Cleaning Guide?

[Circaflex]

Hey guys I looked around a little, not very much but are there some good cleaning guides for h2o parts?

I just tore apart my loop and i need to clean:

My thermochill radiators
swiftech microres
2 aquaxtreme pumps


is there a guide for certain components and how to clean them?

[Neuromancer]

Soak them in vinegar? A guide would be great, cleaning used parts is something over looked by a lot of new comers to Watercooling (me for instance :) )

[NaeKuh]

depends on what coolant u used and how bad the stains are.

If you used straight distilled and silver, all you really need is just a flush.

If you have funky smell, and you got mystery stuff growing.. time to go see a doctor.. err wrong thread.. :rofl:

But if u used a glycol based coolant, and u got gelly stuff, you would need to use hot water, seeing how that helps.
Vinegar washes are used if you have staining... however i dont like touching vinegar cuz it smells bad.

[eponymous]

however i dont like touching vinegar cuz it smells bad.

I hear that!

[Circaflex]

Well im replacing all tubing, it was running straight distilled and some pt nuke. From the looks of everything i just see a little white film around the barbs on my rads and in my pumps. Should i just grab some distilled and setup a temp loop to flush it all out? Or just put warm water through the barbs and just keep doing that until its clean?

[NaeKuh]

the white flakes is most likely plasticizer or flux.

Just run everything under hot water for about 5 min.

Hook it up to your kitchen sink, tie a tube in the outlet and let the hot water run.

That should take care of everything.

After your done, make sure u rinse with distilled.
If your So Cali like me, you know our public water sucks dookie.

[Wolf132]

The only way I got all the crap outta a thermochill radiator was to flush with boiling hot water a few times, then a vinegar soak for about 20-30min, then flush again with boiling hot water again a few times, then finally rinse with distilled a few times to clean out all the tap water. Or you can hook up a simple loop with pump and radiators in your sink, and leave it running for a day or 2, and hope most of the flux comes off that way. My loops have been crystal clear for 9 months with just distilled and a silver barb.

[Thewli]

I have a co-question!
I use only distilled water in my loop, and I have cleaned all part with vinegar throughly, but the tubing keeps getting all smoky-looking, and I got some green dirt in the corners of the fittings, probably algae. The algae I hadn't noticed before I opened the chassi yesterday, but the smoky-looking tubes got there after only a few weeks I think. I haven't changed tubing for a year or so, so I'll take some time for it in a couple of days, but it would be nice to know what's making the tubing grey and smoky. I want my all nice-looking clear tubing back =(
What have I missed about this, will glycol in the loop fix the algae thing?

[Wolf132]

What kind of tubing?

[Thewli]

What kind of tubing?

Tygon R-3603

[NaeKuh]

get primochill

Your tygon is undergoing clouding.

Basically the plasticizer.

[Thewli]

And the primochill won't? Sounds nice in that case.
You can't stop that procedure with some additive in the water?

[NaeKuh]

And the primochill won't? Sounds nice in that case.
You can't stop that procedure with some additive in the water?

it has better resistance.

been using Primo tubing for a while now, and still no clouding. Well even if it did cloud, you wouldnt be able to see it. :rofl:

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p73/aigomorla/Haruhi/IMG_1578.jpg

The clear one u see is feser.
Another great tubing with clouding resistance.

[Thewli]

Nice looking, maybe I also should go with some coloured tubing, then maybe the clouding won't be such a problem anymore :D
It sure seems like it's a dream bending the primochill also! heard about 2" turns, THAT would be nice!:shocked:

Just gonna find a store who ships to Sweden. Think frozencpu will, but I would've preferred a shop in Europe!

Thanks for your input!

[NaeKuh]

as great of a bending arc it has, sometimes it still wont be enough.

Otherwise i wouldnt be using a 44 dollar L.

[skinnee]

:hammer:

how can you post that dust bunny breeding ground pic in a cleaning thread, that doesn't set of your irony radar at all? :shakes:

[Newblar]

:hammer:

how can you post that dust bunny breeding ground pic in a cleaning thread, that doesn't set of your irony radar at all? :shakes:

hey he lives in southern california
the dust is absolutely insane... i dont even think its possible to keep dust out of a case here
id actually be sick if i went to an area with cleaner air :up:

[NaeKuh]

hey he lives in southern california
the dust is absolutely insane... i dont even think its possible to keep dust out of a case here
id actually be sick if i went to an area with cleaner air :up:

ahhh someone who knows my pain... LOL...

Mid town whilshire area here. :P

[voigts]

Skinnee does have a good point! I wouldn't let my setup look like that much less take a big pic of it and plaster it up here for all to see...

As for the rads, you can just fill them with hot soapy water (dishsoap) a few times and shake them good, drain, rinse with tap, and rinse with distilled. That should be plenty good enough. For the blocks, just take them apart and use a toothbrush and more soapy water. For the res, you use a small piece of soapy cloth (small enough that it will come back out of a barb hole with a pair of tweezers) and some water and shake it around good.

BTW, you can keep southern California. Nice place to visit, but I'll take the hills of Tennessee any day.

[Waterlogged]

Skinnee does have a good point! I wouldn't let my setup look like that much less take a big pic of it and plaster it up here for all to see...

:lol2:

Here's your Official NaeKuh soapbox smashing hammer. :hammer:

[Bladesinger7x]

Hi fellow watercoolers, I need some help. Few months ago I purchased the Heatkiller 3.0 LC block
and have not used it yet. Last week I took the block out of storage and found out it is all stained.

I have tried cleaning it with coke (about 30 minutes), vinegar (1 hour) and even lemon juice (about 30 minutes)
...but the stains remain (much to my delight).

New block (had only one stain on the side):
http://www.shrani.si/f/5/Ib/1bJ30x6A/fotografija0083.jpg

Block base few days ago (after the cleaning):
http://www.shrani.si/f/3F/AL/4q1zhWCk/fotografija0311.jpg

http://www.shrani.si/f/j/CN/4wn4ppKf/fotografija0312.jpg

What else can I use to remove the f**kers?

[Stewie007]

Scotchbrite, and a slight abrasive like comet. What you have is some tarnishing. This happens when copper is exposed to atmosphere. Next time if you're going to let copper blocks sit, cover the inlet and outlets.

[Bladesinger7x]

The block was in the bubble wrap and boxed the whole time.
Will the tarnishing affect the performance of the block?

Would cilit bang remove the tarnishing?

[eponymous]

Try using acetone or Isopropanol.

[Bladesinger7x]

Try using acetone or Isopropanol.

Thanks I will try this.

One question: will tarnishing decrease the performance of the block
...I don't want to go extreme cleaning on the block:D

[Bladesinger7x]

As far as i know all HK 3.0 have this kind of finish. If I run my finger across the
base it is smooth.

I read that the copper tarnish does not reduce performance of a water block, but
will decrease the performance if used with air cooling (something to do with the
shift from mineral to crystal form). Is this right - if yes, then cleaning the waterblock
is not really thet important.

[eponymous]

Thanks I will try this.

One question: will tarnishing decrease the performance of the block
...I don't want to go extreme cleaning on the block:D

Tarnishing basically introduces another layer between the thermally conductive zone of the block so I'd say it's not a good thing.