Protecting copper from water

JonJ678

JonJ678

JonJ678

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2008
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Location
England
I'd like to know what the standard solution to this problem is. Raw copper will be attacked by water. Are the inside of water blocks lacquered/painted/electroplated or just left as bare copper on the basis that it won't corrode very fast?

Nickel plating seems to be the obvious answer, but it's evidently not the only option.

Cheers
 
Most, if not all of the pipework in your house is copper and that will last for decades.

It's mainly a problem in a watercooling loop if you use mixed metals. To get around that problem you use a additive that has a corrosion inhibitor.
 
I assumed plumbing copper had some form of coating applied to it. Raw copper will certainly oxidise given a chance, if it's in distilled water can I just ignore this?

It would be nice to think so, but I fear finding the inside of the blocks turning green.
 
I have run a loop for 3.5 years on distilled water with some Zerex added to it. The loop was never stripped or drained down until a couple of months ago. When i took the blocks apart for cleaning there was no corrosion at all and the only block that needed cleaning was the cpu block and even then it was just a little bit of gunk under the impingement nozzle. I am now running it with Feser 1 in the loop although i am a little nervous after hearing the horror stories about this stuff and the build up of gunk. I will pobably go back to distilled water and some nuke.
 
Were these blocks you purchased or machined though? I've been using water for a year or so with no corrosion issues, but it's all been shop purchased, so I have no way of knowing if the copper is treated after machining or not.

Good luck with the feser 1.
 
A very clean copper surface will initially corrode in air/water, but the corrosion products protect it from further attack. There is no artificial coating on the inside of domestic copper water pipes-or indeed waterblocks as far as I am aware.
The problems come with mixed metal loops containing aluminium without any inhibitor, and the resultant electrochemistry that goes on
:)
 
JonJ678 said:
I assumed plumbing copper had some form of coating applied to it. Raw copper will certainly oxidise given a chance, if it's in distilled water can I just ignore this?

It would be nice to think so, but I fear finding the inside of the blocks turning green.
Click to expand...

Copper pipe isn't coated, the corrosion is self limiting (forms a barrier) in fastish flowing soft to neutral ph water. If there's massive turbulence in a bend etc the protective layer gets removed and you get erosion-corrosion. Verdigris is the green corrosion you get from exposure to wet air, forms copper hydroxide/carbonate.
 
i run tap water in mine through an EK supreme LT, been that way for a3-4months now no visible deterioration on the EK insides yet although i remove and clean it all once a month
 
remove and clean once per month? ffs dude. just go grab some deonized water from halfrauds or something.
 
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