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The Fluid.md

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THE FLUID

My existing Chili uses distilled water and hydrogen peroxide, I'm assuming because the whole loop is plastic with whatever cheap metal interface goes to the heatsinks (is it the bare aluminum?)

H2O2 will eat the copper of our fancy components, so we need a different biocide.

Allegedly people run just distilled water in their PC loops, but they have to be flushed and changed every 3-6 months (fine for us in the summer cooling context) and there's no guarantee of sterile water so to avoid the risk of sliming up the whole loop we want to find some sort of biocide that plays well.

In the US and perhaps Europe there's commercial PC loop concentrates that are cheap and plentiful, a $10 bottle will last you for life because you only need a few drops.

Weirdly, in Canada, they're crazy expensive to get your hands on, so I'm looking for some cheap third party method and if that happens to work better for people who also can't import the fancy branded stuff, all the better.

(For example, this stuff is $13 USD and $43 CAD + shipping and duty)

The options are:

  • ethelyne glycol (antifreeze): cheap and commonplace, won't corrode, used in cars, 30% EG = 10% lost heat capacity of the fluid, and people seem to run it at 10-20% for loops. TOXIC TO INGEST (think of kids and pets here, it's also sweet which doesn't help)
  • propelyne glycol: the non-toxic version, but exposure to air might develop corroding characteristics.
  • copper sulfate: blue powder salt, dissolve in de-ionized water at 225ppm. cheap-ish on amazon. could be hard for inexperienced users to be doing chemistry safely.
  • just don't do anything. distilled water, make sure you're clean about it, you dump it at the end of summer anyway.
  • if you want to run 100% distilled water, you can possibly use IPA first as a big disinfecting flush, but not as a fluid (has bad heat capcity itself) and depending on the components of the loop, should be safe from eating plastics.
  • non-fluid methods like silver caps: https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/fittings-connectors/monsoon-silver-bullet-antimicrobial-g1-4-plug-black-chrome-mon-sbp-bc.html

Personally, I'm in favor of cheap + safe + easy.

  • IPA flush, 100% distilled water
  • eth. glycol mix in low percentages shouldn't rob us of too much thermal performance. I don't have kids or pets so as long as I can keep myself from drinking The Forbidden Gatorade, it should be okay.