Flow Testing With Various Blocks

[coolmiester]

Flow Testing With Various Blocks, Barb Sizes and Aftermarket Laing Tops



I hope this might give an indication to expected flow rate with various blocks, hose fittings and aftermarket pump tops.

We've just introduced the small 10-8mm Compression Fittings and Hose to our site so thought it would be a good idea to put some of the most popular blocks head to head in a flow test comparison using the new 10-8mm Fittings as well as the more common 3/8" and 1/2" barbs

For the test i used three new, off the shelf Laing DDC 1T 10watt pumps firstly with an Alphacool Modded Plexi Top then repeated all tests with a Petra's Tech Top. The pumps were ran in for 15 minutes before testing began then each test was replicated three times using all three pumps so an average could be gained from all three pumps.

This in itself was quite interesting as on some tests i was able to see as much as .6LPM deficit between pumps even though they were all ran from the same PSU and same amount of hose lengths used.

The Barbs used were...
10-8mm Compression Fittings with 8mm ID Hose (3ft inlet - 2ft outlet)
3/8" EK Barbs with 3/8" Tygon Hose (3ft inlet - 2ft outlet)
1/2" EK Barbs with 1/2" Tygon Hose (3ft inlet - 2ft outlet)

The blocks used were all that i could lay my hands on at the time without going back to the older generation blocks.
D-Tek FuZion
Danger Den TDX
Swiftech Storm
EK Wave
Alphacool XP Bold

Nothing really surprising with the result to be honest though i was quite surprised at how much the flow was killed with the Storm yet the difference in flow between barb sizes was virtually nothing compared to the less restrictive blocks.

Hopefully i will get the chance in the coming weeks to re-test all blocks with both the 18watt version and the D5 to see how they compare but its pretty time consuming as i'm sure you will appreciate so not sure when that will be.

Anyway on with the results.....

Firstly the Laing DDC 1T 10watt with Modded Alphacool Plexi Top



........and then the Laing DDC 1T 10watt with Petra's Tech 01 Top


[disclaimer] As stated previously, i don't profess to being any kind of expert in this field or for that matter having the equipment as they might on other forums but these are my findings from a simple exercise that replicates set-ups used by many people on a day to day basis using a stop watch and a 5ltr container. [/disclaimer]

[nikhsub1]

Nice! I have to say that something looks amiss with the storm. Are you sure it is not clogged? I would expect to see similar numbers as the XP, maybe a tad less but certainly not that bad.

[ramenchef]

Great work. too bad you don't have an apogee gt to compare with these other blocks. And I agree, the drop on the storm looks really bad.

[EnJoY]

Nice comparison.

[coolmiester]

The Swiftech Storms low performance does seem a bit suspect and thought a bit more investigation was in order so took it apart to check for any obstruction but could find nothing and everything seemed to be in order so put it back together and quickly ran the test again using one DDC 1T 10watt pump with the modded Alphacool top with 1/2" EK barbs in both block and pump and ran the same test on an original Cather solid silver Storm with the standard 1/2" barbs - repeated tests three times and took the average.

Swiftech Storm = 2.6LPM
Cather Storm = 6.3LPM

I wasn't able to duplicate the test with anything other than the standard barbs on the Cather block as they use a 3/8" thread and i don't have any barbs to fit it so could only do a 1/2" like for like test with the Swiftech

[nikhsub1]

Something is wrong with that swiftech storm...

[SiGfever]

The nozzle size or quantity opened has to be a factor, those numbers just don't compute.

[[cTx] Nooc]

would have liked to see an apogee gt in that test, but thanks anyways and the storm looks awful in the test

[_G_]

are you sure you dont have the charts switch?
youre results show the Alphacool top outflowing the Petra's Tech 01 Top
on all the blocks except the storm(the most restrictive block)

I thought the design of the Petra's Tech 01 Top traded some head pressure for increased flow? am i missing something

[sanhacker]

I find it interesting the Alphacool top beat out the Petra Top.

Thanks for taking the time to pull this together.

Just as a comparison, here were Petra's numbers. Keep in mind, he was using the 18W and you were using the 10W version. I'll look forward to your report on the DDC+.




So, if I look at these two tests, there really isn't much difference. Really no reason to think there would be. But, based on the mounting options and reports of quieter operation, I'm thinking Alphacool is in my future.

[MaxxxRacer]

that storm is deffinetly jacked up. The Swfitech Storm Rev2 will have better flow charactersitics than the G5 from what I know. With that information it should be getting atleast 6.5lpm with the 1/2" ek barbs.

[Solarfall]

nice one coolmiester, its allways nice to see how much effort people put to testing various settings and componets.
this is why i keep visiting this forums. XS rocks

[BlueAqua]

Great comparison. I think Petra's top excels with higher flow achieved from the DDC+ 18W version.

[SiGfever]

Petra's and Alphacool's tops are both great performance enhancers but the mounting option offered by Alphacool was my deciding factor. Hint, Hint...Alex!

[Okda]

please please please can u add the appoge GT ???

[Radical_53]

Something's definitely wrong with that Storm... it should normally be slightly better than the Nexxxos XP.
Also, the EK Wave and DD TDX (at least with the jet nozzle) should have less flow than the XP or Storm...

Also, what kind of flow meter did you use for that test?

[ign0]

I just did a test on Alphacool XP copper top one (rev.2) yesterday, and the number I got is 4.93 lpm with D5 at 5

it seems tube's water resistance is a factor to be calibrated, but other people's tests always outperform mine (lol)

your ddc-1 just outperform my d5 haha.

I don't have a storm to compare, but I know it's very hard to get more water through my xp. its resistance go up sharply between 4 lpm to 5 lpm.