How often do you *actually* drain your loop?

Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2010
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5,696
interested to see the discrepancy in people’s loop maintenance.

I’m planning to just used distilled water with a biocide, so no colours etc, hoping for as low maintenance as possible.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2005
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Reading
Been using Mayhems X1 blue for 15 months and still looks as new and temps are good so probably when I upgrade my GPU next (3 series).
 
Soldato
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20 Nov 2005
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Redditch
About every 12 months, depending on what other work I have to do on the computer.
It usual ties in with me getting bored of how it looks, so end up changing something :D
 
Man of Honour
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12 Jul 2005
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Aberlour, NE Scotland
Longest ever for me was 2.5 years with de-ionised water and Primochill Liquid Utopia and only got drained then due to a platform change. Last year I drained down a loop that had been running Mayhems X1 red for 18 months and everything was as pristine as the day the loop was set up, not even any staining. Going to drain down again next week as I am moving my computer into the spare room and will have a even longer loop than I have now. The way I see it is, if it's all working fine with no build up of gunk or discolouration then leave it alone. Only Mayhems X1 is going in my loop as I have has no problems with it, it looks good and has all the additives you need for a loop.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
29 Sep 2010
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5,696
Longest ever for me was 2.5 years with de-ionised water and Primochill Liquid Utopia and only got drained then due to a platform change. Last year I drained down a loop that had been running Mayhems X1 red for 18 months and everything was as pristine as the day the loop was set up, not even any staining. Going to drain down again next week as I am moving my computer into the spare room and will have a even longer loop than I have now. The way I see it is, if it's all working fine with no build up of gunk or discolouration then leave it alone. Only Mayhems X1 is going in my loop as I have has no problems with it, it looks good and has all the additives you need for a loop.
I will look into the x1 in that case, sounds good!
 
Associate
Joined
19 Feb 2018
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76
I’m about 2 years now. De-ironised water with biocides. Going to change to hard line soon so hopefully will be ok till then. No signs of anything in the water, still looks fresh.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Dec 2019
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6,440
Location
Planet Thanet
Probably shouldn't have done it lol
But 3 years with water
From my condensing tumbler
Dryer lol
Had no coolant so in a
Flash of inspiration
Or was it desperation
I used couple litres from the
Tumble dryer tank thinking if its
Evaporated off then condensed in
The drier any impurities
Should be out of it????
Ran it through a filter and
Added biocide
Worked perfectly well for 3 years
Though not recomnending
Any one copy's me lol
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2006
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Location
Amsterdam, NL
I used to drain fairly often just because I like different colours.

I'm about to drain again next week following it running for a month or so now and I can see some bits of guff on the CPU block from running through longer than I did rinse it for.

So I'll give the blocks a clean out, new liquid and then that'll likely be it for a year or so.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2017
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Beds
20 months and counting! Though I've been staring at it and planning what else to change while its drained. Several improvements I want to see:

- Better hard-line routing
- Move graphics card to top slot
- Replace fans

So it's driven by other factors really.
 
Associate
Joined
11 Dec 2019
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474
Location
Cardiff
So here's what I found after draining a loop that hasn't been touched for a minimum of 6 years...

lOtfrn4m.jpg

Quite a lot of really thin flaky scale which got me concerned for the CPU block so had to dismantle that.....

Rb6sllNm.jpg

A little bit of gunge but it has fared extremely well. I will definitely need to flush out the radiators at some point as I wonder if some of the scale has sat there or maybe I have been lucky enough that my setup has ensured it falls and collects in the drain line.



I filled my loop with boiled water and Zerex.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2006
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16,814
Location
Amsterdam, NL
About to do mine again after running for a month now, I'll be putting in a different colour liquid as I think I prefer the pastel rather than clear look. But this is mainly to clear up any scale that might have now finally worked it's way loose, clean the blocks and then thats it. Won't drain again for another year.
 

Kei

Kei

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2008
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2,750
Location
South Wales
Currently 3 years here. I have no intention on dumping the fluid until 5 years. If it can last that long in my car cooling system, it can easily last that long in my pc. (Using bmw nitrite free which is just G-48 in a lower concentration) I’ve only changed fluid once since 2013 and that was just for a change of colour. Not even a sniff of corrosion at that point in 2017 and only a tiny amount of plasticiser caught in the block jet plate.
 
Associate
Joined
13 Jan 2018
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458
Location
London
In the early days (over 2 decades ago when I started) every 12 months if not sooner. More recently, only when I need to for an upgrade or leak. Last loop ran on de-ionised and kill coil for over 4 years before I drained it. No performance issues but did have lots of plastiser build up from crap MasterKleer tubing (since replaced with Mayhems).
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Aug 2013
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4,549
Location
Lincolnshire
As of recently likely every 12-18months. Had this liquid in now just over a year and likely will leave it a few more months yet before replacing as it still looks and performs like new.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2005
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Reading
4 and a half years! what coolant do you use and tubing? I drained and cleaned everything yesterday and had green stuff in my GPU block and temps have dropped 3c since the clean CPU are about the same but there wasn't really anything in the CPU block.

GPU Block -
 
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