Waterloop Drain point advice

Dice · 3 Apr 2015 at 18:36

very useful, i have a set between the rad an cpu and another between the pump and gpu. essentially a couple of twists and i can remove the mobo tray.

Bryan Kortez · 3 Apr 2015 at 18:47

Yeah, it's a XSPC LCD Temp sensor..

Be warned, the power cable that connects to the circuit board is poorly made. Mine broke off the circuit board within a few days.

I'm going to be figuring a way to connect my temp sensor up to my PC and view the temps via software, but until then it's just unplugged

whyscotty · 4 Apr 2015 at 07:06

Drain ports are essential IMHO

Especially if your rig is on the large side.

FloppyPoppy · 4 Apr 2015 at 07:39

whyscotty said:
Drain ports are essential IMHO

Especially if your rig is on the large side.

This,

I needed to drain my old 900D build that had two 480 rads a 240 rad and a 120 rad.... didn't have a drain port... will NEVER not put a drain port on any system again. No matter how simple/small the loops are!

R-TYPE · 4 Apr 2015 at 18:14

whyscotty said:
Drain ports are essential IMHO

Especially if your rig is on the large side.

When you say drainports are essential on large rigs, is the plural intentional? Ie have you mounted more than one drain port?

Since the above posts, I have a series of QDC's about to arrive to make the loop I'm building into a 'modular' loop. Will have several QDCs separating rads and mobo, and one at the drain port 4-way fitting. (Loop will have dual D5 vario pumps to hopefully take care of the supposed increase in flow resistance due to QDCs)

Dice · 5 Apr 2015 at 00:31

Bear in mind that the qdcs are quite long compared to normal fixings so is more difficult to get a short, clean loop. And they are expensive! I would recommend people to pick up the absolute minimum that they think they will need at first. Then add more once they have had a go with them. I thought I would want to be able to remove any component but I didn't like the added tubing i would have to use to make them fit. They are brilliant for drainage though, plug it in and whoosh out comes the water.

R-TYPE · 29 Apr 2015 at 00:35

Now I've completed my build, this is how I did my drain point. I put in a quick disconnect off an XSPC 4 way fitting (the QDC is a female G1/4 fitting, which accepts a male compression QDC fitting). This is mounted at the lowest point of the loop, and incorporates a water temperature sensor from Bitspower.

This is mounted to a rotary extender to be able to swivel the port downwards when in use and upwards when being 'stowed'. Thanks to Bryan and Murah (and others) for their help and advice on this thread

With 5mm male to male fitting...

...to allow the rotary fitting...

...so the drainport can be rotated to point downwards...

Tube not shown connected obviously. Tube will have a male QDC compression fitting and a tap fitting. Bottom xspc 240rx rad has 4 ports which is very handy as I can run the waterloop in and out (2 ports) and the drain point (1 port) and an xspc temp sensor in the spare 4th port.

Koolance QuickDisconnects shown uncoupled and coupled (tubing not shown)

deFiniLoGy · 29 Apr 2015 at 00:52

Please be very careful when using the black versions of Koolance QD3/4s, they're prone to corrosion even used with anti-corrosive coolant such as Mayhems Pastel etc.

The best version to get would be the normal Nickel plated ones.

Cenedd · 29 Apr 2015 at 09:04

deFiniLoGy said:
Please be very careful when using the black versions of Koolance QD3/4s, they're prone to corrosion even used with anti-corrosive coolant such as Mayhems Pastel etc.

The best version to get would be the normal Nickel plated ones.

NOW someone mentions this! Ah well at least I know to look out for it.

On another note, be careful R-TYPE when you plug into the QDC because the springs are high - powered to ensure it shuts off the flow quickly, it means you have to push the other half on quite hard to get it to connect. Just make sure you support the other side so you're not breaking the rad port with the sideways force on it.

OLDPHART · 29 Apr 2015 at 09:30

I just undo a fitting and pull the tubing off.

R-TYPE · 29 Apr 2015 at 11:54

Whoa, that ain't good news... I just installed 6 black QDCs in a new build. I was totally unaware of this apparent corrosion issue.

deFiniLoGy · 29 Apr 2015 at 11:57

R-TYPE said:
Whoa, that ain't good news... I just installed 6 black QDCs in a new build. I was totally unaware of this apparent corrosion issue.

Don't worry about those still within the loop, the anti-corrosive can suppress the corrosion for a while. Mine only gave up after around 6 months of use.

The valve in the QD3 basically got stuck and it turned into a simple fitting.

However, once you remove the QD3 from the loop, you have to either store it in anti-corrosive fluid, or else you can just throw it away...

AndoriAvalonia · 29 Apr 2015 at 13:28

I suspect that that Bitspower temp sensor will be fairly useless, or at best be severly lagged as it is mounted in a dead section with no flow past it. It will heat up eventually by conduction or it may get some small change of fluid from turbulence.

deFiniLoGy · 29 Apr 2015 at 13:36

AndoriAvalonia said:
I suspect that that Bitspower temp sensor will be fairly useless, or at best be severly lagged as it is mounted in a dead section with no flow past it. It will heat up eventually by conduction or it may get some small change of fluid from turbulence.

That will only happen, if at all, when the flow rate within the loop is critically low.

AndoriAvalonia · 29 Apr 2015 at 14:02

But to my simplistic view, there is no active flow path past the sensor in the 4 way (one input, one output to the drain QDC that is closed, one output is capped and the last connection is the sensor). The rotary fitting also moves it even further away (4 way being about 20mm from the rad at a guess)

R-TYPE · 29 Apr 2015 at 20:43

AndoriAvalonia said:
I suspect that that Bitspower temp sensor will be fairly useless, or at best be severly lagged as it is mounted in a dead section with no flow past it. It will heat up eventually by conduction or it may get some small change of fluid from turbulence.

If it's of any use, I also have an aquaero inline sensor further up the loop directly in the flow and it reports near identical temps to the Bitspower. Mounted on the same rad as the Bitspower is an xspc sensor that reports about 1deg higher than the Bitspower and aquaero

AndoriAvalonia · 30 Apr 2015 at 11:27

R-TYPE said:
If it's of any use, I also have an aquaero inline sensor further up the loop directly in the flow and it reports near identical temps to the Bitspower. Mounted on the same rad as the Bitspower is an xspc sensor that reports about 1deg higher than the Bitspower and aquaero

Fair enough. I was thinking that not being in the flow would cause issues, but it's obviously getting some flow around it.

ubersonic · 30 Apr 2015 at 12:53

Turn the entire system upside down and use the fill port, like a boss!

MrMD · 2 May 2015 at 15:43

Random question,can a T fitting be used a rotary?

I plan on plugging this in to a rad as the final out let before going back to the pump,aswell as being my drain port.

deFiniLoGy · 2 May 2015 at 16:12

MrMD said:
Random question,can a T fitting be used a rotary?

I plan on plugging this in to a rad as the final out let before going back to the pump,aswell as being my drain port.

I don't see a rotatory joint in this assembly