card all went well. So ffw a couple of weeks and I decided to get a amp dac combo instead so decided to remove sound card today. I noticed a white patch of residue about 30mm in diameter on my gpus backplate and a little moisture. I have removed card and tried connectors on cpu block and again I got moisture from the joint. I have since tightened all the joints and ran PC with on board graphics. I found no leakage after running it a little while. I am pretty shaken by this obviously and am contemplating stripping the loop out to go back to a Aio or air..am I being hasty ? Not sure if I should just run it a few days testing for a leak then put GPU back but my bottle has gone s bit to be honest thinking what might have happened
I have lost confidence in it TBH how does this happen do joints slackened over time should I be checking them regularly which I don't ! The connectors are the half inch stainless type not hard piped or anything.
Advice appreciated

TangoEchoAlpha · 29 Jan 2019 at 21:28

Are they barb fittings with a clamp around the hose exterior, or are they soft hose compression fittings? If the former, I've had a few dodgy clamps (not in PC watercooling mind you) gradually work a little loose. I would be inclined to check compression collars etc whenever draining a loop if it were me.

martian1 · 29 Jan 2019 at 22:10

pretty sure they are the compression fittings very similar to these..

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-tech-labs-g1-4-silver-90-degree-rotary-adapter-wc-002-op.html

Never had this issue before, so these can slacken overtime I did not realise that ! its really put me off watercooling I mean if the connectors are not bullet proof its not worth the risk.

EsaT · 29 Jan 2019 at 22:39

Moving case around when installing sound card might have made tubes move enough for slight loose to develop.
At least if PC was assembled longer time ago any "original loose" should have been already visible when installing sound card.

martian1 · 30 Jan 2019 at 08:08

I have decided to go over every joint and re tighten there was a little bit play on a joint from the CPU so I think it's probably just worked loose over time. I am going to just run pump over night afterwards and check for leaks if all's good then hopefully that's all it's been and not a faulty connector which was my main concern. I will be checking all joints after this regularly !

MikeTimbers · 30 Jan 2019 at 16:21

Leaks happen, it's nothing to get too excited about. The most secure leak-tested system can develop a slow leak. One of the reasons for keeping a water-cooled system on 24/7 is the loop's pressure and flow is consistent without any of the surges associated with starting a pump.

Disco_P · 30 Jan 2019 at 21:59

If you are getting moisture from a rotary fitting it could be that the seal around the bearing isn't water tight anymore. I had a whole bunch of essentially DOA rotary barbs and some that leaked after my first loop rework however I have had no issues with my current EK rotary compression fittings despite them getting a fair amount of abuse.

martian1 · 31 Jan 2019 at 07:08

Thanks it is the rotary seal that's gone no amount of tightening will stop it. It's been a very close miss with me almost losing my GPU so time to move to a safer solution I am done with water loops. You guys are braver than me

Evil-I · 31 Jan 2019 at 15:26

Leaks do happen I'm afraid, but rarely and as long as you test your loop very careful after any hardware changes or moves (i.e. run with only pump powered and paper towels everywhere to helps spot moisture) then it's usually fine.

I've been water cooling for probably 12 years or more (which is nothing by the standards of some on here) and have had several leaks during that time but NO dead hardware because of it.

One thing to be very careful of is over tightening fittings on plexi blocks. I had an EK supremacy nickel plexi CPU block that leaked as I'd over tightened the fitting and cracked it. This slowly leaked over time onto my top graphics card and motherboard eventually causing a short. Thankfully, once everything had dried out (and I replaced cmos battery which went dead due to short) everything was absolutely fine. Switched to the solid nickel EK Supremacy block as I didn't fancy chancing Plexi again. Acetal is much stronger than plexi as an alternative.

Best advice, check check and check again during loop build and after any changes with pump running and system powered off. Then run system but still check carefully as adding heat into the loop can also makes things move enough to get minor weeping (only happened to me once, and was a compression fitting that needed tightening), but don't worry so much, hardware is pretty robust!