So I've had this cooler for a while now, and when i turn my pc on all the time my aio didnt use to have slushing water noises (except for the first day of installing my aio) but for a few days now whenever I turn my pc on I hear slushing water noises in the pump, but it disappears after a minute. It happens almost everyday now with the water noises being there only when i turn my pc on, after my pc's on there's no water noises. I would like to know if this is a problem or is it just normal? Is there anything I can do to fix this?
When new, pretty much all decent AIO's don't have any residual air bumming around the loop. Now as basic principles of hydronics teach us, there is no such thing as perfectly sealed circuits. With all AIO's, as they age water will seep out through micro leaks. These leaks are so small you can't even tell by sight or touch. Depending on actual implementation so AIO leak less, some more. But in the general the higher the average coolant temperature, the higher this seepage is. Generally average coolant temperatures above 150F tend to accelerate the process. In general this isn't much of concern as AIO's are designed for a service life of appx. 5 years. Most will last much longer, but at around 5 year mark, the solutions with less than ideal connections and tubing will start to show the signs of coolant level dropping to critical levels.
With new aio's the radiator orientation doesn't matter, but as they age and gradually loose coolant content, it will become increasigly relevant. When you assemble your system, you generally want to mount the radiator once and not to have reshuffle 4 years later because it's sucking up air. This is the reason why it's generally recommended to choose a position where ports are the low point of radiator and pump is located below the level of high point of radiator.
What you are experiencing right now is loss of coolant. That's why you hearing the sloshing at pump start. Your system is not immediate danger, but it is something to adress in timely fashion.
What you can do:
Adjust radiator placement ( see above for rough guideline if your case layout allows it.
Doing that should resolve the immediate problem but the underlaying condition will have to adressed at later date anyway.
Second option is for those who don't mind getting dirty
Some AIO's have a user accessible port through which you can drain and fill the circuit. If you decide to go this way you should
always drain all coolant. Never contaminate new coolant with old one. Do not replace it with plain water, asides from high
mineral content it may also be contaminated with iron and manganese (perfectly fine for drinking but terrible for cooling applications).
If you wish to make your own solution you should use demineralized (truckstop kind will do ) water mixed with anticorrosive solution. ideally you want have a pH between 6,5 - 7,5. Anticorrosive agents are typically slightly acidic so it is important to maintain correct ratio. You can do it by the eye, dropping a few drops of anticorrosive at the time, mix it will and measure again ( those silly paper kind with scale on the box they sell at hadware stores will do just fine).
The reason why this is important is that plain water will be tiny bit conductive, copper plate and aluminum radiator form a galvanic couple where free ions travel from one side to another. This process will start galvanic corrosion which will release more conductive elements into the system, raising the conductivity of contained water over time and amplifying the effect over time. The "gunk" you typically seee in custom loops and to in AIO's is the byproduct of this process ( other being the cavitation of cold plates). Other source of "gunk" can be degraded Propylene/Ethylene glycol which is sometimes added in the ready mixes .
You should also disassemble cold plate of the AIO pump and clean out propeller housing. Of course you can buy a premixed coolant solution, but if that is the case it is very important to research the composition of the ready made mix.
The third and final option, which proably is the easiest and most permanent solution is to replace the AIO with a new unit.
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