EK cryofuel clear vs distilled water with biocide

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Hi all, as per title, what’s better, EK cryofuel clear vs distilled water with biocide? What are people’s opinions? I am seeing mixed reviews on EK cryofuel.

I am intending to run a clear liquid in the loop with potentially a little dye for colour.

Any advice much appreciated! :)
 
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Am using cryofuel at the moment no issues
But have used all sorts of stuff over the years
Distilled, deionised, even the water from my condenser tumble dryer
In an emergency when had nothing else available
All with biocide though and concentrated dye
Personally it never caused me any problems
Never noticed any great temperature difference
Though I never did any sort of scientific measuring
That's just my personal experience
Doesn't mean it's right or wrong but worked for me
 
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Wow that’s quite a range! Tumble dryer water in an ‘emergency’! Must've been some emergency.

How long have you had the cryofuel in and is it the clear version? With ek dyes or other?
 
Soldato
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Lol yeah built everything to find didn't have
Enough coolant because added a second pump/reservoir combo
For redundancy just in case a pump fails
Not really something you can pop to the shop for
So got creative :cry:
Probably about 18 months
Yeah clear cryofuel
Ek dye think it was though got some swiftech stuff too
So might have been that
 
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I've mainly use deionised water since it can be bought for cheap, and then add a couple drops of concentrate if i wanted colour.

Touchwood, never had issues even when not using biocide (i have never tried.. just pure water), but thats subjective. I tend to flush my loop every couple years and not had any troubles.

I am a bit mixed with cryofuel. I am still testing what i like (may just stick with ol fashioned deionised), but i also have Azure Blue, normal blue, Mystic Fog and Cloud White.. all unopened apart from Mystic white... may have just been me, but the Mystic started separating after a month of use and staining the reservoir and blocks etc, so that kinda put me off.

In that case, i believe using pastel colours is only ideal for show builds as a temporary, but for long term to stick with vanilla water and add your own dye if needed.
 
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Yeah never went with pastel just in case
Did try mayhem's aurora
Looked amazing but after a while it separated
Got a picture somewhere
Very weird looked like I had a reservoir full of
Red caviar or something :cry:
So after that never tried pastel or any of those shimmering ones
Will stick to my tumble dryer home made coolant :cry::cry:
 
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Thanks a lot guys :) I am erring on the side of distilled water with dye and biocide, for a clear colour look.

1. Is distilled vs ionised a question I need to decide on? Are they the same in respect of their use in a watercooled loop?
2. Does using either mean I can't use the EK dyes? Do I need a different range?

More questions but thanks!
 
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hmm there seems to be a big debate between the 2, but i had always thought they both were the same.. just that distilled is more purer than the other.

Not done/seen any real world tests to justify which one is better, chances are you won't see any real benefit over one or the other
 
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Distilled, deionised ,reverse osmosis is a rabbit hole
If I get some tap water and quickly do either to it then
I could sell it labelled as such
Will the stuff you buy in a garage be as pure
As laboratory grade stuff I doubt it
So there's varying degrees of it
To my mind distilled means some sort of purification
Though again to what degree is a whole subject
To me deionised would mean all the ions have been removed
Therefore it doesn't conduct electricity
Again to what degree?
Would I test that by pouring it on live electric hell no lol
Is there any difference for watercooling
Not that I have noticed in my experience anyway

See no reason why the dye would be an issue in either
Other than over the years it may darken or it might not
Mines gradually went from fire engine red to a sort of purple
But can't deny that's from not really truly flushing it thoroughly
Every now and then
 
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The long and short of it is (from a chemists perspective) deionised is a more severe version of distilled. More pure, higher resistance - however you want to describe it, deionised of any quality should have less 'crap' in it. Whether that vanishingly small quantity of material is enough to start causing you problems in your loop is a completely different question though.

I wouldn't hesitate to put distilled water into a car rad, but for maintenance free WC loop operation I'd want something I could qualify a little better, which is why I personally just use pre-mixes because I know they generally have enough stuff in them to stop any life ever taking hold in the loop.
 
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Most likely, anything that has biocides and appropriate inhibitors in it will do you absolutely fine. Unless you're running your loop open like a fish tank you're not going to be introducing much in the way of foreign contaminants so a small amount should cover you. You'll be fine with cryofuel and a dye from that perspective and it even has corrosion inhibitors, though you shouldn't need that as I would hope nobody uses Al in their loops these days!
 
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I use Mayhems X1 blood red and won't use anything else these days. It looks good and doesn't stain my blocks, usually a rinse will remove it but occasionally I may need to lightly go over the block with a toothbrush if I leave the fluid in the system for a couple of years. I buy it in the 5 ltr size which makes it much cheaper than buying 1 ltr bottles but my loop takes 2.5 ltrs so it makes sense for me to buy in bulk.

If you use distilled/deionised water with a kill coil then none of your blocks should be nickel plated as you can have a reaction that will strip the plating.
 
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