Thermochill EC6 Coolant Review

[bentleya]

Thermochill EC6
Coolant Review

Introduction




Welcome to my review of the New coolant from Thermochill. But with all the bad press Non conductive/UV coolant has had over the past 6 months or so, can this coolant really live up to all the hype which it has created?

Before we find out what this coolant can really do, I would like to thank Rob & Paul at Thermochill for providing the coolant for this review.

Thermochill is the word/brand every water cooling enthusiast knows and has respected for a long time. For the last 7 years Thermochill has produced high performance radiators of the highest quality, and with the new owners settling in nicely, the future continues to look bright for Thermochill.

Bearing in mind all the recent “Bad Press” non conductive coolants have attracted, my tests will try to focus on these issues - thermal performance, flow, non-conductivity and gunking and clunking. While gunking may happen over a space of time, (which I don’t have time to test), I will try my best in simulating by Boiling and Freezing the coolant, as well as testing alongside a control liquid - leading competitors coolant, Feser One.







An Overview of what is in the coolant and it’s features:

• Pre-mixed with no need for additional additives
• Electrical Conductivity <2µS/cm at 24C *
• Non-Toxic and RoHS Compliant

• Freezing Point - 6C
• 85% Bio-degradable Within 30 Days

• Shelf Stable UV Reactive Dyes of up to 2 years

• EC6 is a true Eco Friendly Product

Flow

I performed a restriction test to see how much the coolant limits flow, I ran the pump at 12v, through a Digmesa Flow Meter and normal loop components for a actual loop result. With information recorded every one minute, a total of ten results were averaged out and presented as simple graph. Since I use the same setup for each coolant I test, with all the parts being the same, I am able to compare restrictivty to other coolants.

Does adding coolant affect your flow?



Flow Rate Loop – Laing DDC 1T + XSPC Res Top, 2 Meters XSPC 7/16” Tubing
Alphacool NexXxoS 360mm Radititor, Alphacool HF 14 Yellowstone 2 Alphacool Ball Valves, Disstilled Water


From the above graph we can see that, using Thermochill EC6 restricts the flow by 0.07 GPM - Distilled water reading 1.68 GPM, Thermochill EC6 reading 1.61 GPM.

(Note: Flow test used with clear EC6 coolant and Tesco Value Distilled)


Thermal Test Specification

A 5-mount test with 1hour with each mount, 50 Mins Warm Up 10 Mins Temperature logging.

• The 1366 Test Setup is as follows, Intel Core i7 920 DO Overclocked to 3.6 GHZ (No Lapping) running on a Gigabyte UD5 Extreme Motherboard. 6GB (3x2GB) of Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz Memory, The motherboard cooling is stock with no extra airflow. Video card is an EVGA 8800GT, also on stock cooling. The power comes form a Zalman 850W Modular PSU, Samsung 500GB Hard drive split into 2 250 GB partitions. Test case is my Le Chuck Test Bench, which had horizontal mounting.

• The cooling setup I am using is based more around Euro Style, With Few exceptions.

o Radiator: Alphacool NexXxoS Xtreme III 360mm Radiator 3x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D Fans @ 1200rpm, I chose this rad, as it has great value for money and good performance to go with it.
o Pump: I run a Laing DDC 1T with an XSPC res top, also known as a Swiftech MCP350 ran at 12V. I chose this pump, as DDC’s Seem to be the norm with most users using the basic model.
o CPU Waterblock: Alphacool HF 14 Yellowstone for 775-1366 Intel motherboards.
o Loop Order: Optimal to my needs my loop Is setup in this order, XSPC Res Top > DDC > Digmesa Flow Meter > 360mm Rad > Temp Sensor (Water In) > Ball Valve > Alphacool HF 14 Yellowstone > Ball Valve > Temp Sensor (Water Out) > Res Top. For an optimized loop for any set up always have your res feeding the pump.

• TIM Material I use MX-2 like most other enthusiasts and testers, primarily as it works at optimum efficiency as soon as you apply it, (no break in time like AS5). and it is non conductive, conductive could become a problem with multiple applications per test and multiple blocks. The TIM Application method I use is the dot in the center. (Small pea sized TIM Applied to centre of CPU, then when block is Compressed TIM Is spread evenly across the cores of the CPU), Recorded data is only used if TIM application is confirmed as good on the following re-mount.

Thermal Test Results

With Distilled water being the best cooling fluid at the lowest price, does adding stuff into a coolant give you better or worse temps?



The graph compares distilled water, Thermochill EC6 and Feser One. The results show there is a small variation in efficiency between coolants. Thermochill EC6 – 33.1 Degrees, Distilled water – 33.2 Degrees and Feser One – 33.4 degrees.

(Note: Thermal test used with clear EC6 coolant, Tesco Value Distilled water and Feser one Black UV)

Freezer Test

We fine-tune our systems to get the best temps as possible, but does running cool gunk you up?. If we put these coolants in the freezer, will they clump when they thaw out? This is what I intend to find out.

• 500ml of both coolants placed in a freezer for 12 hours, Stored in a 500ml plastic still water bottle.
• 4 hours defrost time with the coolant removed from bottle and poured into a small plastic container for closer inspection.

When you put 500ml of EC6 in the freezer for 12 hours, and then leave it thaw out for 4 hours. It is safe to say that the coolant doesn't lose any of it's UV properties, nor does it clump/group together. The above picture shows you there was no clumping after the defrost time.

(Note: This is an extreme test and with a normal working loop you won’t see freezing happen)

Boiling Test

Cooling loops are usually getting constant use, and may run hot under certain conditions. But how long does it take for the dye to separate under these certain conditions?

• 500ml of coolant poured into saucepans and heated to boiling point.
• Once at boiling point left to boil for 30 minutes.
• Each coolant left to cool for 30 minutes, with an inspection of each coolant at this point.
• Test repeated four times if the coolant hasn’t already broken up.

When you put 500ml of EC6 in saucepan, and leave it boiling away for 30 minutes. I saw a vast amount of evaporation happing much more then normal water. I believe this is down to being able to carry more heat away then plain water.

After the cool down process, and being able to see in the photo provided above no dye separation happened while i was boiling the coolant.

(Note: This is an extreme test and with a normal working loop you won’t see Boiling happen)

Where To Buy

As this is a brand new coolant to the market. Retailers in the United Kingdom are the only ones to have stock, at the time of this review. These retailers include WatercoolingUK, Specialtech, Overclockers UK, Aquacooled Pcs and the XSPC Shop.

I will update the list of places to buy once retailers start to receive they coolants.

United Kingdom
• Clear - £7.99
• UV Blue – £8.99
• UV Neon Green - £8.99

Conclusion

Pros
• All in one coolant, with no need to add anything else to your loop
• Twist back seal, so you know you coolant hasn’t been tampered with, and no contamination
• High flow, easy pour lid which makes filling your loop a breeze
• Eco friendly and completly Bio-degradable
• Corrosion protection for Copper, Brass, Steel, Nickel and Aluminum Proven to ASTM D3306 and BS6580 standards

Cons
• Can get costly for multiple and long loop setups

Notes from Thermochill

We recommend that you do not mix any other additive or coolant with Thermochill EC6.
We recommend frequent coolant changes to maintain your system loop correctly, and to reduce the conductive potential within the loop as much as possible. EC6 can become electrically conductive in normal use over time or if contaminated just like any other coolant on the market.
The use of this product is at your own risk. Thermochill is not responsibility for damage caused to hardware, property or data arising from its use.

Final Thoughts

This new premix non conductive coolant, isn't just vibrant colour in a bottle - it has the cooling power to match. It's long development time shows though with it passing both the freezer and boiling up test which i though at it with flying colours. It's UV reactivity is more than pleasing with a whole bottle changing from non UV to UV with just two 3mm 12V LED's.

With a lot of new coolant which has been realsed lately and with past experience with others, I would recommend to give the Clear coolant a try. Instead of Distilled water with PT Nuke or Kill-coils (Sliver alternative will work). And buy some coloured tubing of your chosen colour to make it more colourful if you still want to avoid Dyes.

I plan on testing the non-conductivity of this fluid on some hardware, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get hold of enough old cheap gear which I can pour coolant onto at the moment - this may be added to the review at a later date. If you have any old Components that you don't mind donating for this test, please just PM Me.

www.watercoolinguk.co.uk www.alphacool.com www.xspc.biz www.skinneelabs.com www.thermochill.co.uk/

[Blizzy]

Nice tests there =o
Any pics of it under UV ?

[punkrockpolak]

Couldn't you just stick the prongs of of multimeter into a cup of the coolant?

[millertime359]

There is another thread here with it under UV, have to run a search.

Nice review there. It looks like it probably not too bad as far as pre-mixes go. How does the freezing and boiling testes compare to those of Feser?

[bentleya]

Originally Posted by Blizzy

Nice tests there =o
Any pics of it under UV ?

Bundymania has posted a few UV photos, The clear is'nt UV like it shows with the bottle. it's HDPE plastic which is a cloudy natrual colour which does glow under uv light a little.

Originally Posted by punkrockpolak

Couldn't you just stick the prongs of of multimeter into a cup of the coolant?

Hmmm.. never thought about doing that, but i fill having a few systems up is more beneficial. As at the end of the day if it leaks it's going on hardware so i would like to test it on hardware.

Originally Posted by millertime359

There is another thread here with it under UV, have to run a search.

Nice review there. It looks like it probably not too bad as far as pre-mixes go. How does the freezing and boiling testes compare to those of Feser?

The Feser boiling and freezing test i am doing tomorrow and friday, I only had one sasupen which i have promoted to the use of liquid science and there is only a small amount of room in the freezer.

[skinnee]

Originally Posted by punkrockpolak

Couldn't you just stick the prongs of of multimeter into a cup of the coolant?

Hey, you're kind of taking my idea...

Good pics and write-up bentleya.

[Diverge]

Originally Posted by punkrockpolak

Couldn't you just stick the prongs of of multimeter into a cup of the coolant?

Or he could just drop the Molex connector of a PSU directly into his bowl of coolant. Then you can test the coolant, and the OCP of the PSU (if the coolant conducts)

[Metric]

Nice review and photos bentleya

Any chances to see tests on how long it takes for the EC6 to stain tubing and/or block surfaces?

[bentleya]

Originally Posted by skinnee

Hey, you're kind of taking my idea...

Good pics and write-up bentleya.

Thanks alot Cameron, looking forward to seeing your EC6 Review.

Originally Posted by Metric

Nice review and photos bentleya

Any chances to see tests on how long it takes for the EC6 to stain tubing and/or block surfaces?

Thanks Metric, I've got a EK Supreme With 30cm XSPC Tubing which i started yesterday, with the blue coolant. I will Post results in due course.

[bentleya]

Tubing Staining

One of the main selling points which Thermochill puts across with this coolant, is the ability to not stain your tubing over time. I have put together a simple tubing test rig, with a range of tubing from XSPC, Tygon and Clearflex.

The plan is to leave as much UV Blue EC6 coolant as the system will take, with the res filled to the top. A laing DDC pump, pumps the coolant around the tubing for 2 weeks non stop. After the two weeks, photographic evidence to see if tubing has any stains, or clouding, which may result when using this tubing. As i am also using an acrylic Reservoir i can see if the coolant affects the acrylic as well.

The layout is as follows and see the picture below to help with my expernation.

EK Multioption RES 250 > Black 3/8 - 5/8 XSPC Tubing > Laing DDC Pro > Black 3/8 -1/2 TFC Tubing > Koolance 5 way splitter.

Output one > Tygon R306 1/2 Clear Tubing
Output two > Clealflex 60 1/2 Clear Tubing
Output three > XSPC 3/8 - 5/8 Clear Tubing

Koolance 5 way splitter > Black 3/8 -1/2 TFC Tubing > EK Multioption RES 250.

[WaterFlex]

Thanks for the review

[mlwood37]

To test if it stains is easy.

Cut small peace's of different tube and place in a glass add different metals into the cup as well.... Pour over liquid and then put in airing cupboard for 6 months ... and saying it doesn't stain is a laugh in the least. i do love marketing gimmicks.

These all so need to be left in different environments.

Ive been running test now for 4 months on various fluid's and i still have another 2 moths to go. Testing some thing esp a "None Conductive fluid" over a 2 week period is no good esp if you checking out conductivity. The tests need to run longer. If they say the fluid needs to be changed every 1 year that the test need to be done over 1 year.

If your testing for brake up as well after 30 min in a pan aint gonna be a good test unless you filter it and check with a microscope. any liquid heated for long enough will crystallize and brake up that is natural.

Im realy going to consider publishing some real tests and results with in the next few months ... you may be surprised at the results because i know i was.

[nikhsub1]

So let me get this straight. Water flows a bit better but has worse thermal properties? LOL? Do you not see something fundamentally WRONG here? Wow. And then this?

Originally Posted by bentleya

I believe this is down to being able to carry more heat away then plain water.

[antiacid]

Originally Posted by nikhsub1

So let me get this straight. Water flows a bit better but has worse thermal properties? LOL? Do you not see something fundamentally WRONG here? Wow. And then this?

a difference of 0.07gpm over that 1.645 avg flow is 4.3% so really here what you should wonder is if a 4% difference in those results is:

1- statistically significant
2- not caused mostly by experimental errors
3- noticeable on your temperatures of blocks
4- worth 10$ when you can have distilled water at 1.79$ per 2L or cheaper.

The reason you want to buy this product is because it's shiny and you don't have to mix anything to have it be shiny in your clear loops. If you are worried about performances, why don't you get an extra pump/rad/fan and see if that makes more of a difference lol

[nikhsub1]

Originally Posted by antiacid

a difference of 0.07gpm over that 1.645 avg flow is 4.3% so really here what you should wonder is if a 4% difference in those results is:

1- statistically significant
2- not caused mostly by experimental errors
3- noticeable on your temperatures of blocks
4- worth 10$ when you can have distilled water at 1.79$ per 2L or cheaper.

The reason you want to buy this product is because it's shiny and you don't have to mix anything to have it be shiny in your clear loops. If you are worried about performances, why don't you get an extra pump/rad/fan and see if that makes more of a difference lol

My point is, this stuff is NOT more thermally efficient than plain distilled water... water have a slightly higher flow rate AND being a better conductor of heat should show as much in the tests, yet it does not.

[EnJoY]

Originally Posted by nikhsub1

My point is, this stuff is NOT more thermally efficient than plain distilled water... water have a slightly higher flow rate AND being a better conductor of heat should show as much in the tests, yet it does not.

And hence, the testing is flawed. At least from a flow rate and temperature stand point.

Doesn't change the fact that it doesn't appear to clump or cause staining, so that's good.

[Bojamijams]

Originally Posted by bentleya

Thermochill is the word/brand every water cooling enthusiast knows and has respected for a long time.

I stopped reading at the third paragraph right after that line. Well right after I had a giant laugh. I also looked at the charts to amuse myself but it seems nikhsub has already pointed it out.

This is just product shilling and imo thread should be closed.

[Vapor]

While there are fluids that have better thermal properties than water, I doubt they're in use here considering the price tag. I couldn't find an MSDS online about these products, but it would be helpful if someone knew where to find one.

As for the temperature results...I see there were 5 mounts done for each fluid. Did they all get treated the same in terms of curing time? Despite Arctic Cooling's claims, MX-2 DOES have a curing time and if every mount weren't treated identically (i.e., a consistent amount of curing time provided, whether that's 20 seconds or 20 minutes or 20 hours before testing, it has to be the same), it could lead to 'broken' results. It's possible for the clear fluid to be have so few contaminants that it does perform immeasurably close to distilled water, in which case the results are just falling into margin of error explanation. That aside, a 10 minute temperature logging session is really short and produces very noisy results.

[mlwood37]

No offence though bentleya are you not a mod on WCUK

http://forum.watercoolinguk.co.uk/member.php?u=3872

.... this brings into question all ready your review as you wont be objective.

This review is pure marketing hype and is a basic ploy to push the liquids name out there with incorrect info.

[nikhsub1]

Originally Posted by mlwood37

No offence though bentleya are you not a mod on WCUK

http://forum.watercoolinguk.co.uk/member.php?u=3872

.... this brings into question all ready your review as you wont be objective.

This review is pure marketing hype and is a basic ploy to push the liquids name out there with incorrect info.

Agreed

[NaeKuh]

Man... i hate to point this out too...

But this was marci's comment on this product...

Originally Posted by Marci

/me points at brick wall.

Apply head repeatedly.

You guys know marci's relationship to TC also.

[shazza]

Not going to argue that premixes are not all that - just wanted to comment on making claims that a particular reviewer is biased. Just because someone has an affiliation doesn't necessarily mean they will produce a biased review. If we automatically jump to the conclusion that they are, we won't be getting many reviews. I definitely prefer to see at least two reviews, preferably more, on any product before judging - even then you don't know for sure how something will perform until you put it in your setup.

[NaeKuh]

Originally Posted by shazza

Not going to argue that premixes are not all that - just wanted to comment on making claims that a particular reviewer is biased.

well shazza the thing thats pissing off scott is that he broke physics.

Thermodynamics states, unless you mix a solvent with greater C/w then water, you will not get better transfer then water itself.

The solvents which will mix with water and improve thermal properties are not in this product.

So this product being better then distilled is breaking all the math behind thermodynamics.

:P

Theres 3 ways to piss off the vets here.
1. Break all rules of thermo.
2. Live in another universe.
3. Have math wrong and try to pass it off as correct.

This product just broke all 3.

1. It doesnt obey the rules of thermo.
2. It must be from another universe.
3. All the math u do on the product wont be correct, because there must be something wrong with the methodology.

Thats why were spitting a storm.

[Boogerlad]

You boiled that stuff? Isn't it toxic to boil mixes?

[NaeKuh]

Originally Posted by Boogerlad

You boiled that stuff? Isn't it toxic to boil mixes?

wait u got me thinking again....

And boiling.. did u actually see it bubbling... was it really boiling?