New, original idea for hoses in a wc'ing system

[spotted zebra]

I was helping my dad plumb in a new sink the other day and it dawned on me as i was screwing in the new steel braided flex hose. I could use the flex hose for the hose in a water cooling system.

It is very flexible and really hard to kink. It comes in many different sizes. It has screw on compression fittings on the ends with variable sized nuts. And they are really durable and don't erode easily.

I mentioned this to my dad at the time and he said it might create static electricity. What do you guys think?

I am still working out the details such as getting a two way threaded "barb" that goes in the water block and will fit the compression fitting. Also getting a threading fitting for the pump and rad and t-line. Also making sure the thread count is correct.

Has anyone else done this? I searched around here and all I found was some stuff for phase change and such. I also googled and found one instance but it didn't show a final product so I don't know what happened. here is the link for that http://www.pcdominion.com/HRWCPC.html .

So good idea or bad idea? I just want to know if it is fesible.

[hellcamino]

It's overkill and a waste IMO but it should work just fine if you can come up with the fittings. Just keep the hose from touching any electrical components as the exterior will be very conductive.

[HotGore]

I am guessing it is made of steel or alu, which might cause some corrosion.

Anyways I have been to Home Depot many times and seen these tubes and wondered too :D

[lennox]

I remember someone did a build with some high end stainless steel vacuum hoses. I don't know if I would go garden/plumbing variety but rather automotive :)

[hellcamino]

They are made of stainless steel.

[kinghong1970]

looks beautiful.. iirc someone used steel braided racing car hoses with anodized connectors of some sort... looked amazing... need to take care that it does not touch any components of your PC...

[RADCOM]

I am guessing it is made of steel or alu, which might cause some corrosion.

Anyways I have been to Home Depot many times and seen these tubes and wondered too :D
@Hotgore re the double post Deja vu or ground hog syndrome lol

@ OP... Do you mean the stuff used in that legendary build the Orac (http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2004/06/09/orac3_part5/1)?

[p0opstlnksal0t]

if its full steel tubing (no plastic/rubber lining) it will for sure cause some sort of galvanic corrosion issues with the copper water blocks

[Utnorris]

I am pretty sure it is a rubber hose wrapped in steel tubing. I doubt it would seal very well if it was made out of steel only. You can also get the ones that are used in showers that look like steel, but are actually rubber tubing with pretty plastic around it that looks like metal. Probably a better choice so if it does make contact with something it won't short it out. Depending on the build it can look really sweet, but finding the correct fittings or a clamp that will look good and work well will be the hard part.

[hellcamino]

I am pretty sure it is a rubber hose wrapped in steel tubing.

Yes, they are rubber lined.

[spotted zebra]

ok so they could be conductive and i obviously need to watch out for this. i will have to think of some way around that.

they are rubber lined with the steel braiding on the outside. the reason i not very worried about corrosion is the ones we took off the sink i was doing at the time looked brand new, as in, my mom tried to return them to the store to get because they were not long enough to reach in the new setup. and on top of looking new they didn't crack when bent and the water in my home town is very, very hard, so if i am running distilled i dont think there will be any problems.

they are not like orac's build, however that is a very nice build. Here is a pic. sorry about the link i didn't see another way to upload it.

http://img373.imageshack.us/i/flexhose.jpg/

[mk-ultra]

the water doesn't touch the stainless, what kind of corrosion could there be?
http://steveukmtb.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/braid2.jpg


i guess you'll ruin yourself in adapters, plus a conductive hose is scary, but i admit it's different and cool

those made for car brakes have a platic outer lining it should be much better but, it's like 100$ buck for a set of 6 hose of 1/4inch diameter, imagine a full loop :)

[spotted zebra]

yea i have been thinking about the price A LOT. it's going to be so expensive even with the normal stuff.

as for the conducting aspect i was reading up on another forum and i need to find chrome plated braiding, chrome is not conductive. or find some kind of flexible clear coat i can apply to the exterior of the braid to make it non conductive.

when i get the money i will certainly post a build log here as i have gotten a lot of good feed back.

Edit: nice pic mk-ultra. prolly answer some questions with that.

[iandh]

It's synthetic braid-reinforced rubber tubing covered by a braided stainless protective sleeve, with plated steel fittings crimped on the ends. The AN style fittings are typically anodized aluminum, so you would have to go nuts on anti-corrosives in the loop, which would hurt performance.

The AN fittings/braided hose assemblies are made for high pressures, they just really aren't necessary in PC watercooling. :)

[kinghong1970]

there you go...but it sure looks sweet

[Manicdan]

ive seen case mods where they try to cover their WC tubes, and even their wires, looked really nice.

[RADCOM]

Sorry was it something like this I'm not sure of the "tubing" you were describing

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1116/oracpcmod.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/oracpcmod.jpg/)

[CyberDruid]

You could spray the braided metal part of the tubing with some Clear Polyurethane...that would eliminate any chance of accidental conductivity issues.

[Jon K]

Chrome is absolutely conductive. I think the best way to do this would be with cloth braided AN lines. I think I posted in your other thread. The sink stuff is gay. If you're going to do it, get automotive AN plumbing but realize 1/2" is -8AN and is not nearly as flexible as tygon/etc. If you don't want stainless braid you can get cloth or kevlar braid. They are rubber or teflon lined.