New loop flow drops to zero

Associate
Joined
22 Jun 2013
Posts
481
Location
Zomerset (Glastonbury)
Just put a new loop into a case, all parts apart form one radiator are from a previous build.

I power on and get a flow rate of around 30 - 40l/h. This eventually - after around 5 minutes or so drops to zero. Power off / on get flow then stops again etc. The pump is still running (Aquastream XT @ 5000rpm). I have the pump and flow monitor connected to another computer so I can see them running.

I can't find any air bubbles by tilting (there were of course some to start with).

Any hints / tips? Should I leave it running? Or keep powering off / on? Anything to listen out for?
 
It's a spinny thing - flow meter is also an aqua but I can't actually see it spinning as it's in an enclosure. It was definitely a lock of flow but seems to have settled down but only getting 30l/h - 50l/h with the xt going at 5000rpm, not sure if this is low / normal / hight or not.
 
Totally agree, but you know how you get paranoid about these things - thinking "is it big enough" you know what I'm saying, right fellas?
 
I've been running the loop without the PC on just to check the flow. But I've just switched on and getting a 40l/h flow rate reading and the temps are awful to say the least - gtx1080 hitting 90c before I shutdown furmark, cpu has the same issue so it doesn't appear to be component related.

Something is totally screwed with this loop and I just can't see what it is.... :(
 
Hence my question it seemed pretty low.

Pretty simple loop really

Aquastream XT / Aquainlet XT pump / res combo -> 480 rad -> flow sensor -> gpu -> cpu -> 280 -> pump / res combo

I've just removed the 280

Still getting a measly 44l/h, suspect the pump / res combo since everything else is from my case.
 
OK...

I isolated out the pump / res & flow meter and was hitting anything up to 400l/h. So fiddling, I tried the following combinations -

pump / res -> 480 rad -> flow -> pump / res = ~300l/h
pump / res -> gpu -> flow -> pump / res = ~280l/h
pump / res -> cpu -> gpu -> flow -> pump / res -> 200l/h

So it looks like the the more I add the lower the flow so the combination of them all (480, gpu, cpu, 280) will drop the flow right down to 40 - 50l/h.

I though the aquastream xt was a bullet proof, powerful pump?

My old laing d5 in a similar setup worked fine (didn't have a flow meter but good temps) which had cpu, gpu, 480, 240, res, pump.
 
I have a 480 coolgate rad, quite a thick one, EK blocks on the 1080 FE, Aqua computer clear block on the cpu.

The pump is a aqua stream XT and the res is an attached aqua inlet xt (pump / res combo). I'm not comfortable with the pump res combo as the coolant comes in horizontally to the res part and through to the pump, the res is above this entrance. Just doesn't strike me as efficient.

I'm going to try the pump with another res and see what happens.
 
If your getting 400 on a small loop then it isn't pump, I get the same when I ran it on a test run
now through 2 massive 4 x 200 mm fan rads and 2 sets of quick disconnects it drops to about 340.

The fact you originally said "The flows fine for a few meters then drops off"
really confuses me....

For a few "minutes" it flowed at 50l/h - hence me checking the actual flow values.
 
Just swapped out everything to D5 pump @ 5000rpm and a separate res. Just trying to dislodge a huge air bubble before getting the results
 
I won't be putting it back together now for a week or so but I've tested all components individually and everything is fine after cleaning gpu block. I just took it apart and used an air duster to get rid of the crap.

Lesson well and truly learnt!
 
Back
Top Bottom