which liquid?

Jay794

Jay794

Jay794

Soldato
Joined
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Location
Sheffield, UK
I've decided to finally take the plunge into watercooling. However, with so many different types of liquid on the market, what is recommended?

I've seen that distilled water seems the norm, but people actually pay for that? Surely it's cheaper just to distill tap water instead of buying distilled water, is rain water an option too?

Then I see all the different types of coloured liquid on the market, but what's the difference between them other than colour?
 
Well if you have the facilities to distill your own water with certainty on it's purity then no reason not to, I can't say I have that.

Mayhems is always my go-to, it's great.
Coloured, biocide included, great freeze protection and lasts ages.
 
Majority of people have the facilities to distill their own water, all you have to do is boil it and catch the condensation it produces as that is distilled
 
Jay794 said:
Majority of people have the facilities to distill their own water, all you have to do is boil it and catch the condensation it produces as that is distilled
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yes, But can you guarantee that it's pure?
that all the utensils used are sterile,
that all impurities are removed.

Is it really worth the hassle saving a tenner?
plus you get pretty colours and uv etc.
 
You do know it costs way more to distill your own water than it does to just buy De-ionised water...

Just imagining someone sitting in front of the hob with 5l of water waiting for it to completely boil off and thinking 'well, at least i saved some cash!'
 
Jay794 said:
Pretty sure boiling it and collecting the condensation would remove all impurities
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Well, if you want too, knock yourself out :)

One said:
If you make it water tight why does it even need to distilled?
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nope, you're right. a properly put together rig, given no part fails, you could run it on tap water with 0 issues. excluding hard water areas etc.

The problem is in the case of an unforeseen accident, tap water's gonna kill your system. And ions build up in any coolant, so if you only have distilled water in there, with nothing to prevent ionisation, your water will be very hazardous very quickly.
so most of us drop a tenner on some lovely looking coolant, for our aesthetic watercooling system.
 
One thing getting the water to 100 degrees, another getting it to a gas!

I would probably have men knocking at my door wondering what i have been doing with my huge increase in bills!
 
Getting water to a gas.

Quite easy really. Just boil a kettle and keep it turned on, out from the spout will come steam. Then all you have to do is catch it without adding impurities from whatever you catch it in.
Incidentally, contrary to popular belief all the white cloudy stuff you see coming out of the spout isn't steam. Its condensed water droplets from the steam as it cools. Steam is an invisible, colourless, odourless gas. If you look closely at the first 5 mm above the spout there will be gap before all the white cloudy stuff. That's the steam, but you cant see it and it condenses virtually immediately.

Anyway if you really want to do it, go buy a simple steam distiller condenser unit and its easy, but much easier and cheaper to just go buy distilled water, not so much fun though. !!
 
So after reading some of that - I use THIS as it's pre mixed and safe - have used various liquids before in different colours but settled on coloured tubing and clear liquid. I wouldn't trust any home made stuff when for the sake of a few quid you can buy safe reliable product. Spend all that money on watercooling gear then why chance it - that's my opinion for what it's worth.
 
samanthabinary said:
Sorry, but clearly from your previous comment you seem to be challenged in that area. !!!

One thing getting the water to 100 degrees, another getting it to a gas!
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Yeah its called the energy needed to change phase. Just because its 100 degrees doesn't mean its steam yet, it takes a long time to boil 5l of water to steam and costs far more in electricity/gas than it does to buy 5l of DI.
 
Alz_D said:
So after reading some of that - I use THIS as it's pre mixed and safe - have used various liquids before in different colours but settled on coloured tubing and clear liquid. I wouldn't trust any home made stuff when for the sake of a few quid you can buy safe reliable product. Spend all that money on watercooling gear then why chance it - that's my opinion for what it's worth.
Click to expand...

+1 for the X1.
Sure, you can do it cheaper, but this just removes any hassle.
 
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