Colour Change - Pure Water only way left?

sellw88 · 11 Aug 2018 at 20:29

Good evening!!!

I have been having issues with my loop:

My blocks & radiators have come from my old loop (which had mayhems pastel red in it for ~ 3 years).

As part of the tear down, i used Blitz part one on the rads, and Blitz part 2 (24 hours) on the system.

I then put in Mayhems Pastel White into the system - pictures after filling (colour change from pure white IMMEDIATELY), and 1 week later:

So I contacted 'Mayhems' directly - and they advised me to run Blitz through again, and then i opted to put X1 in (in the hope that any colour change would be less obvious).

So - Blitz part 2 was run through again (24 hours) - NO colour change witnessed in the solution after the 24 hours.

I then filled with X1 - and again - near immediate colour change.
Pictures immediately after filling, and then 1 week later:

SO:

My only thought left in keeping a 'clear' fluid is to use Pure h2o... basing this on the cleaning solution not discolouring through the cleaning period.

However:

1) Am i OK to use a silver kill coil in my loop? (I have beeen advised i cant as my GPU block contains nickel (EVGA Hydro Copper?)

2) I cant use a biocide as it cant be used with PETG fluid.

So: How long can distilled water ONLY be used in the system? Are we talking days, weeks or months?

If there is any other solution please let me know, but any premade fluid seems to discolour immediately which is going to get expensive.

Cheers,
Craig

pre · 12 Aug 2018 at 00:01

Mayhems X1 Clear 1 Ltr Premixed is clear - have had bottles sitting around for months and they are crystal. Your problem is dyes are horrifically hard to completely get out without tearing down used components interiors.

Would normally say distilled can run least a few weeks without additives 100% if you just want to check for colour changes but hard to say with this super warm weather.

Panos · 12 Aug 2018 at 00:46

sellw88 said:
Good evening!!!

I have been having issues with my loop:

My blocks & radiators have come from my old loop (which had mayhems pastel red in it for ~ 3 years).

As part of the tear down, i used Blitz part one on the rads, and Blitz part 2 (24 hours) on the system.

I then put in Mayhems Pastel White into the system - pictures after filling (colour change from pure white IMMEDIATELY), and 1 week later:

So I contacted 'Mayhems' directly - and they advised me to run Blitz through again, and then i opted to put X1 in (in the hope that any colour change would be less obvious).

So - Blitz part 2 was run through again (24 hours) - NO colour change witnessed in the solution after the 24 hours.

I then filled with X1 - and again - near immediate colour change.
Pictures immediately after filling, and then 1 week later:

SO:

My only thought left in keeping a 'clear' fluid is to use Pure h2o... basing this on the cleaning solution not discolouring through the cleaning period.

However:

1) Am i OK to use a silver kill coil in my loop? (I have beeen advised i cant as my GPU block contains nickel (EVGA Hydro Copper?)

2) I cant use a biocide as it cant be used with PETG fluid.

So: How long can distilled water ONLY be used in the system? Are we talking days, weeks or months?

If there is any other solution please let me know, but any premade fluid seems to discolour immediately which is going to get expensive.

Cheers,
Craig

All the red residue it inside the rads and blocks, assuming if you didn't dismantle the blocks to clean them thoroughly.
For the rads, fill them up with vinegar (50% water 50% vinegar) and let them soak for some time.
The start rinsing by using distilled water, sake for a bit. let it stand for 10 minutes then sake again. drain.
Repeat 4-5 times until everything comes out clear. Is better to use a white bowl to collect the water to see if coming out clean.

bcfc0703 · 12 Aug 2018 at 13:07

I’ve had the same problem when going from red coolant and you have to keep flushing the system through. I went through about 12 litres of deionised water flushing the part 2 blitz out until it was clear.

Skorpion · 12 Aug 2018 at 13:27

Did you strip down the blocks and clean the flow plates and fins etc ??

It gets under the rubber seals as well.

bcfc0703 · 12 Aug 2018 at 15:07

Yes the red coolant is the worst for staining the insides of rads and blocks and is difficult to clean. Jayz2cents did a video on YouTube about it a while ago too.

tyler_jrb · 12 Aug 2018 at 15:25

Why in the past when i have gone between colors especially red-white. I clean CPU+GPU blocks manually via a strip down. And stick all the radiators on garden hose pipe, dry them out with compressed air and rinse with distilled out the system and again once in the system. Never had to use a blitz kit.

LuckyBenski · 12 Aug 2018 at 16:17

During your cleaning cycles, are you running the system? I wonder if heat when using the PC is causing the fluid to pick up deposits from the previous dyes.

sellw88 · 12 Aug 2018 at 19:02

Hiya Guys,

Cheers for your responses:

Regarding the radiator cleaning - I would have thought the blitz part 1 (radiator only) would have performed a better job than vinegar would have?

On the flushing front none of the 'water based' flush/ cleans have discoloured at all... I have had two water, DI water, and the blitz part 2, none of which have leaches any colour AT ALL.... it only seems to be coolant that instantly grabs the colouring....

The GFX is still under warranty so don't want to hear apart - all LOOKS clean inside (has cut outs)... the Raystorm I have presumed as clean, but could dismantle if that's potentially the problem.

If it's a suspicion that it's heat, would I be safe to use water ONLY? And if so how long for?

Unfortunately silver kill coil and biocide aren't an option due to loop incompatibilities.

Skorpion · 12 Aug 2018 at 19:36

Dont start the system itself. Just have the pump running and nothing else and leave it flushing for a while.

sellw88 · 12 Aug 2018 at 19:58

Then that's been done 3 times already :-(

Skorpion · 13 Aug 2018 at 10:30

In that case, as you are going from red to white, you will either have to strip the blocks down and clean out the gunge or just keep flushing and flushing until it clears which will take ages as there is red residue in your blocks

tyler_jrb · 13 Aug 2018 at 12:29

Best thing if you dont want to strip the entire system is to flush it out repeatedly with tap water, pump running at max for approx 5 minutes each time tilting and tipping the system. Then once clear rinse a few times with distilled.

Bubo · 13 Aug 2018 at 14:06

I would take each component out of the case and set each up in its own loop and see if the colouring is coming from any one particular source, i.e. just the rad, or just the gpu etc. In other words you would have the pump and the component in a loop on its own, with some means of filling, a T line would do, oobviously would need some flexible tubing for this to keep it simple. Then fill it will your coolant and see if it picks up any colour. Hopefully you will narrow it down to one problem component, most likely the rad, after which you can focus your cleaning flushes using tap water only, and I would reverse flow a few times as well, as the problem is probably down to a bleb of congealed pastel sitting in a dead zone on the rad or wherever, when the flow is normally going in one direction. Reversing flow will upset that prior dead zone. Also, there is no problem whatsoever in running a silver kill coil in your loop as long as it is just sitting in your res and not actually in directly contact with anything metallic in the res.

Glanza · 13 Aug 2018 at 15:55

Red is a bugger to get out of a loop no matter how much you do without fully stripping the blocks and running a harsher fluid through the rads, I went from XSPC blood red to Mayhems white and it took me days of running distilled, blitz kits and vinegar runs, at one point I'd got the loop hooked up to the tap for a constant source of 'clean' water.

sellw88 · 13 Aug 2018 at 18:05

Well, i have since been advised there is a biocide and corrosion inhibitor that will work in my system, so some of that will be used with Pure h2o...

I may well strip everything down and give a good clean again - i have spare pastel white and spare X1 clear, so i will try the single component suggestions and see where the problem is.

The raystorm i will strip down as a matter of interest and give a clean.

Will i be invalidating my warranty if i take the block apart on my card? (EVGA Hydro Copper 980ti)?

Zeeflyboy · 22 Aug 2018 at 14:34

sellw88 said:
Well, i have since been advised there is a biocide and corrosion inhibitor that will work in my system, so some of that will be used with Pure h2o...

I may well strip everything down and give a good clean again - i have spare pastel white and spare X1 clear, so i will try the single component suggestions and see where the problem is.

The raystorm i will strip down as a matter of interest and give a clean.

Will i be invalidating my warranty if i take the block apart on my card? (EVGA Hydro Copper 980ti)?

I guess to be sure, check with EVGA...

In reality though, I highly doubt it will affect any warranty status - EVGA will still honour warranties on cards that have had the standard blower removed and replaced with a water block. https://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmmain.aspx?faqid=57720

I haven't tried it yet but I've seen it suggested that a toothbrush and some toothpaste (which is a mild abrasive) is very effective at cleaning the blocks and fine fins.