Struggling with coolant (PETG)

Pohly · 5 Mar 2019 at 18:07

Hi guys hopefully you guys can help me. Been using a softtube loop for a few months now and decided to go hard tube. I was hoping to use my ek cryofule but just found out you can't use that with PETG.

So decided on distilled water. Going to put a bit of orange dye in it. But have no idea what inhibitors or biocides are ok with PETG help would be greatly appreciated!

pastymuncher · 5 Mar 2019 at 19:16

Mayhems X1 is fine with PETG and has all the additives you need already in it. I have been using Blood Red X1 with Mizucool PETG tubing for over a year and have had no problems.

Pohly · 5 Mar 2019 at 19:52

pastymuncher said:
Mayhems X1 is fine with PETG and has all the additives you need already in it. I have been using Blood Red X1 with Mizucool PETG tubing for over a year and have had no problems.

Thanks mate that's exactly the advice I needed been passed Piller to post looking online. Will get some of that ordered! Save me faffing with diluting stuff!

Smffy · 6 Mar 2019 at 17:43

Pohly said:
Thanks mate that's exactly the advice I needed been passed Piller to post looking online. Will get some of that ordered! Save me faffing with diluting stuff!

Plus the other EK fluids are fine, if you were also thinking well maybe I’ll use distilled and mix the additives no it does not really work out cheaper

Ive been on X1 for a while, mixed a few colours to get an interesting shade which worked well.

Pohly · 8 Mar 2019 at 19:13

Smffy said:
Plus the other EK fluids are fine, if you were also thinking well maybe I’ll use distilled and mix the additives no it does not really work out cheaper

Ive been on X1 for a while, mixed a few colours to get an interesting shade which worked well.

Haha yeah I quickly realised that it wouldn't be

. Went for the X1 in UV orange to go with my theme.

Pohly · 14 Mar 2019 at 10:46

Hmmm hoping you guys can help. So finished the build on the weekend and topped everything up bled and all seems fine. Temps are good 35 CPU and 40 GPU at load and fans on 850rpm. But noticed that the colour of the coolant has changed from a light orange to a clear with a yellow tinge. I made sure I gave the rads a good flush and cleaned out all the blocks prior, any idea what could cause this? And is it worth flushing and running blitz through it and try again?

pastymuncher · 14 Mar 2019 at 11:43

It sounds like something has reacted with it. What did you flush the rads with? Maybe try raising a ticket with Mayhems directly. Their customer support is excellent and they will se you right if it turns out to be something wrong with the coolant.

Pohly · 14 Mar 2019 at 11:53

pastymuncher said:
It sounds like something has reacted with it. What did you flush the rads with? Maybe try raising a ticket with Mayhems directly. Their customer support is excellent and they will se you right if it turns out to be something wrong with the coolant.

My normal DI water and distilled vinegar been doing that for years and never had a problem . Maybe I didn't flush out all the vinegar and it is still slightly acidic? I doubt it though ran over 2l of DI water through the rads after the vinegar mix . Will get a blitz kit order I think and give that ago, will raise a ticket with mayhem's too see what they say

Pohly · 17 Mar 2019 at 01:23

Just ordered another batch of coolant and a blitz cleaning kit, hopefully that sorts the problem.

pastymuncher · 17 Mar 2019 at 13:53

Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter. Part 1 is to be used in radiators only.

Pohly · 18 Mar 2019 at 09:37

pastymuncher said:
Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter. Part 1 is to be used in radiators only.

Yeah I've done a fair bit of reading on it. And seen the horror stories of people putting it into there loops

Pohly · 20 Mar 2019 at 00:46

Well I drained the loop today and omg was it's gummed up. No idea what went on, can only assume that I left a little vinegar in the rads since it smelt like a chip shop in the bathroom. Cleaned all the gunk out of the blocks and Res, left the tube to soak overnight and leaving part 1 of the kit in the rads now. Hopefully it will be fine once "blitzed".

_tucker_ · 20 Mar 2019 at 14:57

Pohly said:
Well I drained the loop today and omg was it's gummed up. No idea what went on, can only assume that I left a little vinegar in the rads since it smelt like a chip shop in the bathroom. Cleaned all the gunk out of the blocks and Res, left the tube to soak overnight and leaving part 1 of the kit in the rads now. Hopefully it will be fine once "blitzed".

If I remember correctly if you put a little baking soda in the water for the final clean out it neutralises the effect of having put vinegar in the system, I cleaned mine out that way and everything was spot on after and no smells either. You don’t need a lot

LuckyBenski · 20 Mar 2019 at 20:25

I don't believe vinegar will lead to gumming up of blocks. Sounds more like plasticiser from soft tubing to be honest.

Baking soda will neutralise vinegar but I was never convinced you weren't then just alkalising your parts instead. I'd like to say thorough flushing is the best method but I'm fairly convinced my last loop had a dodgy pH. I did the vinegar then baking soda method. Tempted to try a Blitz kit in future.

Pohly · 20 Mar 2019 at 22:50

LuckyBenski said:
I don't believe vinegar will lead to gumming up of blocks. Sounds more like plasticiser from soft tubing to be honest.

Baking soda will neutralise vinegar but I was never convinced you weren't then just alkalising your parts instead. I'd like to say thorough flushing is the best method but I'm fairly convinced my last loop had a dodgy pH. I did the vinegar then baking soda method. Tempted to try a Blitz kit in future.

Yeah it's weird not sure it's plasticiser since I gave everything a good clean since using soft tubing and the only soft tubing I have in the loop is about 3inchs attached to the drain. Not sure what caused it, have part 2 running through the loop now. So hopefully it will be sorted after that.

Demon · 21 Mar 2019 at 14:03

Have the changed the formula of EK-Cryofuel recently?

On their own websites, for all CryoFuels I've looked at, they state:
- Compatible with Acrylic, PETG, POM Acetal, rubber (NBR, EPDM, and Norprene) materials

I was going to use this with my PETG I've just ordered, I might get some X1 just in case, but already have the EK stuff on hand.

Pohly · 21 Mar 2019 at 14:33

Demon said:
Have the changed the formula of EK-Cryofuel recently?

On their own websites, for all CryoFuels I've looked at, they state:
- Compatible with Acrylic, PETG, POM Acetal, rubber (NBR, EPDM, and Norprene) materials

I was going to use this with my PETG I've just ordered, I might get some X1 just in case, but already have the EK stuff on hand.

Potentially the stuff I had lying around was ethylene glycol based so not recommended for petg. And x1 is glycerol based so its ok. I didn't risk it and gave the cryofule to a friend to use in his soft tube loop

fastboy · 22 Mar 2019 at 10:33

yep first time I used white vinegar to flush my mayhems radiators out and didn't rinse them out enough had the same problem..as above,add some baking soda to the final rinse, and let them sit in it for a few minutes with at least 1 port open,then flush out with DW after.