Bad LEAK!!!

[Computurd]

well had a bit of a blow out tonight i was moving around some electrical stuff on my rig and it looks like one of the pumps got unplugged...every so slightly but enough i guess!

so the CPU went to 100C and i didnt notice...luckily i had my wife on the phone so the music wsnt on and i heard a LOUD SHSHHHH! and i look at the mobo and sure enough water everywhere. tore it all apart and one of my connections on the cpu block is leaking now.

the tubing was HOT as hell when i touched it...so i need some idea here guys, i took the CPU out and the socket is loaded with water..!
dried it out with a hair dryer...is this the best method? and what would you suggest i do before powering back on? how long should i wait to power back on? what do i do here?
and i wonder why the damn connection is leaking now, looks to be coming from the tube where the clamp is...think it warped the plastic or something?

[Aaronharmon]

I wouldn't worry about that. Minimal.

[86 5.0L]

wow im surprised it leaked with that clamp

[Wega52]

Take it all apart, give it a good run with the hair dryer and leave it overnight.

[matt220]

so the CPU went to 100C and i didnt notice...luckily i had my wife on the phone so the music wsnt on and i heard a LOUD SHSHHHH! and i look at the mobo and sure enough water everywhere. tore it all apart and one of my connections on the cpu block is leaking now.

the tubing was HOT as hell when i touched it...so i need some idea here guys, i took the CPU out and the socket is loaded with water..!
dried it out with a hair dryer...is this the best method? and what would you suggest i do before powering back on? how long should i wait to power back on? what do i do here?

Umm, if the computer was powered on while the water went INTO the cpu socket Im pretty sure you need a new MB and CPU because your current parts are most likely toast. If you want to try, the best method of getting water out of electronics is to buy a giant bag of rice and put your motherboard in it for 24-48 hours.

[batlecryawesome]

I had a bad leak a few times, every time I left it to dry on its own [or with a blow dryer] and made sure it was all dry before I started the pc back up it was fine, The one time I tried to force it to turn on I smoked my psu.

[theseeker]

You have given me so much help regarding SSD's, but all the replies are spot on, so I cannot help.

However, what is a bad leak as opposed to a good leak?

[NaeKuh]

However, what is a bad leak as opposed to a good leak?

drink 40oz of beer.. bathroom -> good leak.
Spill all your coolant on your mobo -> bad leak.

[lowfat]

I wouldn't worry about that. Minimal.

you wouldn't worry about water soaking his cpu socket?

wow im surprised it leaked with that clamp

A clamp is just going to prevent the tubing from leaking at the barb. Not from the barb leaking at the block. If it is indeed leaking at the tubing then those Lamptron clamps suck.

[NaeKuh]

i think he's leaking at the oring in the barb.

Maybe the barb got loosened?

[Computurd]

If it is indeed leaking at the tubing then those Lamptron clamps suck.

YUP. see i have had issues with some barbs and these lamptrons...they wont 'bite' on certain ones. for instance the built in barb on the BIP rad i have...it wouldnt tighten down enough to bite on it. well i had these highflow bitspower they didnt like either. so i got a few Black Ice Pro fittings and used them on the CPU. well the way that i tightened em on the CPU was very hard and time consuming because i did it with the block already on the cpu and the fasterners facing the rear so they couldnt be seen.. well guess i didnt notice that even though they were 'tight' they were actaully loose as hell. pulling the block, guess what?? loose even though fully tightened.
i think that the goddamn thing has been leaking for awhile i have been losing tiny bits of water outta my res for a few weeks, but kept thinking it was maybe bubbles from bleeding. bought a bright ass LED flashlight that is like the sun just to be sure i wasnt missing anything and have been checking every fitting every night for a week now. never seen it. the leak was behind the thing where it couldnt be easily seen.
was slight, i imagine, until the 100C water set there for a bit and opened it up WIDE>
man now to see what happens on power up. not sure i wanna do it LOL
had 24 ssds on the rig, and two raid cards. bout 8 grand in ssd and 2 grand in raid cards on this not to mention ram, gpu cpu....

gonna pull all the cards off and unpower ssd;s .....


LAMPTRON FTL is all i have to say on that.

edit: that may be unfair noobery played a part in this. but seriously, these things should bite on ANYTHING imo.

[NaeKuh]

actually as i said in the previous post above you, we cant rule it yet..

it could be the tubing was in a twisted fashion looking at his compression springs, which caused the barb to twist loose in that fashion.

We have to think about it in this fashion....

If the clamp was to fail, that would mean his HK was clogged causing back pressure which forced water to escape the teeth of the tubing first, and then leak.
Vs.
If the barb somehow got loosened from the twist, the oring failed, then you would get the result pictured here:



OP is the barb loose? Im calling failed Oring, b4 i call failed clamp.

[CedricFP]

As someone previously said, if your unit was powered on when everything came loose, it's likely all shorted and toast...

However, I've had a graphics card resurrect from quite literally being soaked all over. That was pretty crazy. But the next time I removed the block, it all stopped working.

Sorry to hear of your problems man.

[CedricFP]

I wouldn't worry about that. Minimal.

Haha.

[Computurd]

@ Naekuh...i powered the pump with the block still on it. the water is most definitely coming from the tubing itself, not the o-ring or the barb. is was escaping between teh barb and tubing. which had a clamp still on it.
changed clamps. used the plastic ones
powered back on
no leaks.

the clamp was loose, could be wiggled. even though it was tightened. i think it was the heat of water that caused to push past. made a loud WOOSHING sound like steam when it happened.

[86 5.0L]

good to know, im staying away from these clamps...

[spitter3]

the clamp was loose, could be wiggled. even though it was tightened.

I have had similar experiences with aluminum clamps before, not a good material for clamps.

[Martinm210]

Don't power on for a week I would suggest, at least that's how long + it took one of my motherboards when I spilled on it.

Overnight just doesn't cut it. I leaked on a motherboard and tried the one day dry thing..nada. Surprisingly a week later it came back on, then it quit again...a few more days later if finally came back to life for good.

I've had leaks with just about everything I can think of short of 3/8" tubing on 1/2" barbs. 7/16" on 1/2" is another near perfect for me.

Unfortunately leak testing cold doesn't always reveal the leaks. Heat + Pressure + Vibration is sometimes going to cause a leak you otherwise can't detect with normal leak testing. It's always a good idea to do the towel test for a while after, but movement of tubing later can also cause problems. Tubing also hardens after it's been in use a while.

Wish I could say watercooling is risk free with good practices, but the truth is we're only human and sooner or later you will short out something. Happens to everyone.

Sorry to hear about your luck...hope it turns out with minimal damage if anything.

[Johnny87au]

Wow those lamptron clamps are fail, you've been having bad luck lately dude grr.. Any hardware damaged?

[Computurd]

@Naekuyh...yeah you have a good point about a clogged block so i took it apart. it was clean. i had cleaned it before assembly but that was a good thought so i double checked.

you've been having bad luck lately dude grr.. Any hardware damaged?

nope. thank god!!! unbelievable, but i think since i got there before anything zapped i was cool. when i opened the CPU socket water was in there...unbelievable!! maybe it was just going in as i pulled the plug?
tested CPU on another board, and raid cards. tested SSD's on the other board, then did loop testing blah blah blah. 12 hours later im good to go , hopefully.
sont know, i was so lucky my wife was irritating me by calling repeatedly, i have a 250 watt sub and surround sound on my computer, and i was playing some music LOUD when she called...i would've never heard the damn whooshing if it wasnt for her.

FOR THE RECORD :
on the clamps...they have issues with some barbs. i have 24 some odd barbs on my rig. so i have a bunch of different kinds. there were a few that the clamps, when tightened down all the way, would not bite on. they were still lose. so i had to buy different barbs. I did have two 'odd' barbs out on the CPU due to the close spacing of the HK 3.0 ports. They were 2 x Bitspower Premium PLUS Black Diamond Series G1/4" High Flow 1/2" Fitting . I thought the clamps were tight, apparently they werent. when i tested them from the top with the block on the CPU, which is where i tightened them down, they didnt move. but one barb is higher than the other. the bottom barb when i pulled the block with the tubing still on, did move a bit. and thats the one that leaked. and the damn thing was tightened to max. upon further inspection the top clamp was a tad loose too if i fought it. I figured the heat might come into play here, adn had messed up the tubing. well i took new tubing, put it on the fittings, and guess what?
tightened to the max, these clamps are still loose on those barbs. I also had the same issue with my BIP rad, it has built in barbs, and they wouldnt grab on those either.
so proceed with caution, and double check, if you use these clamps.
just because they are tightened all the way, doesnt mean they are really tight!

Wish I could say watercooling is risk free with good practices, but the truth is we're only human and sooner or later you will short out something. Happens to everyone.

Sorry to hear about your luck...hope it turns out with minimal damage if anything.

thanks martin, you and johnnys comments actually help make me feel better about the whole deal, and i appreciate it. sometimes its good to hear i guess.....coming from a pro like you, i dont fell half as stupid having had an error~!

[Johnny87au]

wow, so glad you got it sorted out mate! You should try using compressions, i've never had a leak using compressions, have had several leaks with barbs tbh..

[Vinas]

wow, so glad you got it sorted out mate! You should try using compressions, i've never had a leak using compressions, have had several leaks with barbs tbh..

Compression's are not leak proof either. If you put tension on a compression that makes it want to rotate counter clockwise, they can leak too. The moral of the story is leak test and spot checks are always needed. If you don't check your new loop every now and then you are asking to throw away money IMHO. A visual check is one thing, but on a newer loop people should be physically touching each connection and testing for looseness.

[Conumdrum]

Heat like that can easily change ANY tube clamp or compression fitting ability. Remember, the heat at the block/CPU is very high. It's transferred to the barbs/compressions. The tubing is outside it's design parameters, stuff gets odd then. No clamp, barb, compression is designed for that. Stuff happens. Glad you had a clamp of it coulda popped off.


Dry for a few days, warm sun or a very cool oven. Give it time.

I'm sure a clamp made of unobtainium tightened with a Thor Hammer wrench would of held up to that heat. May the fun Internet suppositions and personality discussions continue.

I'm done here, one quick post and I win over the 4x posters in this thread.

[RCG_Bex]

Holy moly... sick... btu I'd never use a hair dryer on the stuff. Can cause warping etc. Best to use that alcohol stuff to clean it up. IF it's UV reactive, check the sockets under UV light and mop it all up. Leave unpowered for 24hrs to a week (I've found some PCB's are fine for 24hrs others need a week - asus in particular need longer for some reason)

Glad it's come out good. I'm not impressed though... Personally if I could get the good black fat barbs I'd go back to 3/8" ID 5/8" OD over 1/2" but for now, squeezing 3/8" ID 5/8" OD into 7/16" ID 5/8" OD is good enough (although very painful on the hands)

[penguins]

so proceed with caution, and double check, if you use these clamps.
just because they are tightened all the way, doesn't mean they are really tight!

I don't mean to be a deck, but This is Watercooling 101.
Plus you had a different problem, your pump stopped and the water went super hot. It WILL find a point and pop a tube, that's what happens.

You can have a barb and a clamp that work together and have User Error installing them.

and as you said, just cause you tighten it all the way doesn't mean it's really :

Making the correct contact in the right place to keep the tube on the barb.

I would also say, Double check ALL clamps.