Topping Up Water Cooling Loop

gcaster · 23 Jan 2011 at 23:42

I've had a thermaltake big-water system for a few years now and have always used their own coolant with it (spent maybe £10 a year on the stuff so no major cost). The thing I just can't quite fathom is how on earth do the coolant levels in the system drop? Where does it all go?!
Now that I'm upgrading my loop I'm going to start using de-ionised water, does this do the same thing?

Nemesis379 · 23 Jan 2011 at 23:46

Where does it all go?!

My guess it would dry up, because of the heat, as for the de-ionised water, did a bit of researching and some people say distilled water is better

gcaster · 24 Jan 2011 at 02:01

Yeah just had a little read and you're right it would seem de-ionised water may try and react with the components in a hunt for it's ions back!
Where's best for buying distilled water then and how often do people bleed and refill your systems?
Cheers

Sgt Tackleberry · 24 Jan 2011 at 02:11

gcaster said:
Yeah just had a little read and you're right it would seem de-ionised water may try and react with the components in a hunt for it's ions back!
Where's best for buying distilled water then and how often do people bleed and refill your systems?
Cheers

you can get it from boot's, superdrugs and petrol stations, i got mine from BnQ and paid £2.50 for 5litters...

all the best

gcaster · 24 Jan 2011 at 02:19

Oooh lovely, that's pretty damn cheap.
How often do you change the water in your system?

Garido · 24 Jan 2011 at 06:17

I have a big water in this current PC (see sig) and it seems to evaporate. I think it's either that or a small leak (some of the plastic looks cracked but can't confirm).

My AMD rig (gigabyte watercooling for cpu+vga) never had any issue with coolant levels. Never had to top it up in 3 years.

Jokester · 24 Jan 2011 at 07:18

From the point of view of ions, distilled and de-ionised are the same. About the only difference is that distilled won't have any bugs in it. Given that you will need to run some form of bio-inhibitor regardless there's no practical difference between distilled and de-ionised.

gcaster · 24 Jan 2011 at 11:17

Great stuff, thanks.
What would people suggest as a biocide? I have a silver kill coil on order, will this be enough?

3t3P · 24 Jan 2011 at 11:55

yeup I filled my loop mostly with ultrapure distilled but topped it up with deionized I had for the iron.

Water will get it's ions back in nanoseconds, think about it!

JeffyB · 24 Jan 2011 at 19:41

gcaster said:
Great stuff, thanks.
What would people suggest as a biocide? I have a silver kill coil on order, will this be enough?

The kill coil on its own will be plenty, simply put it in your res.

vectisitch · 24 Jan 2011 at 21:14

i got deionised water in mine with a silver kill coil.it's still as clear as when i put it in .it does seem to drop slightly over time.i just top it up.should'nt need to refill it