using car radiators...why not?

[DarthBeavis]

I use anti-freeze in my computers watercooling sys.

I hope you don't have little kids or animals. Using anti-freeze is really a bad idea (ethelene glycol I think the nasty ingredient is). Highly toxic crap.

[sirheck]

My swiftech sys came with antifreeze.

[DarthBeavis]

My swiftech sys came with antifreeze.

look to see if it uses what I said to propolene glycol (sorry if I am not spelling it right folks). I think PG is the non-toxic version but I will have to wait until the wife comes home to verify (she is a vet)

[sirheck]

By sirheck

[aspire.comptech]

I use anti-freeze in my computers watercooling sys.

Yes but you don't use straight anti-freeze, at least I hope you don't...

[DarthBeavis]

By sirheck

I would not use that Pentosin stuff!!! At least if you have kids or pets as I have said. It is always possible to spring a leak. And by the way I had my wife look at those labels. They may work well for water-cooling but they have downsides as I have pointed out.

[sirheck]

No i dont use straight anti freeze.
I have been working on cooling sys. since the mid 80,s
And there is nothing wrong with me.

/twitches

[aspire.comptech]

A little ethylene glycol won't hurt ya :P

Damn diluted blue pentosin...

"Hey water!, Im thirsty" *Glug glug glug*

"Oh that was my coolant wasnt it....."

[jcool]

Sure you can run a mixed loop. Just use BASF G11 or G48 1:10 with destilled water and you're safe (G11 is red, G48 is blue and they are both glysantine-based)

[Serra]

There was someone on these forums that has done that with a Copper Race Radiator from a Japanese company. His delta between temps is insane, and is able to handle his entire rig passive without a problem.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=race+radiator

Ha ha, I had forgotten that. I don't think I was even posting yet when that post came up. Pure awesomeness.

Edit: Oh look at that, I was wrong... I was posting by then - and had been for about a year. I think I just realized I've been posting here for 3.5 years now. It still feels like it was just yesterday when I was starting here.

[sirheck]

Yeah they say it has a sweet taste.
It does if you get just a little bit.
But if you get a lot. ITS the nastiest tasting stuff i have ever tasted.
Burned my whole mouth all day long.

[aspire.comptech]

Well, the pentosin only has a small amount of glycol in it, and the mixture was something like 1 part pentosin to 25 parts water. So the amount was incredibly small.

Besides, I'm doing science and I'm still alive.

[DarthBeavis]

The glycol argument if there is actually an argument is really stupid. If you have pets or kids just do not use it. There are other alternatives. If I ran a store selling water-cooling supplies I would not carry ANYTHING with this crap in it.

[sirheck]

I was siphoning (by mouth) antifreeze out of a 50 gallon container(not reccomended) and well you know what happend next

[DarthBeavis]

I was siphoning (by mouth) antifreeze out of a 50 gallon container(not reccomended) and well you know what happend next

so it causes retardation as well?



lol . . .j/k

[Alexontherocks]

less headache going with all copper loop an safer using DW an iodine

thanks for the input! However how do you know that radiator is copper? It is 7:22 in the morning where I am writing so I may be a bit on the dumb side but I can't read "copper" anywhere on the ebay page...


@ jcool: are you sure I would be safe? Of course certainty does not exist however the mixture you suggested would prevent corrosion and not hinder performance? Remember that with any car radiator I would ample margin of performance to spare. Even operating at 90% of possibile efficiency my looop would still be overkill.


P.s. the pump is a univerbar. got it for 14.99 euros and it should outperform an iwaki according to specs.

[Jimmer411]

I hope you don't have little kids or animals. Using anti-freeze is really a bad idea (ethelene glycol I think the nasty ingredient is). Highly toxic crap.

I use it too, got 3 healthy cats and both my balls still as well.


Antifreeze has worked in my car, 20+ year old car and my cooling system isnt corroded and clogged.

[DarthBeavis]

I use it too, got 3 healthy cats and both my balls still as well.


Antifreeze has worked in my car, 20+ year old car and my cooling system isnt corroded and clogged.

wait until someday when your system pops a leak and you have three dead cats . . .sorry to be harsh but I prefer to not see that happen over something as trivial as water-cooling. Doing something in ignorance is one thing . . .but to continue when you know is totally different. At least make sure your cats will not have access to the area where your computer is.

[Alexontherocks]

well I have a dog and even though cats and dogs behave very differently (dogs being on average more trusting thus dumber) I have noticed animals are particularly apt at avoiding dangerous substances. I know this is not always the case and sorry if someone lost any kind of pet over poisonous spillage of any kind but the fact remains that 9/10 an animal won't lick a chemical unless it was especially designed to be very inviting for the dog itself.

Several times in the mountains (I go climbing and hiking a lot hence the nick ) my dog has avoided streams and puddles even if thirsty. I can only infer that there was something wrong with the water which is entirely possible given that algae and especially chemicals used in cultivation and secondary agricultural activities are prone to be dispersed in the environment.

This is my two cents on how dumb dogs really are. We should give them more credit IMHO.

cheers

[aspire.comptech]

wait until someday when your system pops a leak and you have three dead cats . . .sorry to be harsh but I prefer to not see that happen over something as trivial as water-cooling. Doing something in ignorance is one thing . . .but to continue when you know is totally different. At least make sure your cats will not have access to the area where your computer is.

The fact of the matter is that the concentrations of ethylene glycol found in pc coolant is not enough to be incredibly dangerous to anyone.

Consider that we use a 9-1 ratio of pentosin to distilled water.

According to http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/antifreeze.html

1/4 oz of antifreeze can kill a cat.

So that means the cat would need to ingest 2.5 oz of coolant.

Or in the case of a dog... 2 oz of e.g. or about 20 oz of coolant.

If you have that much readily accessible to a dog theres something wrong.

In regards to a cat, thats more possible, but 2.5 oz of coolant that can be consumed readily by a cat is still a lot.

Also it is very common for producers of anti-freeze to add bittering agents that make it unappealing for consumption which should help deter animals from it.

The way I see it, so long as you dont leave large quantities of antifreeze lying around, you shouldn't have a problem.

I avoid this whole mess altogether by running pure distilled water with no additives, and opaque black tubing.

[Serpentarius]

glycol is very tasty and sweet ... but it'll kills you .. almost every glycol is sweet ... although there's some small % responsible manufacturers who actually made them bitter ..
if u felt sorry of giving ur dog glycol ... u can subsitute with 15g chocolate ... it's tasty too ... and does the job as well

[Alexontherocks]

arrrgh!!

terrible news which makes the anti corrosion products necessary and not optional: the pump has an alluminium impeller therefore it is imperative that I manage to solve the chemical issue between copper and aluminium.

Plus it very difficult to find copper radiators today. I believe toyota made some special ones vut I have no clue regarding other manufacturers. If you have any idea on which car manufacturers actually mount "default" copper radiators I might get hold of one in some car disposal facility.

The problem anyway remains: the aluminium piece in the pump is crucial. Are there any proven formulas apart? Among water cooling prodcuts maybe?

The suggestion to use G11 or G48 1:10 with destilled water seems sound. Has anyone tried this? Any downsides apart from toxicity?

[aspire.comptech]

Just don't drink your coolant and the 1:9 ratio will do you fine.

Still the aluminum impeller is not what you want. I don't know, but what is the feasibility of having one machined out of brass or copper?

[gojirasan]

Ethylene Glycol is highly toxic. Toxic enough to be implicated in a number of murder cases. And it's an awfully slow and painful way to die. It is especially nice if you want to kill someone because it is sweet. so you could make lemonade with it or something. It is also dangerous for pets due to the combination of its high toxicity and tasting like corn syrup. I can't imagine why anyone would want to use it in watercooling unless they are using a chiller. Propylene Glycol OTOH is safe enough to be FDA approved as a food additive.

[Alexontherocks]

I will look into having an impeller made out of copper; I just will have difficulty finding anyone willing to make one for a very reasonable price.

Regarding anticorrosives I gather that

1) the optimal ratio is 1:10

2) antifreeze designed to avoid cavitation and galvanic corrosion is preferable thus something like G12 could do

3) there is still a minor issue: I would like to add UV additives to the mixture but anything other than red will react negatively in terms of end result. I was hoping for green but it seems that being forced to use a red anticorrosion agent I would eventually end up with something dark purple. Isn't there an alternative to G12 that looks more blu/green? (this is not important but it would look very good in the end)

thanks!