Question Didn't drain loop properly

[Ronnie30]

Hi all,

I built my first waterloop a year ago, and from what I could tell, it's remained clean and cool. I decided to drain it for the first time, but for the life of me, I couldn't get all the water out, no matter which way I tilted it. I do have a fill port at the top of my reservoir (though not the top of the loop, as the cpu block and radiator are higher), that I opened to allow air in, and a drain port at the lowest point in my loop (T junction with ball valve off of the outlet port on the res/pump combo).

I read that I could just run fresh distilled water through it and drain it, and not to worry about a little bit of water left in it. I've done that, and the water coming out looked clear; there was still a slight tinge of the old blue coolant, but considering it was still running cool, and there were no visual artifacts or growth, I decided it would be fine. I then used my 1 litre bottle with coolant/distilled water mix. From the initial fill, I recall that about 90% of the bottle was needed to fill the loop, however this time, only about 50% (or a bit less, since it tapers at the top) was needed to completely fill the loop, meaning that I had half a loops worth of old / flushing water still in the loop.

I know it's not ideal but...

1. Assuming the old water was still clean, and that hopefully most of the water that was in there before the final fill, was the fresh distilled water, is this going to be ok?
2. Am I screwed because my ratio of coolant to water is off, or is the ratio more to do with how bright the coolant is (I'm using EK Blue Cryofuel)?
3. Anything else to be concerned about?

Thanks.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Are you sure you are not remembering wrongly?
If you flushed it and it came out pratically clear (less staining on on the inside) it should be flushed.
Did you measure how much water you put in to flush compare to what came out?

 

[Ronnie30]

I didn't measure the flushing amount. The goal was to keep going until clear, until I realized that all I was doing was diluting it. I drained it out and it wasn't perfectly clear but it was my definition of "good enough".

The first time I filled it, I specifically bought a 1 litre bottle, and made the full 1 litre mix, and there was maybe 100ml left over afterwards.
For the non-metric readers, I don't know the imperial measurements but 1 Litre = 1000 mL and cryofuel comes in 100 mL bottles. It's 1 part cryofuel to 9 parts water. I did the same thing this time; 1:9 ratio, but I have half a bottle left. I could see water was still partially in 2 of the tubes, but I'm guessing there was a lot hidden in the rad.

 

[ElectrO_90]

I think you should run it for a while and that will help clean it out again a bit more, and in a week do the drain again.
That way everything old and new will be mixed fully and flushed better for next time
I don't think you need to worry about anything.

 

[Ronnie30]

Yeah, I may need a week to order more coolant from Slovenia to Australia

Think it'd be ok to run as is for 6 months, and then dismantle and do the proper full cleanout?
I'm using an ATX case instead of full tower, for the first time in about 12 years. It's gorgeous but is damn impossible to put back together because it just doesn't fit everything. I love tinkering, but every time I open this case, I want to break it!