Testing Watercooling

geowal19

geowal19

geowal19

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I've seen a few videos that say it's absoulutly vital u run a watercooling setup outside the case for at least 24 to test for leaks is this good advice because i wouldn't want to start draining the system and putting it all back together inside the case! What is suitible for testing watercooling?
 
a cheap way would be to get a bit of tissue fasten it to each joint and wait to see if it gets wet..

crude but effective

but bear in mind no effort is too large to ensure a secure watercooling setup.

if it goes wrong its catastrophic so please prepare!
 
I don't do the outside the case leaktesting and maybe one day I'll be sorry....I just put paper towels underneath the blocks and watch carefully, it's usually pretty obvious if something is leaking especially if you pat around the barb with something absorbent like a paper towel.
 
I built my first one in tandem with assembling the PC all inside my case, then just ran my computer. Unless a block is faulty etc, then if you take your time you shouldn't have any leaks.
 
You can get a PSU jumper thingy that you plug into the 20/24 pin motherboard cable for about a £1 that lets you run the watercooling with everything set up in the case without power going to the components. This and tissue around all the barbs and underneath any possible leaking points does for me.
 
^ Just use a paperclip and connect the green wire to the black via a paperclip to ground it :)
 
I built everything in my case on my first watercooling build, as long as you double check everything before it goes in and triple check it once it is in there (and the paper towel method works a treat for this) you should be fine.

However as above you do hear of people not testing and finding leaks, or testing outside and finding them, guess i just been lucky so far (...whacks wooden desk! :D)
 
i had a leak using 7/16" tubing over DD fatboy barbs
this is virtually unheard of and these are some of the securest barb fittings to use

sure you can install everything in the case whilst leak testing. just DONT have the PSU connected to anything other than the pump, and have the PSU outside the case somewhere where a litre of leaking fluid won't touch it (jump starting the psu with paperclip trick)
 
Its not a bad idea to test new parts in a small temporary loop before you put them in the build. Same as I always check the o-rings are in good condition before using a block. Also doing a quick leak test for a few hours in the case before powering on helps with the bleeding before using the system.
@MidnightLamp - I've heard of that happening quite a few times, cable ties/ clamps or compression fittings ***
 
build in the case, otherwise the act of moving it into the case could cause a leak. Build, test without power going to anything except the pump, tissue paper everywhere (not to catch a leak but to expose one). test for as long as you like, I usually only do a few minutes but then I've built a fair few of these.
 
depends on where the leak is coming from. I use 7/16" Masterkleer on ½" barbs and it simply doesn't leak. That leaves barbs as a source and that is easily avoided with some PTFE or barbs that use O-rings.
 
Midnight Lamp said:
i had a leak using 7/16" tubing over DD fatboy barbs
this is virtually unheard of and these are some of the securest barb fittings to use
Click to expand...

Didn't you use old tubing though that had already been stretched?
 
Wrap tissue around every joint and in the bottom of the case, stick a paper clip in the psu, watch it for 10 mins if everything is fine then leave it going overnight.
 
I connected my pump to a spare hotwired PSU and left running for 24hours with a white sheet underneath everything.

You can see how i done this towards the bottom of my watercooling blog here
 
If its on a barb then it shouldnt leak if you have them tight enough. I do them hand tight then say half a turn to a turn with a spanner. Iv never had a leak yet and i test for about 20mins before i plug everything else in.
 
I don't leak-test because I've built loads of these and I have the assured arrogance that comes from that, but I nearly trashed a new motherboard recently when I put a newly cleaned block on the CPU and powered everything up. I'd poorly fitted the o-ring on the CPU block:o and it leaked like a very leaky thing. All over the CPU socket. But I dried it all out with a hairdryer and within an hour I had it all built up and running again. No leaks:)

I only use Ice Water distilled water and it would almost certainly have continued to run with water in the CPU socket, but I wasn't prepared to risk it.
 
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