Question Need suggestions for a CLEAR coolant.

[Craig C]

I couldn't tell which coolant/additive is the most popular. When I go to the retail sites and rank coolants according to "best selling", different sites give me different results. This is my first watercooling build, so I just want the safest bet, and I figure that would be the most popular product.

Must have corrosion inhibitor + biocide, and be CLEAR. Concentrate or premix is OK. Electrically non-conductive is a plus. I haven't decided if I need a killcoil. For soft tubing.

 

[thilanliyan]

I think they all become conductive over time. I just use distilled water with a silver killcoil. Been running that for 5+ yrs and it's been fine. Make sure to buy some quality tubing (I think mine is Primochill) because I used some cheap tubing before and the plasticizer leached and caused some nasty buildup in my loop. Since switching to the higher quality tubing I haven't had any issues.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I am a relative newbie, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-cryofuel-clear-premix-1000ml

Take a look at that. Interesting. Kinda expensive though.

If that isn't to your taste, you can probably create your own glycol mix without dyes. I know propylene glycol normally ships clear unless it's a part of some antifreeze/coolant product. Using a killcoil alone will not give you any anti-corrosive benefits. Also, it will tear up most nickel in your loop, so be careful.

Personally, right now I am thinking about cupramine + straight distilled. I'm using rubber tubes so the cupramine won't be absorbed (standard soft tubing can absorb cupramine, making it undesirable in a lot of loops). At least it won't damage nickel. Again, no anti-corrosion benefits there. So if I change my mind, I might try something like EK Cryofuel, or a similar competing product.

Bear in mind that Cryofuel can degrade at temps higher than 65C. If your pump goes out, some of your fluid may change chemically due to high temp exposure around blocks that heat up. It also has a shelf-life of 2 years according to EK. It won't last forever.

edit:

A competing product:

https://www.mayhems.net/products/x1-clear-1ltr

Same basic properties as the EK Cryofuel, only it doesn't seem to break down above 65C. It's also cheaper, by a bit.

On a side note, it does look like X1 may by glycol-based. Possibly ethylene glycol? Sludging may occur. It can also eat some kinds of tubing.

 

[aigomorla]

why would you want to run a clear premix?

That doesnt make any sense.

You use premixes for 2 reasons.

1. You want to preserve the warranty (LOL) on your waterblocks, which includes nickle flaking.
(IMO almost completely useless, as you pay for shipping and can take up to 2 weeks, and no there is no cross ship, so its more of a hassle then its worth to RMA a block for nickle flaking)

2. You want the cool colors like Mayhem's Aurora effect, which is a pearl like coolant.

Otherwise, just run straight distilled.
Everything will be worse in performance then compared to straight distilled, unless your running liquid Gallium though your loop.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Everything will be worse in performance then compared to straight distilled, unless your running liquid Gallium though your loop.

Now there's an idea! I wonder how much Ga costs by the litre . . .

On a side note, Mayhems is allegedly working on a pre-mix that will actually perform better than water, and they've been working on it since 2017 or earlier. I wish them luck!

On a more-serious note, I think OP wants anti-corrosive properties from his coolant, which you can get from pre-mixes but you can't get from straight distilled water.

 

[Craig C]

1. You want to preserve the warranty (LOL) on your waterblocks, which includes nickle flaking.
(IMO almost completely useless, as you pay for shipping and can take up to 2 weeks, and no there is no cross ship, so its more of a hassle then its worth to RMA a block for nickle flaking)

Tell me more about nickel flaking.
Like, what would increase its occurance, and can a coolant protect me from it? I thought it was a thing of the past.

I have an addiction to shiny metal things, so I need to know before I invest in a CPU block (probably EK Supremacy or Velocity).

 

[Craig C]

Using a killcoil ... will tear up most nickel in your loop

Can someone confirm this? Not doubting DrMrLordX, just I thought silver & nickel were similar in noble-ness.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Can someone confirm this? Not doubting DrMrLordX, just I thought silver & nickel were similar in noble-ness.

I'm only going off what I've heard. This is discussed somewhere in the Watercool.de thread here if you want to read through the whole thing. Basically, Watercool-Jakob warned against kill coils, aigo mostly said "stop using so much nickel", etc.

My own personal upcoming build has been affected by such discussion. I was unable to keep nickel out of my loop, so I had to find an alternative to a kill coil (and I changed my tubing, which is fine anyway since rubber = no plasticizers).

 

[aigomorla]

Can someone confirm this? Not doubting DrMrLordX, just I thought silver & nickel were similar in noble-ness.

Its because vendors have really cheaped out on the nickle process.
Its to save cost and gain a bit of margins.

Nickle used to be safe with silver.
The galavanic table between them is so great, it would take litterally 10x the rate of copper vs alu for it to react.
But its what they now mix with the nickle along with how thick the layer is.

SidewinderPC's used to offer a premium nickle plating job which would not react at all to silver.
It was also 3x the standard thickness normal vendors would use.
Swiftech also had a tank of a chrome job they did, that would also be completely safe with silver.

eK and Koolance were the first vendors to start a poor nickle process, and from there, its been downhill for nickle and silver.

Personally as i said when the nickle flakes its not like gold flakes you see when you pan for gold in the river.
At its worst it looks like this:
https://www.hardwarecanucks.com/for...-water-block-still-having-plating-issues.html

There really is nothing you can do.
Even running the premix's will eventually lead to it flaking over time as the water is basically sand blasting the surface to exchange heat molecules.
Its just the vendor has a reason to deny your RMA claim if you didnt pay the "insurance" fee's which is called there premix.
Again the RMA process can take a very long time as well, especially with eK as you need to mail the block to Slovenia, which means a hell of a downtime for cosmetic reasons.

So unless your in a mod my rig, or a million dollar PC photo shoot, id rather honestly be gaming those 2 weeks then waiting for my soon to be destroyed again nickle waterblock.

I just dont care anymore.
I rarely run clear acrylic blocks for cracking issues, and run straight derlin tops.
Acrylic is horrible as it ages, it starts to crack internally and you get spider webs in it.

If the nickle plate is imaculate on the outside, that is all good for me, because i only run nickle blocks to preserve the exterior look, because oxidized copper looks horrible.

 

[aigomorla]

Oh i thought i found this interesting too...
Look a Silver + Nickle block.
https://www.aquatuning.us/water-coo...kryos-next-with-vision-am4-nickel/.925-silver
Aquacomputers is about as old as they get company wise in LCS's dating close to koolance, and probably before swiftech even.
They predate eK by at least half a decade if not more.
You would figure they wouldnt do it if it was taboo.

This is why the LCS comunity URKS me now.
They blindly listen to vendors who want to confuse and throw off people, and most youtubers are in the the pocket of said vendors because they get sponsorships.

Nickle works when you have the proper alloy with silver without corrosion, but it costs money.
Something a lot of LCS companyies don't want to front, especially today.

 

[Craig C]

In light of this RMA & warranty thing, if I'm stuck on getting an EK nickel+plexi block (and their DDC pump too), would you suggest buying directly from EK or from a retailer such as Aquatuning, Performance-pc, Newegg or Microcenter?

 

[Craig C]

ts more of a hassle then its worth to RMA a block for nickle flaking

I was unable to keep nickel out of my loop,

Like the retailer and the manufacturer would both warranty the product, so if one doesn't accept a return the other will?

EDIT: That makes no sensnse. I have to think about that.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@CraigC

I just want to add that the only reason why I got stuck with nickel in my loop is that the one pure-copper waterblocks for my Radeon VII is a generally-inferior block from EK. Bykski produces a block that, by all accounts, outperforms the EK by about 10C. I can't ignore that difference. Believe me, if Watercool had a selection of blocks for Radeon VII, i'd be getting their copper + acetal and calling it a day. That's the only reason why nickel is going into my loop. Well that and the Koolance QDCs I decided to use, but at this point it's a "what the heck" kind of thing, might as well let a little more nickel in there.

But.

For CPU blocks, you aren't going to be stuck with nickel. I know for a fact that there are good non-nickel CPU block options available to you for any modern CPU, no problem. For example, I am getting a Heatkiller IV pure copper block for my 3900x. And if you are not a Radeon VII owner as I am, you can probably get a good pure-copper block for your dGPU too.

 

[Craig C]

The Heatkiller IV Pro Acryl Clean CPU block (plexi top) looks good. I'm so atteacted to the shiny silver though.

 

[Craig C]

The Heatkiller IV Pro Acryl Clean CPU block (plexi top) looks good. I'm so atteacted to the shiny silver though.