Coolant question--ANTIFREEZE???

ok so i just had to change the coolant in my pc cause it was all dirty and not moving heat as good as it could, ive done this before, but i was all out of coolant(though i have a crap ton of distilled water)

but my dad proposed that if its just glycol i could use antifreeze from my car, and sense the car antifreeze is designed for higher temperatures, wouldn't it do a better job than say the pc coolant?

antifreeze would work ok, but you wont need the anti-freeze protection unless you were running peltiers/tecs. the anti-boil protection shouldnt be needed either, as water boils at 100c.

the anti-corrosion properties will be usefull tho. i think distilled water cools the best and i think tap water with "water wetter" is a close second, but i dont think these have any anti-corrosion properties. heaps of different "pc coolants", dunno what your old coolant had in it.

i think if you dilute the coolant 3x as much as the pack reccomends, you still get some anti-corrosion protection but have great thermal effeciency as there is a higher percentage of water in the mix. you can give this a go and compare temps to see which cools better and find out which lasts longer.

Antifreeze is fine as long as your loop doesn't run too warm - say 50C. If you run it at that kind of temperature, unless your lopp is completely airtight (mine isn't) you will get quite a strong smell of antifreeze build up in the room. Ever since I switched from a Celeron D to a Dothan, though, the smell has gone away...

Anyway, about 10% antifreeze / 90% water is the norm. Tap water is fine, I've had no issue with it...

Be aware that putting antifreeze in your loop will cause you to gain anywhere from 2-5C in temperature, as distilled water is the best. However, if you run extremely high temps or very very low ones, the loop with antifreeze will be better.

Antifreeze is about on par with most PC cooling additives AFAIK, maybe a little worse, but the small difference wouldn't really affect your overclock, I mean who has a CPU that responds much to a 5C temperature drop? I've never had one...

so hows this ratio

3:1 distilled water:antifreeze

and you know what, i am having the hardest time draining my system, i just sucked what was ever in my reservoirs with a coolant tester and then replaced it with distilled, but i wanna clean my system out, run it with just distilled to clear our the junk.

so many question, 1 man, 1 thread. 1 epic answer

As I said, about 10-15% antifreeze to 85-90% water (doesn't have to be distilled) is the norm in water cooling, any more antifreeze than that and it truly stinks. The smell is the main reason people don't use it, AFAIK...

To flush it out i'd just keep refilling it with tap water, run it for a few minutes, and then empty it out again...

Propylene Glycol is the best to use, as its fully inhibited, and its safe. They work especially well for low temperature chilling. As for water cooling, if you ran tap water with an algecide you'd be just fine. All these additives are pretty much worthless. Swiftech's Hydrx works well. Its pretty much just an algecide, but it has die. So get an algecide and put it into clean water. If you're concerned about tap water beign dirty, can send it through a couple filtrations to fix that. And if you're still not satisfied. Fashion a still.

well i went to the grocery store a long ass time ago and bought like 2 gallons of distilled water so i got alot of that. ill just run it through a few times.

but 1 more question for these masters, i am having the hardest time draining my line completely. i have the Thermal Take big water SE. any tips? one problem i have is whenever i take a hose out and drain it i like lose pressure and it just doesn't really pump out the water....please help the jaken

To not start my own new thread, I'll post here.

I've just noticed that around my reservoir, my water cool has sprung a very slow leak.

Instead of purchasing a whole 32 oz. bottle of PC-Ice ($27), can I use water wetter and distilled water - and just add that mix to my Pc-ICE?

Best off draining the loop and using distilled water. 100% distilled water will work the best and seems to be the preference in most water cooling loops. No additives are needed, but yes I would just run either coolant or water in your loop and not a random mixture of the too.

As for cleaning out your loop you can actually run vinegar through your loop and then flush it out a few times with water, at least this is the best way to clean your rad out. But don't use anti-freeze there is absolutely no need and in the temp range that a computer runs at you actually lose performance like snod was saying. If anything add some die or anti-algaecide to the distilled water you put in your loop, just flush the loop out completely before refilling.

Well, I tipped my box on it's side so I could use it without risking getting air through the pump - and ended up running the pump without any fluid for 2 seconds or so (OMFG).

Decided that what I'm going to do is get rid of the reservior in my loop because i know that I'm NEVER going to be able to plug all the holes in it, and I'm going to have to remove it and drain the loop anyway.

So. I'm going to install a T-line, but:

1. how do I do it with two seperate pieces of pipe, as in one goes into my res the other comes out, now I join them with a T-line hole in the middle (I assume it's supposed to be done this way)

2. prices, links, etc. never done this

So doing it this way I'll actually have a bunch of coolant left over - so no need for anything else, and this will take all of the rest of the leaks out of my already cursed system.

Setting up a T-line is pretty basic, you have your one tube going into the reservoir so you install a T fitting into that one (may need to be cut or lengthened depending on where your res sits. Then take the outlet from the res (the pumps inlet) and connect that to the other side of the T fitting. Then just run a line up to the top of your case with a case. You can buy T-fittings most places that carry any water cooling even like danger den or check here. They have both the t-fittings and the fillport caps which is all you need.

So when that is all done your loop should go from pump -> blocks -> rad -> res -> pump
to
pump -> blocks -> rad -> T-fitting -> pump

So its the same order just replace the res inlet to one of the t sides and the outlet to the other side on the t fitting.

so I'd go...

tube > res > tube > pump

into...

tube > 1st link > tube > pump, and off of the first link comes a tube and the second link

1st link
2nd link

Not completely, you have the 2nd link messed up. This is what you want for your fillport, or something like it, that other thing is just a plug. Like this

thanks, I'm going to order today.

No problem, now I just need to get watercooling for myself...