Waterflow meter/indicator

Shin1234 · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:10

Hi all, im just curious if its worth getting a flow meter for my upcoming watercooling build. I have the asus ch6 and it has a flow meter/indicator connector on the mb. So i thought to myself, hell would be cool to have that connected so the mb can do an alarm if the flow slows or stops.

But looking around i cannot find any, there is one on ocuk shop but its alphacool, built for the aquaro and is hella expensive. So im wondering is it worth it, do people still use them and why are there so few of them for sale.

ErikN · 21 Aug 2017 at 14:18

Its usually not worth it as it just adds another restriction to the loop. Also, the system can overheat even if the water flows, so it would be better to check for overheating directly rather than trying to infer it from a flow meter.

For overheating protection, there are better tools that won't add loop restriction, like the Aquaero you mentioned, it has features to automatically shutdown the system if temps (or anything really, including flow) goes below a certain threshold.

Shin1234 · 21 Aug 2017 at 17:01

Well i wasnt thinking about it being something to watch for overheating, i have a probe for that, it was more something i can see out of the corner of my eye. But thanks for the reply.

ErikN · 22 Aug 2017 at 10:23

Yeah, I understood that. My response was also sort of a reasoning why they are so expensive, the demand just isn't there.

rtho782 · 26 Aug 2017 at 15:07

Rather than a flow meter I have a temp plug on one of the spare outlets of my GPU blocks.

All my fans are on Corsair Commander Pro controllers, as is the temp plug, and the Corsair Link software can shut my system down based on just about anything - pump RPM, water temp, etc.

All the fans scale in RPM based on water temp, and actually shut off entirely at low temps.

Works really well!

Aberfala · 30 Aug 2017 at 07:02

I had a problem once where debris in my loop was blocking the thin channels in my CPU block and affecting flow and as I had no flow meter I had no way of knowing why my temps were high.

I now have one of the Aquacomputer flow sensors that doesn't restrict flow and it's great as I can see exactly what flow rate I have at any time. The sensor also includes a temp probe so there's no need for a separate one.