Aluminum Vs Copper and Corrosion

[Hondacity]

1. Can anti corrosion additives help out here?
2. Haven't seen alot of pictures of corroded blocks. Please share your photos or photos from www.

Cheers

[Eddie3dfx]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...hlight=duckies

[Hondacity]

i did see two blocks there...the first block seemed tarnished and no sign of corrosion in my opinion? the gtx was terrible...but seems fishy..it was obviously abused..some afforded to dip it in something acidic.

anymore? info? i see bashing of alu but no pictures...

[dopestuff]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/Forums/...d.php?t=201501

[Petra]

One example of a completely destroyed Apogee GTX (corrosion had actually clogged the internals of the block up):


...and a less severe case of corrosion which occurred even with corrosion inhibitors in the coolant.


All corrosion inhibitors will do is slow the corrosion reaction, not stop it. Granted, with strong inhibitors and frequent coolant changes, the reaction can be slowed enough to where you, hypothetically, wouldn't see a whole lot happen during the course of a part's life... but why risk it when there are plenty of alternative materials?

[MomijiTMO]

I don't see any corrosion Petra.

Hey are any of these RMA cases? lol

[Petra]

Hey are any of these RMA cases? lol

Yeah... I still have both in a drawer in the warehouse

[HotGore]

1. Can anti corrosion additives help out here?
2. Haven't seen alot of pictures of corroded blocks. Please share your photos or photos from www.

Cheers

You will probably see the stories of corroding GTX blocks rather then most others because the Alu and Cu are directly touching. When they touch you cannot stop corrosion through additives.

[Hondacity]

thanks but thats more or less isolated with the gtx waterblocks. kinda helpful. wish some post more pictures..koolance perhaps?

[Waterlogged]

Here's another case of corrosion.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=139

[fart_plume]

Contrary to populat belief, you can stop corrosion of blocks and rads by using a sacrifical anode made of either silver or Stainless steel, fittings made of these materials and grounded to case will prevent the corrosion of the copper and aluminum. Also by using corrsion inhibitors will help to slow the sacrifical anodes demise........

[Waterlogged]

Contrary to populat belief, you can stop corrosion of blocks and rads by using a sacrifical anode made of either silver or Stainless steel, fittings made of these materials and grounded to case will prevent the corrosion of the copper and aluminum. Also by using corrsion inhibitors will help to slow the sacrifical anodes demise........

Then why is zinc used in most anti corrosion systems for marine based structures and vessels?

[fart_plume]

because zinc is cheap, and zinc does oxidize. And it the the electrical potential with dissimalar metals that marine engineers look at to determine which metals and coatings to use to reduce the effects of galvanic corrosion. From some of the research I've been doing with some water types you won't get galvanic corrosion, but you get bacterial and algeal corrosion. in the another water type(chemical make up) you get accelerated galvanic corrosion but no bio corrosion. There are a great number of things that contribute to corrosion. Even the distilled water from your Wal-mart may have a completely different ph than the distilled water from your local super market. Also maintaining a ph level between 7 & 7.5 is optimal for minimizing corrosion and preventing biologicals in water systems.

[Xilikon]

[MomijiTMO]

another question to ask about high galvanic reaction cases, did users have UV lighted case?

I would be interested to know how this affects anything.

[fart_plume]

the "uv" lighting used in cases is more correctly termed black light, not true UV. The only true UV lights I have ever seen are heavy shielded from the operator. As far as i know uv has little effect on metals. One of the metal shops actually stored Stainless, Titanium and Aluminum, outside unprotected from the elements. the aluminum might get a light white tint to it but never more than that, same for the titanium. Stainless, well there are so many SS alloys, some will actually rust,some just get a little dull looking. your $00 series SS will rust due to the high carbon content, whereas 300 series is used a lot for marine and water uses, mainly because it has a higher nickle content.

[MomijiTMO]

Yeah looking at a real uv light isn't the smartest thing to do .

I can't see how it could affect it either and was just seeing what people thought.

[fart_plume]

easiest way i know of to tell if you have true UV light is a black light has a dark almost black filter, whereas true UV tube is clear. true UV light the human eye can't perceive, black light is simple high spectrum violet light, not Ultra-Violet. Close enough to make UV reactive dyes and colors glow.

[Kayin]

Hey, how would I set up a sacrificial anode in this case? Say I had Al in my loop for some damn reason, what would I do to get the anode in?

[fart_plume]

you would need to put an anode on either side of your aluminum part, such as using a Stainless fitting(like one tee for filling and one for draining your loop) and ground each to your case. Reason for the ground wires is the complete the circuit for the sacrifical anode to work.(in essence you are just putting a part in with more electrical potential to control what is being eaten away and a SS fitting is cheaper than a rad for instance).

Yes , i know some are going to say "But you haven't Really stopped the corrosion!" this is true but you are controlling the corrosion, where it takes place and at what speed it occurs. Corrosion takes place IN ALL WATER SYSTEMS REGARDLESS of dissimilar metals or not. A straight copper system still has corrosion occuring, just at a much slower rate. Even differing copper alloys will accelerate corrosion to a point, because of the differing electrical potential of the alloys.

[Kayin]

Awesome, I have the parts for that. Hell, I have the parts for silver anodes if need be...

What would have better performance? I would lean towards silver, for the fact that it's, well, silver. But you know more here, care to enlighten?

[fart_plume]

The advantage of silver is it also acts as a biocide, if you have a silver fitting you can control 2 problems with the same fitting.

Some thing that can help get a cheap pool ph tester for the local pool store/shop and check the ph of the coolant before you put in. the Closer it is to 7.5 ph but the over the better.

[RVWinkle]

All corrosion inhibitors will do is slow the corrosion reaction, not stop it. Granted, with strong inhibitors and frequent coolant changes, the reaction can be slowed enough to where you, hypothetically, wouldn't see a whole lot happen during the course of a part's life... but why risk it when there are plenty of alternative materials?

I agree with your post but just so everyone understands, you can get away with Cu and Al in the same loop. I have a loop that will be 3 years old next month with mixed metals and no corrosion. It's been a while but I believe it was 10-20% Pensotin mixed with distilled. I flushed the system at 1.5 years because I thought I saw some corrosion but it turned out I was wrong. One of the Al parts was used in a previous loop so I could say I've used Al in a loop for 4 years with no problems.

[Kayin]

Oh, I've done the same as well. I have no issues with running mixed metals if I have control over such as sacrificial anodes or good anticorrosive materials. I've seen just as many setups survive with no visible damage as I have setups die. People refuse to treat these setups with the proper respect, and lose parts, or Swiftech makes a misbegotten mockery of a CPU block (I know better than to put them that close together) and they have issues. Wanna see a real horror story? Shoulda seen the pics posted of a guy who used well water in his setup. Al is nothing compared to using tap water or the like.

[[XC] riptide]

the "uv" lighting used in cases is more correctly termed black light, not true UV. The only true UV lights I have ever seen are heavy shielded from the operator. As far as i know uv has little effect on metals. One of the metal shops actually stored Stainless, Titanium and Aluminum, outside unprotected from the elements. the aluminum might get a light white tint to it but never more than that, same for the titanium. Stainless, well there are so many SS alloys, some will actually rust,some just get a little dull looking. your $00 series SS will rust due to the high carbon content, whereas 300 series is used a lot for marine and water uses, mainly because it has a higher nickle content.

welll.... It can cause metals to have a postential due to the Photoelectric effect, (which Einstein won his noble prize explaning). I suspect UV band light will have this effect.

To follow from this, proper UV should kill bacteria, as used in water filters, and since it causes a potential, could be used to aid or negate the effects of electron flow in corrosion, depending on which metal experience more Photoelectric effect and the intensities and wavelenghts of the UV.