How do you trouble-shoot your build once complete

I’ve cleared pockets like that by laying the pc on it’s side after some fairly enthusiastic tilting didn’t do the trick. I had to temporarily reorient the res and pump combo to stop it sucking air through, but that was the only real hurdle.
For smaller pockets, as Mike said, hitting tended to shift them but (for my setup) they would dissipate over time anyway.

I’ve been pulling my PC apart and putting it back together for the last fortnight and have had many drains and refills since and the above always works for me. Even if I see no air pockets (currently made worse by Acetal blocks vs acrylic) I give the pc a fairly vigorous tilt every now and then for the first few days/week and there’s nearly always air to be seen or heard shifting through the loop and into the res.
This gradually gets less until I find a point where the bubbles entering the res are so small it’s no longer worth the hassle of shifting the case.

I will say that my current case has little glass, and when I use the phanteks evolv I take the glass panels off during the build so they aren’t present during all the movement. I don’t think it would be an issue, but they’re easy to remove so it doesn’t pay to leave them on and take the risk for a couple of seconds of extra work.
 
The beauty of clear blocks and tubes is that you can see the air for troubleshooting (rads aside), so you can treat the case like one of those mazes with a ball in that you need to tilt to get the ball to the goal at the end. Keep and eye on the bubbles and tilt the case to shift them towards the nearest outlet until they reach the res or wherever you want them.
 
Distracted said:
The beauty of clear blocks and tubes is that you can see the air for troubleshooting (rads aside), so you can treat the case like one of those mazes with a ball in that you need to tilt to get the ball to the goal at the end. Keep and eye on the bubbles and tilt the case to shift them towards the nearest outlet until they reach the res or wherever you want them.
Click to expand...
Good point. How do people using the ZMT black tubing get the air out of their systems? I'm planning on using it for a custom loop. Do I have to rely on being able to see them in the blocks?
 
I can see the air bubbles in my EK monoblock and reservoir so it doesn't matter that my ZMT tubes are black. I tend to just run my pumps at full for a while until all bubbles disappear. It has become obvious that this doesn't fully clear the bubbles, but in my system - the same as in my home central heating - after a while the residual bubbles collect at the top of a rad. So I had to run the pumps on full again for a while to clear them. I did that twice after filling and it seems fine now. I believe that if there are any left then at some point there will be a tell-tale slight bubbling noise from that rad. Shaking and tipping my case didn't seem to do much for me.
 
Shouldn't matter if your tubings non transparent
Cant see how air would get trapped
In the tubing
Usually it's in the blocks
Maybe radiator depending on orientation
Not had to tilt or shake mine
Either that's just good luck or I actually planned it well :cry::cry:
I just disconnect and reconnect the pump power
Multiple times
The initial start up of my pumps seems to move air bubbles
Once it's leak tested and windows installed
I use software to increase and decrease pump speed a few times
In case any bubbles left
 
Soft tubing I'm quite confident/adventurous. Just some paper towel around fittings and run full bast for few hours, system on.
But not the wise move,
As others said, run just the loop.
For air, I usually set pump to 100% and lift one side of the case and hold for a while. The air will move and eventually leave blocks and radiators.
Tilt the case 30-45 to one side and hold. JUST MAKE SURE THE CASE DOESN'T FALL. Them opposite side. Same for front and rear.
When tilting the case, just make sure the power plug is securely connected to the PSU. Many times it came out and I thought I killed the system. :D:D
 
I think I've changed my water-cooling system about 3 times in the last year and once you know how to do it it's pretty straightforward. always use the PSU Bridge Tool 24 Pin when putting the coolant into the loop and testing for leaks, this will avoid any damage to either the GPU or CPU, however in the event on coolant splashing onto the motherboard best thing i do is blowing onto it, sounds silly but it gets the coolant out of the nooks and crannies. And to give you an idea how durable pc parts are i had leaks when the system is on and splashed on the GPU and to this day no issues, however I would recommend that you leave the loop running for at least 30 mins to an hour for the first time any leaks should show, normally you can tell as air bubbles will be an area at a high rate which could mean that air is getting into the loop.

I respect of air bubbles there are 2 ways to deal with them.
1. tilt the system from side to side, the best time to do this is when turning on the system (i normally tilt the system to the left then to the right).
2. Or let the system get rid of the air pockets, over time they will disappear. (I used to be concerned about air bubbles) however if they are small there wont be any damage to the system unless there is a flow issue. (there is normally a valve on top of the reservoir to put the coolant in, when the loop is running and you have air bubble issues you can release it slightly and leave for about 30 mins).

Changed my water coolant 2 weeks ago to EK Mystic Fog (good stuff), 4 hours flushing out the old coolant, 30 mins testing for leaks. Air bubble in CPU block about 1-2cm in size, now it's about 0.5cm (as long as your loop is air tight the bubbles will disappear).

Also paper towels, or tissue over the components.

Any questions holler


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