Cleaning ek clear water blocks?

JonJ678 · 27 May 2009 at 06:19

Hey. I'd like to strip down the blocks to clean them. I'm concerned about the blocks leaking after doing so, anyone tried this?

Can't clean acrylic with alcohol, and I dont think citrus degreaser is the answer. Presumably distilled water? Very hard water area here, so tap water would be a bad call. Anyone know where I can get a few litres of distilled water? Not looking for a competitor, I hoped a supermarket would stock it but the local one doesn't appear to.

Cheers

PaulyD · 27 May 2009 at 09:48

Yep just use distiller or de-ionized water to flush them out, use a toothbrush or paintbrush to loosen any bits from dye or remove tough sauna then flush again.

Don't worry they won't leak afterwards, will fine.

Supermarkets, car places and petrol stations should have the water, my local petrol station has de-ion, I come down and clear them out all the time!

invisible69 · 27 May 2009 at 12:15

I would also add some white vinegar to the distilled water, just to make sure that any machining oils are 100% removed. Then make sure you thoroughly clean it again with distilled water.

JonJ678 · 27 May 2009 at 12:37

Why would vinegar remove oils? I'll probably skip on that one for fear of it attacking the seals or acrylic, paintbrush and distilled water will do me just fine. Will probably rinse with copper sulphate assuming I can find the stuff, 8 quid a bottle for feser 1 is ruinous.

I'll try the local petrol stations in a day or so and see what I can find, hadn't thought of looking in car related places. Cheers guys

.:SAmSuNG:. · 27 May 2009 at 12:56

de ionized water is fine from any petrol station.

Bubo · 27 May 2009 at 13:40

You seem to be specifically wanting to clean the acrylic. What is it like now and how did it get like it? You've not had your loop going that long have you? Has it clouded up or is it a stain or something?

JonJ678 · 27 May 2009 at 13:49

Sorry, I've been unclear somewhere. The acrylic itself is fine, looking into the EK supreme there's some crap caught up in the fins in the middle. Nothing significant, but it is a nuisance.

I'm concerned about chemicals on acrylic as it's not exactly resistant to chemical attack, probably would have been a better call to go with the black versions.

Loop has indeed not been going long, good memory mate. It has blue feser going through it, which I'm now pretty certain is aqueous copper sulphate (drank some while siphoning it out of the loop, and for my faults I know the taste of copper sulphate). This shouldn't stain things with any luck. Not sure where the crud in the loop has come from, plan is to wash it all pretty thoroughly with distilled water then replace with either new blue feser or copper sulphate if I can find a supply of it and get the calculations for concentration right.

PaulyD · 27 May 2009 at 13:58

It would be the blue feser causing the crud, had it happen in mine and only noticed when i opened up the fuzion v2 to clean it, there was loads of it!!

Only use de-ion water now (as thats what the local petrol station stock) and not had an issue since.

Would also be better having blue tubing than blue coolant, looks better I think unless you really wanna show the res of somewhere

JonJ678 · 27 May 2009 at 14:03

Oh rubbish, that's a very annoying thing to be told. I'll go with deionised with a certain amount of copper sulphate, no algae for me thanks. I'm not great with electrochemistry, but I should still be able to run those sums.

I've got black tubing, only went with feser in order to avoid corrosion/bacterial problems. Should've researched it more perhaps. Cheers

Bubo · 27 May 2009 at 14:27

I concur regarding the potential risks of using dyed coolants. I was all set to setup my dual loops up with UV feser one, blue and green, bought two litres of each. Then I saw some pics on this very forum of a guy who has a disaster with green UV feser, and I saw another on another forum with blue uv. In both cases the dyes seemed to coagulate and get stuck in the blocks. Instantly put me off the idea of putting anything other than de-ionised and PT-Nuke in my loops, went with coloured tubing instead. Sure there are loads of people who use feser one without problem, which only makes it worse as it seems there must be some common denomiator causing this problem but no one seems to know what it is. Its a damn shame as although UV tube is ok it doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as proper UV fluid.

PaulyD · 27 May 2009 at 14:32

Yep I had the problem with the feser as well clogging up the pins and its the only blue coolant I have used so was definately that. have also seen feser turn into a sludge as well and stick in the res!

I think tubing looks better than uv fluid to be honest after trying both.

Does PT Nuke colour the water at all? I'm currently using a silver kill coil in my loop which stays hidden in the res

Bubo · 27 May 2009 at 14:34

JonJ678 said:
I'll go with deionised with a certain amount of copper sulphate, no algae for me thanks. I'm not great with electrochemistry, but I should still be able to run those sums.

I think I am correct in that the PT-Nuke anti-algae water treatment is copper sulphate. You are only supposed to add a couple of drops per litre of water and believe me you cannot see any hint of blue once it is mixed in, and I added a good 4 drops to be sure. It doesn't react with UV either. Its hard to get a clear answer why but apparently it is best not to put any more than that in, although instinct would tell you why not put the whole bottle in.

JonJ678 · 27 May 2009 at 14:57

I'm not looking for UV reactive, and would be astonished if copper sulphate was

I've read that about the original pt nuke. Seems sensible, as it would work rather well as a biocide and not attack copper. At that dilution it wouldn't be coloured. As for greater concentration, I'd expect corrosion rate to correlate with concentration of the sulphate.

Beyond that I can't comment at the moment. Assuming tubing is inert, my loop has copper and nickel in it. For a given concentration of solution it should be possible to calculate corrosion rate, but I'm not doing so until I've slept for a bit. I can probably find a chemist willing to donate some cuso4 for me to play with if it looks good. Will see how it goes.

.:SAmSuNG:. · 27 May 2009 at 16:13

You only want to be using 1-2 drops of PT-nuke. 4 drops is too much and will totally scale up the inside of your tubing and blocks etc. Im speaking from experience.