Well I got this second hand asetek waterchill kit for next to nothing on ebay and I found that the previous user seemed to have used tap water!
The water contacting surface of the CPU block was totally coated by a nasty black copper oxide, which i successfully removed with vinegar and then brasso, along with all the oil and crud on the underside. The fittings had been put in the wrong side of the acrylic top, so boiling the top and using plyers managed to let me get them out. The old pipes (which i only didn't replace instantly because of testing the kit for faults) were lined with white powder (guess what), which i removed with a strongly acidic limescale remover, which i also used on the plastic innards of the pump (hydor seltz L20 A/C). Finally, after some worrying and hesitation, I ran the limescale remover through the radiator (Black Ice Pro, all brass water contact area), rinsed it, soaked it in for 5 mins more and rinsed it thoroughly.
That's gotten everything very nice and clean, but one thing is worrying me; at least 2 little pieces of plastic were loose in the plenum chamber on one side of the radiator before i started, i had a look inside and saw them blocking off the bottom row of 6 channels on one side. The process of cleaning it has removed the other 4. When it was full of limescale I had assumed they were just pieces of limescale that were blocking the pipes, but they remained when it was all dissolved.
My question to you is this: What are those plastic things and are they important? I'm hoping for a best case scenario where they were evil little things put there to limit the flow to make for a budget radiator, like often happens with CPUs and other things (although in these cases, normally the ones selected for limitation are the ones that fail quality control on that section)
Gah! Who uses tap water >.<
The water contacting surface of the CPU block was totally coated by a nasty black copper oxide, which i successfully removed with vinegar and then brasso, along with all the oil and crud on the underside. The fittings had been put in the wrong side of the acrylic top, so boiling the top and using plyers managed to let me get them out. The old pipes (which i only didn't replace instantly because of testing the kit for faults) were lined with white powder (guess what), which i removed with a strongly acidic limescale remover, which i also used on the plastic innards of the pump (hydor seltz L20 A/C). Finally, after some worrying and hesitation, I ran the limescale remover through the radiator (Black Ice Pro, all brass water contact area), rinsed it, soaked it in for 5 mins more and rinsed it thoroughly.
That's gotten everything very nice and clean, but one thing is worrying me; at least 2 little pieces of plastic were loose in the plenum chamber on one side of the radiator before i started, i had a look inside and saw them blocking off the bottom row of 6 channels on one side. The process of cleaning it has removed the other 4. When it was full of limescale I had assumed they were just pieces of limescale that were blocking the pipes, but they remained when it was all dissolved.
My question to you is this: What are those plastic things and are they important? I'm hoping for a best case scenario where they were evil little things put there to limit the flow to make for a budget radiator, like often happens with CPUs and other things (although in these cases, normally the ones selected for limitation are the ones that fail quality control on that section)
Gah! Who uses tap water >.<
). I don't really see where you're going with that though...
