Water cooling tubing turned opaque.

[mutiny]

So I just built my first custom water loop. It turned out great! however within the month the tubing turned opaque or cloudy. Why is that? What should I do about it.

 

[InvalidError]

Something in the liquid must have reacted with the tubing or stuck to it, not much you can do about it other than find out what it is and replace the tubing, either with something compatible with whatever the additive caused it to cloud or change the liquid to something that won't react or leave residue on what you had if you use the same type of tubing again.

 

[mutiny]

Ok what are some safe types of tubing? I know that there was one that I heard to look out for.

 

[InvalidError]

Every type of tubing has a few things they don't like to be in contact with and this is worse with clear ones. Plastics in general don't like hydrocarbons unless they have additives to protect them against the types of hydrocarbons they are intended for and clear plastics cannot contain such protection additives that would make them cloudy or opaque.

Ideally, you'd get tubing made of the same plastic already used in the loop to reduce the number of different plastics you need to worry about.

You may want to inspect your CPU's water block to make sure that material didn't leech from your tubes and gunked the fins. Some "milky" fluids also have issues with clotting which eventually ends up clogging the heat block, radiators, pumps, etc.

 

[mutiny]

Every type of tubing has a few things they don't like to be in contact with and this is worse with clear ones. Plastics in general don't like hydrocarbons unless they have additives to protect them against the types of hydrocarbons they are intended for and clear plastics cannot contain such protection additives that would make them cloudy or opaque.

Ideally, you'd get tubing made of the same plastic already used in the loop to reduce the number of different plastics you need to worry about.

You may want to inspect your CPU's water block to make sure that material didn't leech from your tubes and gunked the fins. Some "milky" fluids also have issues with clotting which eventually ends up clogging the heat block, radiators, pumps, etc.

Thank you for your time. I will consider everything you said. I did you a "coolant" with dye in it and I have had other conversations with other people that say to stick with just regular distilled water. I can and do agree with them now. I will rebuild my water loop and attempt to clean any and all dye/residue from all components. Is there a cleaning product or certain method you prefer?

 

[InvalidError]

Soap, hot water, an old toothbrush if the bristles are thin enough to get into the water block's channels, acetone if there is stubborn residue on water block fins. (Be extra cautious with acetone when working near plastic parts as it will dissolve or 'burn' most plastics.)

 

[mutiny]

Soap, hot water, an old toothbrush if the bristles are thin enough to get into the water block's channels, acetone if there is stubborn residue on water block fins. (Be extra cautious with acetone when working near plastic parts as it will dissolve or 'burn' most plastics.)

thank you sir!