How often do you *actually* drain your loop?

BriT said:
4 and a half years! what coolant do you use and tubing? I drained and cleaned everything yesterday and had green stuff in my GPU block and temps have dropped 3c since the clean CPU are about the same but there wasn't really anything in the CPU block.

GPU Block -
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i use this stuff

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xspc-ec6-coolant-blue-uv-1l-wc-152-xs.html

and the tubing is just the £2.99 per m clear flexable xspc stuff overclockers sell. i don't know if the temps are massively different i stopped checking and doing benchmarks years ago it still plays all the games no problem though. MB and cpu is 8 years old now what a chip it's been i'm trying too get 10 years out of it then i'll retire it and wall mount it as geek art :p .
 
Raggs said:
i use this stuff

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xspc-ec6-coolant-blue-uv-1l-wc-152-xs.html

and the tubing is just the £2.99 per m clear flexable xspc stuff overclockers sell. i don't know if the temps are massively different i stopped checking and doing benchmarks years ago it still plays all the games no problem though. MB and cpu is 8 years old now what a chip it's been i'm trying too get 10 years out of it then i'll retire it and wall mount it as geek art :p .
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I'm suprised, XSPC has a pretty bad reputation. Maybe it's just a case of hearing of all the failures and not the successes.
 
Every few years, running distilled and silver coil/Pt Nuke. i ran a rig with tap water for 4 years before, just a bit of algae in the waterblock, apart from that was fine.
 
Wow, I drain mine every 6 months to a year! Replace the tubes and liquid every time!

I use deionised water and Mayhems Biocide+
 
Distilled not de-ionised, Mayhem's XT1 Nuke Clear Concentrate, about every year. That's about how I go before I can't resist the urge to tinker and have to drain it anyway :p

With distilled and biocide/inhibitor or XT1, I've never had any gunk, discolouration etc. I've left it longer, but I tend to top up with concentrate biocide if I do.
 
3t3P said:
Wow!
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Its still running on 7 year old hardware too, ideally id like to strip and upgrade to a new ryzen build but with a baby on the way spending 1500 on a new setup isnt going to happen especially as most of my gaming gets done on the ps4 these days anyway, spending on a new ps5 next year is much more likely. Working from home its probably had more use in the last 3 weeks than it did in all of 2019
 
stuie said:
Its still running on 7 year old hardware too, ideally id like to strip and upgrade to a new ryzen build but with a baby on the way spending 1500 on a new setup isnt going to happen especially as most of my gaming gets done on the ps4 these days anyway, spending on a new ps5 next year is much more likely. Working from home its probably had more use in the last 3 weeks than it did in all of 2019
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Crikey. What fluid are you running?
 
Trying to keep all the metals used in your loop is quite important as well. Mix and matching can lead to some unwanted results as i have learnt in the past.

With just using distilled water, i've managed a good 5-6 years without draining the loop and everything inside still looks as fresh as the day i filled it. No gunk, no metal flakes, just distilled water i filled it up with years ago. Hell i even got lazy and refilled it back up with the same distilled water cos i didn't see a problem with it without issues.

The only issues i had was with using premixes in particular pastel colours where the white particles would separate from the colour and end up looking transparent over time. The white particles would then get stuck to the tubing and the blocks inbetween the fins/channels. Absolute ball ache to remove and renders tubing useless unless you're using hardline.
 
Jay85 said:
The only issues i had was with using premixes in particular pastel colours where the white particles would separate from the colour and end up looking transparent over time. The white particles would then get stuck to the tubing and the blocks inbetween the fins/channels. Absolute ball ache to remove and renders tubing useless unless you're using hardline.
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Dissimilar metals isn't great, no.

Do you not use a biocide or kilo coil? If not, do you not get growth?

One of the reasons I use a clear concentrate is for the inhibitors and biocide. The other is it lowest the freezing point quite a bit, depending on concentration.
 
I now keep some tropical fish.

I'll tell you for free algae will only grow with nutrients e.g. nitrate, phosphate

And a certain type of light or natural light. These things are not in your PC.

Corrosion inhibition though...can do no harm and probably a good idea.
 
I went 14 months before I drained my loop and that was due to a new reservoir. right now around 6 months and will be draining in a couple weeks once intel refund my 9700k that refused to boot for no reason. then I will be getting a new pump and cpu block that I have wanted and has just been released. Aqua Computer D5 Next with D5 Top and Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora ;)
 
Primary build would be around 18 months, but recently around every 6 months as I have been swapping things in and out, pain in the ass as its hardline plating, small(ish) case and lots of fittings and blocks to undo.

Secondary systems and HPTC, not often 18 months or so or if I make a part swap.

Did flush main system more regularly when using Aurora 2 fully aware of the caveats, but dammm did that stuff look amazing. Now just use Mayhems XT1 clear.
 
WantoN said:
Dissimilar metals isn't great, no.

Do you not use a biocide or kilo coil? If not, do you not get growth?

One of the reasons I use a clear concentrate is for the inhibitors and biocide. The other is it lowest the freezing point quite a bit, depending on concentration.
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no biocide or kill coil, never used them at all. If you're using distilled water (i've been using halfords ones for many years) i dont think you need to tbh.

Whats the benefit of having a lower freezing point coolant in the system? I can understand in vehicle applications but not sure about computer cooling systems?
 
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