Newbie needs distill water + killcoil + dye help

Hi

I never tried watercooling before and I need help from the members regarding the coolant I should use.

After reading about pre mixed coolant, I got bit cautious about using them. I am leave-and-forget kinda guy except when I need to change them on yearly or 6 monthly basis.

It seems like distill water and killcoil are best solution for water cooling. But I want color liquid and do not want to use color tubes and also not interested in uv stuff.

Which dye do you recommend? Only side effect is the components are stained which doesn't matter as I'm not planning to change colors everynow and then.

I have seen accumulation of gluey stuff on the components but isn't due to glycol stuff the members used and it is not dye's fault. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=230290
http://www.wcdyes.com/

According to mlwood (who's making those dye's) creation of gunk isnt alone the dye's fault but rather the fault of mixing the dye's in a system that has some other stuff (like glycol or other anti-corrosion). So with that theory those dyes should be OK with distilled and silver coil. Ofc he's the only person that has done any long-term testing (atleast with the "new" versions) so in that way we dont have much knowledge of them yet... But atleast his pictures in that thread give an impression that its gonna be fine:up:. And I dont have any reason to not believe him.

But yeah, I'd suggest those dyes myself. Tested the dark blue myself and atleast its freaking powerful

Staining is not so much a problem of changing colors, as it is more a theory of a lasting film that can retard the cooling process. I tend to side with those that think the film can reduce cooling efficiency of the loop. But it wont do so at such a level to render it useless. I guess you should decide if you are after pure 1. performance, or 2. a mix of performance and style, or 3. straight up style. If option 2 or 3 are your primary goals, and you know that you're pretty much stuck with that color, then dont worry about it and just get a quality dye. The performance knock should be small, and the extra wear on the parts is minimal at best. But if option 1 is your primary goal, then leave the dye alone, as well as a biocide. Stick with pure distilled or deionized water and silver. Wether it is coils or parts and tubing, just make sure there is enough silver in the loop. Gold also has great antimicrobial properties and is starting to be used in certain medical fields, but I've yet to see even hardcore bling-bling users drop gold in their loop. Dont really know what my thoughts on that act would be, but I know I'll see it some day.

^^^ that's the first time I've ever heard of biocide bein harmful to temps in a loop, does anyone want to elborate on this?

It's been discussed ad nauseum that any additve can cause a film build up, or promote galvanic corrosion, or any number of little problems. But most chemical biocides that water coolers use do this on such a small level that its not really a concern as long as loops are watched and cleaned as needed. So saying its harmful isnt wrong, but it tends to promote the idea that it can cause some catastrophic failure of parts in loop. It's a very, very minor thing when quality biocides (like PT Nuke) are used correctly, and the benefits can be well worth it. If you want to see a catastrophic loop failure then dump a whole bottle of PT Nuke in the loop and let it go for a couple of months. I dont even want to guess what will happen. I'm sure Alex has tested that little theory before. I was just pointing out that if you want absolute performance from your loop, then you do not want anything in it at all but pure water and something like silver.

I'm more interested in bit of performance and more style.

Thank you for your advices

By the way, where could I get good quality distilled water in Europe?

Could anyone teach me how to make my own distill water and gadget to test the conductivity?

Poland Spring Distilled water for the win...

Where could I buy it from?

Uhm in the US any super market haha

Lol.

Didn't know you could find supermarkets. I have to check in tesco in Ireland then.

A lot of members here talk about the water for batteries you can find in autoparts stores. That may be an option for you as well.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Harlock

A lot of members here talk about the water for batteries you can find in autoparts stores. That may be an option for you as well.

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Water for batteries = distilled water.. So yeah you can pick up distilled water basicly in any autopart store.

In Italy we got the bi-distilled water by Ybris.
The community asked for it as it isn't conduttive and can be mixed with dyes with no problems.

Thanks guys

which tubes for watercooling do you recommend?

Primochill Pro-LRT is the best tubing I've worked with yet. Available in a lot of different sizes and colours, including a very nice UV-active range. Coloured tubing is a great way to add a splash of colour to your loop without dealing with the clogging and gunking issues dyes cause.

Available from OCUK, I believe, otherwise Primochill's online store does international shipping (I can attest to this, I'm in Australia).

thanks soulscollective.

i found a site.. which sells only 25L of lab grade distilled water (around 5 gallons).. Do I really need this much for my system? I mean it cost 69 euros which is around 100 dollars.

does anyone know good water filter system I could buy for distilling water?

A single block setup usually uses less than 1L, Even with the baddest setup in the world (triple loop, etc), you'll only need 4-5L. (that's my experience at least).

I can indeed recommend checking autopart stores or garages for distilled water. You'll just have to look around a bit.

Chemists, supermarkets, even some white-goods shops or garages will carry distilled. You don't need to spend nearly that much, just grab some locally. While not all distilled is created equally, you really don't need to stress over this point - any temperature difference observed would be well within the margin of error.

I'd go PT Nuke as the silver kill coil doesn't work that good. I've seen several people with algae buildup in their loops when the kill coil should have prevented this. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Vinas

I'd go PT Nuke as the silver kill coil doesn't work that good. I've seen several people with algae buildup in their loops when the kill coil should have prevented this. :shrug:

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Post links to these isues? Like to see the goop.

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Originally Posted by Vinas

I'd go PT Nuke as the silver kill coil doesn't work that good. I've seen several people with algae buildup in their loops when the kill coil should have prevented this. :shrug:

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I would like to see that too

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vinas

I'd go PT Nuke as the silver kill coil doesn't work that good. I've seen several people with algae buildup in their loops when the kill coil should have prevented this. :shrug:

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This is because the growth had a chance to start before the silver was in a strong enough concentration in the water. If the user drops the silver into a jug of water a few weeks prior to the build being filled, the odds of this happening are drastically reduced. Another option is to use PT Nuke or an aquarium algaecide on first fill only and let the silver take over after that.

I found a store. Thanks

how much do I need to clean three 120x3 rads

Use sink water to clean the rads, then a rinse with distilled.

Rad prep:: One of the most missed things. Boil sink water, let cool 5 min. Pour into rad filling it up, let sit 10 min. Drain 1/2 water or so, shake till your arms hurt, 3-4 min like a crazy man. Drain into a clear container. Do the rad dance again and again till the water from the rad is clear and no gunk once the water settles. Then do it two more times. NOW and only now is your rad 90% clean. No worries, the last 10% will come out in the next year or two when you redo your loop for maintenance. Rinse with distilled, your done. It only takes a liter max to rinse the rad.

Is there difference between deionised and distilled water?

Also does it matter if the water is not medical grade distill water?

deionised is better than distilled. But if you after even better you can allso get UltraPure water.

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Distilled water is often defined as bottled water that has been produced by a process of distillation and has an electrical conductivity of not more than 10 µS/cm and total dissolved solids of less than 10 mg/L. Distillation involves boiling the water and then condensing the steam into a clean container, leaving most solid contaminants behind. Distillation produces very pure water but also leaves behind a leftover white or yellowish mineral scale on the distillation apparatus, which requires that the apparatus be frequently cleaned. Distillation does not guarantee the absence of bacteria in drinking water; unless the reservoir and/or bottle are sterilized before being filled, and once the bottle has been opened, there is a risk of presence of bacteria

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Deionized water, also known as demineralized water (DI water, DIW or de-ionized water; can also be spelled deionised water, see Spelling differences), is water that has had its mineral ions removed, such as cations from sodium, calcium, iron, copper and anions such as chloride and bromide. Deionization is a physical process which uses specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which bind to and filter out the mineral salts from water. Because the majority of water impurities are dissolved salts, deionization produces a high purity water that is generally similar to distilled water, and this process is quick and without scale buildup. However, deionization does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, except by incidental trapping in the resin. Specially made strong base anion resins can remove Gram-negative bacteria. Deionization can be done continuously and inexpensively using electrodeionization.

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Clean water like deionized or distilled is just fine. Doen't need to be any more than that.

Do de ionized water have same conductivity as distilled water?

Please check out response by iandh regarding distilled and deionized water. Also, if you do a search for "distilled vs. deionized water" and variations, you will find many, many threads discussing this.


As for conductivity ... it's all going to depend on just how "completely" the water has been distilled/de-ionized. Not really something you need to worry about a whole lot, as once either makes contact with your loop, it will begin picking up ions and conductivity will increase. Again, see if you can find some more of iandh's posts on the subject - he has done a lot of research.

is water for battery good enough?

only one I found out is at www.halfords.ie

They specified the following regarding their water:
De-isonised for use in Lead-Acid batteries
Use in engine cooling systems to reduce scaling and corrosion
Also suitable for irons, lava lamps and airconditioning units

Should I go for it?

Yes - that's fine.

Thank you shazza for your advice