Water Cooolant

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Water Cooling Cooolant Needed

I will be doing a total rebuild of my current water cooling set up.

I will be needing some new coolant, Im currently using Fluid-XPat the moment

Can anyone recommend me any other non-conductive coolants that I should use?

Id rather not have to use De-ionised water and an addative because I know that water does regain its ions over time and there is always the chance that the loop may leak at any time.

Thank
 
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I'd still used deionised, as this will seriously increase component survivial chances in the case of an early leak. It's also pretty cheap anyway and wont have **** loads of lime in it like tap water does.
 
Soldato
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corrosive? really? in a single metal loop?

news to me but I'm not going to argue with you because your name looks familiar as someone who knows their stuff ;)
 
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Marci said:
Distilled, not deionised. Deionised is too corrosive and picks up ions super-rapidly, thus becoming ionised even quicker than distilled.

Distillation is a method used to de-ionise water (Getting rid of the conductive metal that has dissolved into the water). De-ionisation uses a different method (I think electrolysis) and is effectively exactly the same as distilling water.
 
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Sorry, got me reasons wrong... only with continuous supply of DI is it more corrosive...

When talking about the various types of purified water, remember to keep it in the context of PC water-cooling. Plain old grocery store distilled water (RO filtered, steam distilled, uV treated) is excellent for PC water-cooling systems. The only other thing you probably need to add is some type of anti-corrosion additive.

Using demineralized (demi), deionized (DI), or ultra pure water in your PC won't hurt anything - BUT it won't gain you anything either. Process equipment (boilers, incubators, etc) that require a constant flow of feed water can be quickly damaged by DI water as it will leach out the metal ions. This does not happen in your PC because it is a one-time addition and then that same water just gets recirculated. IF you were continuously passing DI water thru your water-cooling system loop instead of recirculating it, then it would quickly start dissolving components.

Paying extra money for DI water vs. distilled water doesn't gain you anything because it has such a high affinity for ions it will quickly become un-deionized (and basically the same as distilled) by the time you get the system filled. DI water will immediately start sucking ions out of the air (disolved gases), the bottle or container you pour it into and your cooling system. But the amount of ions absorbed in a one-time fill are so miniscule they do no measurable damage - it takes constant, continous use to do permanent damage. Unless specially handled and sealed DI water quickly becomes ionized.

Source: Robotech
 
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Yes - if you feed a continuous fresh supply of DI into a waterrig, you'll end up with a mess. If you feed a continuous fresh supply of DS into a waterrig, you won't, therefore there IS a difference between the two, just not a highlightable difference for our application. As we don't feed a continuous fresh supply, and just recirculate a finite amount, no there is relatively little difference, but if deionised just becomes distilled within seconds anyways then may as well just buy distilled to start with - it's usually slightly cheaper due to the process difference. (Sorry, it's been a few years since this discussion cropped up in any majorly significant way - am having to scrape thru my brain here...)
 
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Marci said:
Yes - if you feed a continuous fresh supply of DI into a waterrig, you'll end up with a mess. If you feed a continuous fresh supply of DS into a waterrig, you won't, therefore there IS a difference between the two, just not a highlightable difference for our application. As we don't feed a continuous fresh supply, and just recirculate a finite amount, no there is relatively little difference, but if deionised just becomes distilled within seconds anyways then may as well just buy distilled to start with - it's usually slightly cheaper due to the process difference. (Sorry, it's been a few years since this discussion cropped up in any majorly significant way - am having to scrape thru my brain here...)

Thats what I meant :)
 
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Well where can you purchase distilled water then? The local car shop to me does like 4 litres of Deionised water for £4.50 which is serioulsy cheap, would the car place also do distilled water? Or can i pop into say a supermarket and get the distilled water?
 
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Chemists sell distilled, I had to order some from Boots and collected it the next day - 5 litres for just under a fiver, but some others may stock it.

Halfords only sold de-ionised last time I checked.
 
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i think if your THAT worried about leaks, you shouldnt be watercooling !
its been said over and over and over again that these pre-mixxed fluids are a waste of money.

marci: i aggree with that quote of yours too.

it seems most of our weatercooling education / iinformation comes form the states. and the yanks seem to be able to buy distilled water from every place under the sun !. how ever in the UK its a tad more difficult to get ahold fo the distilled stuff. de-ionised is fine ( not because its de-ionised) but becasue its clean.
 
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R B CUSTOMS said:
i think if your THAT worried about leaks, you shouldnt be watercooling !
its been said over and over and over again that these pre-mixxed fluids are a waste of money.

I aint THAT worried just, there is always that chance that it might leak not that its my major concern seen even if my loop leaks it will just land on bottom of the case.

WELL di-ionised/ distilled water it is.
 
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I personally like to use pond water, and if you use some with algea theres no need for the extra green dye it it has an amazng affect on ure toobs..lol :D

IF your feeling rich and can source some performance fluid/fleouroinert (or however its spelt) it may be a great piece of mind choice. Cost is high (butcan be justified if youve spent hard earned money on a good rig), and its non conductive (unlike fluid xp, mct fluids which have low conductivity, but still do conduct a lil bit). Also, once youve set up a air tight loop with it, your set for a long tme without any fluid change.

Me personally have used distilled water with zerex since i havent got a spare £100 for fluid :(
 
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