Draining a loop

tintin82

tintin82

tintin82

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27 Aug 2009
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Hi guys,

Going to be building my first loop with a RayStorm D5 EX360 WaterCooling Kit. I will be adding in a XSPC EX140 Single Fan Radiator as i plan to add my GTX 670 into the loop at a later date and figure it cant hurt to have the extra rad in now.

In planning this loop i am starting to think about how i would go about draining the system (better plan now rather than when i need to drain!)? I have seen various video on youtube from cutting pipes wide open into a bucket, to drain valves and drain hoses.

Whats the simplest way to drain. Would sucking all the water from the res with a syringe through the fill cap work? Or leave enough slack in the loop so i can take a section (say the res) clear of the system and then drain into a bucket?

Also, is EX stuff that much worse over the RX? With the EX on special looks good.

Thanks
 
Buy a T-Piece adapter that fits between your tubing (usually compression ones are safest) and then run a seperate piece of tubing from that T-line which is plugged by a stopper (Bitspower do one for around £5 i think, really nice too!). Situate this T-line near the bottom of your case so its away from all the components at the top.

When it comes to draining, just unplug the stopper and fluid will drain out naturally due to the pressure from above. You may need to stop, replug, tilt your case around to allow all the left over liquid in your blocks and rads to move to the bottom. Repeat process until its all drained.
 
eddyr said:
In addition to Jay, open up the feed/T line, to speed things up.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah forgot about that, it helps relieve the pressure within the system where air maybe trapped so fluid will run more freely out of your system. Usually opening the fill port works for me which would normally be at the top of your case.


I guess the best way to imagine it is... put a straw into a glass of water, put your thumb ontop of the hole of the straw, lift the straw out and water stays in the straw, open the hole and water drops out.
 
Thanks guys,

Not having much luck here searching for what i need to match the XSPC kit. Confused by all the hose sizes and metal types?

Sorry, complete noob. Where is best to get a T-Piece?
 
All of the below will work provided you have the fittings and room for them. These are only adapters so you'll need the barbs or compression fittings to go on the end of them. Unfortunately OCUK doesn't seem to stock the stoppers/bungs what go on the end of the tubing.. unless i've missed it completely.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-029-BP&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2059

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-018-BP&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2059


This one requires a stopper with G1/4 screw in for block off the unused 4th port as you'll only be using 3 ports:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-015-BP&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2059

Coupled with:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-181-EK&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2059
OR
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-075-OE&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2059

Will work fine.



Or if you have some cash to splash you could invest in a pair of these with the male and female couplings for quick disconnects. Just make sure you get the right size fitting for your tubing.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=962&catid=1529&subid=2305&rows=0
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all that.

I have found a T piece on another site that i will go for. Then a female to female adaptor and a cap on the end.

Would you recommend using plumbers tape on the fittings, or purchasing O rings, or should it be tight enough?
 
Are you using barbs or compression fittings?

For compression fittings you'll be fine as they come with O rings and for barbs you'll be fine as they're generally really tight anyway. Use a zip tie or something similiar to make sure it doesn't pop off if you wiggle the tubing too much.
 
t piece or a drain valve or flexible mounted res , drain plug on your rad lots of ways you can do it tbh

i have one of my resevoirs flexible mounted so i can twist and drain and also isolate it from the res of my system
 
Thanks for the advice.

I have orders the XSPC D5 EX360, with an additional EX140 Rad (plan to add GPU block later).

Also ordered a T-Piece, some extra compression fittings, and a plug.

Plan is to set it up like below, with the drain valve coming of the lowest point and tucked into a spare drive bay.

Anything obviously wrong with the plan below?

coolermasterhafxfulltow.jpg
 
I bought 2 x Koolance female quick disconnects and one male initially, although I'm going buy a 2nd male disconnect.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-043-KA&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2305
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-044-KA&groupid=962&catid=1529&subcat=2305

Put a M/F pair of quick disconnects somewhere low in your loop and when you want to drain simply unplug them from each other, take your spare disconnect with a piece of tube attached and running into a suitable collecting vessel and connect it to your loop.

Voila - nice and quick, no ball-valves which might get turned and block your flow and it's pretty fool-proof and no spills. Remove your filling plug from your reservoir to speed things up but actually using 2 x pairs of connectors would allow you to drain the whole of your loop better.

It's not a cheap solution, but it works really well for me.
 
It depends what you plan to do. If you are swapping in a new gfx card, reorientating the pump, radiators, tubing etc why have to bother with removing and remounting the cpu block. It is a bit of extra faff building in a drain but worth it for those occasions. Just makes things a bit easier.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I have all the kit apart from the T piece and plug that will hopefully arrive tomorrow, then i can get building :)

One question. While looking through my kit i notice the XSPC D5 dual bay res / pump has no indication of which port is in / out. The on-line manual does not state this either. Anyone able to help?

Thanks
 
Can you drain through a pump? (Alphacool 655 or whatever the D5 one is)

I ordered everything with the intention of adding a 3rd tube to the pump (which will be the lowest in my system) as the top has 4 ports (2 in 2 out). This 3rd tube would be plugged with the stopper that would normally go in the 3rd port on the pump top.

But thinking about it I am not sure if water will drain through the pump when it's off?
 
I used to have a t-piece and drain tube but it just was more pain than it was worth. Nowdays I just tip the case and pull one of the tubes off over a plastic jug.
 
muffles said:
Can you drain through a pump? (Alphacool 655 or whatever the D5 one is)

I ordered everything with the intention of adding a 3rd tube to the pump (which will be the lowest in my system) as the top has 4 ports (2 in 2 out). This 3rd tube would be plugged with the stopper that would normally go in the 3rd port on the pump top.

But thinking about it I am not sure if water will drain through the pump when it's off?
Click to expand...

You mean the second outlet on an aftermarket pump top? bad idea imo, I mean.. it could blow the stopper out or something, lol.

Draining my loop is really easy because it's external. If it was internal I would just remove the cpu block and unfasten the compressions over a bucket. It's not like you need to drain often anyway unless you have a ****-up.
 
OptimaLnrg said:
You mean the second outlet on an aftermarket pump top? bad idea imo, I mean.. it could blow the stopper out or something, lol.

Draining my loop is really easy because it's external. If it was internal I would just remove the cpu block and unfasten the compressions over a bucket. It's not like you need to drain often anyway unless you have a ****-up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, on an aftermarket pump top...I don't think it can blow it though (any more than if it was in the top directly). Let me explain...but first, are you saying it will drain through when the pump is off? I wasn't sure if the pump's pumping mechanism means that when it's not turning, water cant get through...

Anyway the explanation. So the standard pump top comes with 2 G1/4 screw-in caps (like on a fill port or similar, I believe) - these go into the two holes you don't normally use.

I'm just talking about extending one of those unused holes along a piece of tubing, so I can tuck it away in the case, yet flip it out when I need to drain, to make it easier.

So instead of:
Pump top -> screw-in cap

I'd have:
Pump top -> compression fitting -> tubing -> compression fitting -> female-to-female adaptor -> screw-in cap

So everything will be screwed and properly connected, that's why I don't think it can blow off?

I've actually already ordered all the bits, haha - but if this somehow doesn't work I'll just have to get some more...
 
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