Distilled or DeIonized Water with KillCoil, Biocide or what?

[wrenaudrey]

It's been nearly a year since i did my watercooling loop and i think its time for a change.

This initial loop that i have now, i used 1 and a half litres of XSPC EC6 Clear, i like clear coolant and this has had no problem at all.

Now this time round i dont want to pay £9 odd for 1Litre of coolant. Instead i want to use something cheaper and this is where im running into some problems.

Which coolant/water to use for a watercooling loop - Distilled or DeIonized?

Also, what other things do i need to add within the loop if using distilled or deionized water and not a premixed coolant like XSPC's EC6 - Killcoil or Biocide?

Will the silver killcoil react/corrode to anything in my loop at all? I have the following components:
EK-Supremacy Clear Nickel Plexi
XSPC Razer Titan Block w/ Backplate
Alphacool UT 360
Alphacool UT 240
Phobya Balancer 150 Silver/Nickel
Alphacool D5 Pump
XSPC D5 Top
XSPC Assorted Fittings

Thanks in advanced

 

[wrenaudrey]

My loop I just used Halfords De-Ionised water with some biocide and never had any issues.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...01&langId=-1&productId=165335&catalogId=10151

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-020-MH&groupid=962&catid=1531

How long have you had the loop going RJC? How often d'you redo/refill your loop? What components d'you have - copper, nickel? Any damage at all to any of your components?



I've been reading around and people are saying that deionised water has the chance to ruin your components.
So from what you guys are saying, the effect of deionised water reionising once it hits metal and starts corroding it is negligible?

 

[wrenaudrey]

You *should* use a corrosion inhibitor or you will get corrosion, however how long it takes varies from loop to loop, could cause you issues before the loop is next changes, might not.

From the list you seem to have the following metals in your loop:

Copper, Brass, Steel, Tin, Nickel, Aluminium.

And as water likes to have minerals in it it is only a matter of time before it leeches atoms of all those metals and starts flowing them around the loop, corrosion inhibitor is there to slow the rate at which they will interact with all the metal sources (just slow it, nothing can stop it but it can be very greatly slowed).

As for DI vs Distilled vs RO vs ETC, they are all different types of de-mineralised water and unless you plan on running nothing else in the loop (bad idea) it doesn't make a difference.

If you want a really cheap solution just buy a 5L bottle of DI and a 1L bottle of concentrated engine coolant, mix 10-15% coolant in with the DI and you have 5.5L+ of coolant for under a tenner. This is how we used to do it before all the specialist fluids hit the market.

Im really considering the DeIonized water and car coolant route. But if i was to go down this route, i would still need to add biocide right?

Also, the colour of the car coolant, wouldnt that change the colour of the overall fluid? or even maybe stain the tubing?