Coolant Mixtures - My Own Findings

Hesky82 · 20 Apr 2008 at 19:05

Hi chaps, well I’ve spent absolutely ages testing many different coolant mixes over extensive time periods and I’ve come to the conclusion that pure distiled water and a couple of drops of concentrated Biocide is my most effective coolant mix to date!

I’ve given up on hydrophilic absorption promoters like Redline Water Wetter and Valvoline Zerex due to their general ineffectiveness. The stuff never lowered my cars coolant system temperatures so I’m not surprised it didn’t work in my pc. Zerex is the most annoying stuff as I have found it creates a nasty white film on the inside of tubes.

I’ve also dumped using corrosion inhibitors such as Pentosin G11,G12 and other coolant additives, I found you just don't need to use them in a cooling system that has no aluminium components, so adding additives like this that contain ethylene glycol really has no positive effect on increasing the coolants heat capacity.

Pretty much all the different types of uv dies I tried faded after quite a short period of time and I’ve even had a few types sludge up in different watecooling loops. Real nasty!!

And finally I’ve also tried a few pre mixed solutions from Feser and Alphacool and found distilled water actually cools more effectively regardless of their specified heat capacities :rolleyes:

Would be interesting to hear any comments.

Cheers

w3bbo · 20 Apr 2008 at 19:29

H2O is the best liquid at disipating heat (unless you count some mega expensive concoction Nasa/3M produce). Anything you add to water will 'dilute' its efficiency hence why I always recommend your recent findings

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Hesky82 · 20 Apr 2008 at 19:54

Next step is to try some laboratory grade double-distilled water "ddH2O" which a dear friend managed to pinch from work, should be able to do away with the copper sulphate biocide completely then

I change my watercooling loops so often I couldn’t justify using those crazy expensive non conductive coolants. Probably the only stuff I havent tried yet.

Day03 · 20 Apr 2008 at 20:08

Hesky82 said:
Next step is to try some laboratory grade double-distilled water "ddH2O" which a dear friend managed to pinch from work, should be able to do away with the copper sulphate biocide completely then

Single distilled water is enough to stop any algee growth. We distill our own water to use in dental equipment and in over 2 years of use haven't noticed any biofilm formation or algee growth.

MikeTimbers · 20 Apr 2008 at 22:23

I have one of those reverse osmosis drinking taps and I just use that. Never had any algae whatsoever.

psychas · 20 Apr 2008 at 22:32

w3bbo said:
H2O is the best liquid at disipating heat (unless you count some mega expensive concoction Nasa/3M produce). Anything you add to water will 'dilute' its efficiency hence why I always recommend your recent findings.

+1 but u need other things to not get corrosion on your coper things i guess?

MikeTimbers · 20 Apr 2008 at 22:35

You'll never get corrosion on your copper things but you would do on any aluminium things if they are in the same loop as copper things.

MikeHunt79 · 20 Apr 2008 at 22:43

MikeTimbers said:
I have one of those reverse osmosis drinking taps and I just use that. Never had any algae whatsoever.

Yep my loop has been fine for over a year with water from reverse osmosis.

cerialkilla · 21 Apr 2008 at 11:29

How does Feser Ones non conductive coolant preform compared to good ol' H2O??

MikeTimbers · 21 Apr 2008 at 21:14

Not as well. Water has outstanding thermal properties at liquid temperatures. There are others that do well outside water's natural temperature range but nothing does as well as water at room temperatures.

Junk · 22 Apr 2008 at 15:07

what is this reverse osmosis malarky.

i use zerex and de-ionised as distilled i cannot find anywhere.

<edit: aha! water softened by a softener!>

Hesky82 · 22 Apr 2008 at 17:24

In simple terms its basically a type of high pressure filter that removes most of the impurities from tap water.

WJA96 · 22 Apr 2008 at 22:59

There is a product called Ice Water which is high-purity distilled water with a non-conductive algaecide in it (not copper sulphate). Distilled water is the best transducer of heat, but you do need some form of anti-algal as well. I don't like copper sulphate as distilled water is basically not a good conductor of electricity (so it's safer than tap water or deionised water) but adding copper sulphase obviously adds copper ions which are conductive.