Condensation

Dirk Diggler · 4 Sep 2015 at 23:45

If the liquid in the loop is always equal to, or warmer than the surrounding air temperature, is there zero risk of condensation no matter what the delta?

Nickolp1974 · 5 Sep 2015 at 07:31

That is correct yes, you can run your liquid a few degrees cooler and still get no condensation but factors of humidity come into play here.

Dirk Diggler · 5 Sep 2015 at 09:32

Likely worst case scenario would be air temp of 4c and liquid temp of 30c.

andybird123 · 5 Sep 2015 at 10:33

You're planning on putting radiators somewhere cold, right? Like outside or garage?
In normal running you won't have a problem, but what you will need to be careful of is on startup, where your indoors air temp is 20C but your startup fluid temp is around that 4C

Or what?

Otherwise if fluid temp is always higher than the air temp of ALL the components then you can't get condensation
Condensation forms when warm wet air hits a cold surface, if the fluid is warm then all the components will be warm so there's no cold surface to condense on

Dirk Diggler · 5 Sep 2015 at 10:37

andybird123 said:
You're planning on putting radiators somewhere cold, right? Like outside or garage?
In normal running you won't have a problem, but what you will need to be careful of is on startup, where your indoors air temp is 20C but your startup fluid temp is around that 4C

Or what?

Nearly. The whole setup will be in my garage. That's why the liquid in the loop will usually not be colder than air temp.

The only curve ball would be if temps were to plummet overnight and then rise quite quickly in the morning, where the liquid might stay cooler. Although I'm not sure this will be a factor.

BluD · 5 Sep 2015 at 14:59

I assume ya only staying in the garage over summer? Might not be great having a water cooled PC in a garage overnight if its freezing outside.

As for condensation, your garage should stay nice and cool as theyre normally well shaded and a good place for storing beer, providing you dont keep your tumble dryer in there

Nickolp1974 · 5 Sep 2015 at 15:00

Ever thought of using a pond pump(£20) and a bucket full of ice, salt and enough water to cover pump?? You could get subzero temps and your cpu/VGA will love you for it!! Just wrap kitchen roll around blocks and pipes and your good to go! You should gain 200hz+ on cpu and around 150hz+ on vga, i've a thread at MLG regarding this.

BluD · 5 Sep 2015 at 15:21

I ran my aircon through one of my rads one summer for a laugh, got very low temps, but also got a tonne of condensation, just managed to power down before it all started dripping onto my mobo.

It would have been fine if i had kept my GPUs under load but i must have alt tabbed out to check a forum or summat and forgotten i was chilling the water.

Dirk Diggler · 5 Sep 2015 at 16:40

BluD said:
I assume ya only staying in the garage over summer? Might not be great having a water cooled PC in a garage overnight if its freezing outside.

As for condensation, your garage should stay nice and cool as theyre normally well shaded and a good place for storing beer, providing you dont keep your tumble dryer in there

Ooh, forgot about tumble dryer! Will keep an eye on that.

Nickolp1974 said:
Ever thought of using a pond pump(£20) and a bucket full of ice, salt and enough water to cover pump?? You could get subzero temps and your cpu/VGA will love you for it!! Just wrap kitchen roll around blocks and pipes and your good to go! You should gain 200hz+ on cpu and around 150hz+ on vga, i've a thread at MLG regarding this.

Sounds interesting, will have a look. :cool: