Can't find tygon tubing. What do people use these days?

Soldato
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Aside from the hard plastic movement which looks far more bother than I can deal with.

I was thinking barbs + tygon + jubilee clamps. Used to use black tygon and compression fittings but the latter are a bit of a pain to attach. Mostly interested in flexible + resistant to kinks, will be running distilled water in it.

Thanks!
 
Compression fittings and soft tube has come a long way since "back in the day"..

I also did the barb/clamps thing, but now I swear by Barrow as they make really affordable fittings!

Af Avathar77 said, the EK-ZMT tube is really good. I'm currently using it myself.. the 16/10 tubing works perfectly with the Barrow 16/10 compression fittings and there's absolutely no strain or headache in tightening the collars over the tube!
 
My recollection with compression fittings is that the tube twists as you tighten them down. That makes it difficult to get the fittings screwed in to the right torque without leaving twist in the tubing that tries to unscrew the fitting as it warms up. That seems inherent to compression fittings, but maybe the new ones bite with much less angular rotation?

A jubilee clamp tends to rotate around the pipe a bit as it tightens but it doesn't matter much what position it ends up in, and better to have the clamp rotate than the tubing twist.

edit: ZMT turns out to stand for zero maintenance tubing. Branding is absolutely on point, will probably get that.
 
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Good old fashioned spit smeared on the outside end of the tube prior to tightening the outer fitting is what I usually do. It is Man's natural lubricant, as demonstrated by certain films if you are familiar with such things. What? You heard nothing.
 
Aside from the hard plastic movement which looks far more bother than I can deal with.

I was thinking barbs + tygon + jubilee clamps. Used to use black tygon and compression fittings but the latter are a bit of a pain to attach. Mostly interested in flexible + resistant to kinks, will be running distilled water in it.

Thanks!


I too used to use Tygon and barbs but you will find compression fittings have massively moved on and are much simpler to use now. The twisting you describe simply doesn't happen any more.

EK ZMT with EK satin torque compressions:

 
Mayhems excellent tubing and compression fittings. I have never had any problems since switching to Mayhems tubing. It's cheap and it does the job so I see no reason to pay silly money for what is essentially a throwaway item. Even using generic compression fittings I have never had the tubing twist when tightening the collar.
 
Some UK model shops sell Tygon tubing. It is used as fuel line for petrol engines in large scale R/C cars and aircraft. Note they will likely also sell silicone tubing as fuel line for smaller methanol engines, so make sure they know exactly what you want.
 
I was thinking barbs + tygon + jubilee clamps. Used to use black tygon and compression fittings but the latter are a bit of a pain to attach. Mostly interested in flexible + resistant to kinks, will be running distilled water in it.
Okay, firstly running a loop on just distilled water is a bad idea (and always was tbh). Even if you use all copper blocks or all nickel blocks you will still find other metals which over time will cause corrosion, I.E some pumps have steel in them, most waterblock jet plates are steel, most radiators are brass with tin flux, etc.

But focusing on tubing, basically Tygon fell out of favour a number of years ago because various IT retailers tried to cash in on their reputation as the Rolls Royce of tubing by selling lower grade Tygon stuff (intended for hooking up Bunsen burners and use in cars) and acting like it was their medical grade/food grade stuff. As a result their rep for quality within the water cooling community took a hit and over time people stopped paying premium prices for stuff that was no longer seen as premium.

The EK ZMT tubing that many have recommended is essentially EK's rip off of Tygon's R6012 Norprene tubing, it's not quite as good but it's cheaper and having used both over the years I have no qualms about buying the EK stuff for a new build.

As for compression fittings, they are better than they used to be but from a usability POV they are still not as good as barbs/clips, of course they look much better if looks are your prime concern, but then if you're even considering barbs/clips I guess looks isn't your main concern. Personally I still use barbs/clips in all my builds as I don't mind the aesthetic and like the functional advantages.
 
Mayhems excellent tubing and compression fittings. I have never had any problems since switching to Mayhems tubing. It's cheap and it does the job so I see no reason to pay silly money for what is essentially a throwaway item. Even using generic compression fittings I have never had the tubing twist when tightening the collar.
Yep, been using Mayhems tubing and clear pre-mix. Just use black nickel *competitor* generic fittings. Works a treat and the tubing hasn’t discoloured at all.
 
Great context on the drop in popularity of tygon there, thanks!

Distilled water w/ copper/nickel/brass/steel and some silver wire worked ok for a few years, never got around to working out which anti-corrosion additive would stay in solutionand not attack the tubing or O rings. It may have helped that I didn't change the water which presumably ended up saturated with various ions. Trying harder to work out what to add to the water this time around is on the to-do list.

Totally uninterested in aesthetics. It's going in a black steel box without windows :)

Edit: my browser picks different font sizes seemingly at random for different paragraphs, had a couple of attempts at guessing a reasonable number.
 
If you want zero fuss then EK's ZMT hose, Watercool's equivalent if you want the smaller 13/10 size, or any EDPM hose if you can get the correct dimensions, and Mayhems X1 Eco coolant (pre-mix or concentrate). Or distilled water and Mayhems Inhibitor + Mayhems Hades (petulant industry politics around the term "biocide" forced a name change).

Alternatively, Mayhem's ultra clear hose doesn't leech crap and is a great price.
 
ZMT with chromed fittings or Mayhems if you want clear tubing. If using ZMT, flush it before use. Always noticed some dust in and out.
 
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