What are some of the better liquids for liquid cooling, meaning which last longer and still provide top quality cooling?

[Dennyd1]

I'm now about to figure out what liquid I should go with in my system. I've decided to go 1/2" ID all the way around because one customer service rep from Swiftech said that 1/2" is usually recommended for performance. What do I know, but it's not entirely that much more expensive, so why not, right?

So, now I'm at a point of deciding which liquid to use. I see that some people seem to swear by distilled water with biocides and fungicides to avoid buildup over time. However, I'd prefer not to have to clean out my cooling system once a weak or even once a month, and I'm willing to pay a little more so that the liquid can be good for several months.

I know one cheap and rather convenient liquid would be straight good ole 50/50 anti-freeze. However, I imagine petro-based build up could be a problem with that option. Would love to read from anyone who's tried it.

Anyhow, I was looking at some of the Koolance liquid options, and they're not overly expensive, and they look nice enough with their neon colors that I'll likely never exploit . . . or maybe if I can find a nice black light to fit in the case.

What would you recommend at a decent liquid to use? I'm looking for one that would last several months, maybe even years to minimize maintenance, and I want it to still have good heat absorption and carrying capacitance. I want to keep my CPU and graphics card nice and room temperature as possible through even heavy loads.

 

[Goodeggray]

Water is one of the best liquids for transferring heat and is cheap. Antifreeze does not transfer heat as well. So it dose not cool as well as water. Antifreeze as the name imply is to prevent freeze of the liquid.

 

[manofchalk]

You'l find the people here are those that swear by Distilled water + some form of biocide. I personally use Distilled and a Kill-Coil, you don't have to change the water at all. You can run a loop like that for months just fine.

Pre-mixed coolants (especially those with dyes) are actually a worse option if your looking for low maintenance.

 

[Dennyd1]

You'l find the people here are those that swear by Distilled water + some form of biocide. I personally use Distilled and a Kill-Coil, you don't have to change the water at all. You can run a loop like that for months just fine.

Pre-mixed coolants (especially those with dyes) are actually a worse option if your looking for low maintenance.

Is a kill coil like those silver coils that we're not supposed to use if we have any wetted nickel in the system?

How does a kill coil work?

 

[manofchalk]

Silver and Nickel are fairly close together on the Galvanic Index, your fine to use it in the same loop.
From my understanding, the silver ionizes the water which creates a poisonous environment for bacteria/algae to live in. Copper also has this effect, but to a far lesser degree.

 

[Dennyd1]

Silver and Nickel are fairly close together on the Galvanic Index, your fine to use it in the same loop.
From my understanding, the silver ionizes the water which creates a poisonous environment for bacteria/algae to live in. Copper also has this effect, but to a far lesser degree.

I appreciate your answer, but after $4500+, I'm not taking chances with silver because I have nickel-plated stuff all throughout from my graphics block to several compression fittings. Silver and Nickel are 2 of the metals specifically prohibited to be mixed by the Koolance website, and I believe their bread and butter centers around liquid cooling, and they've been doing this long enough to be hated and later accepted by the build-it yourself PC community. They don't even bother to wait until you get the instructions, they tell you right on their website.

Besides that, in one particular youtube video, a man disgusted with EK says that he was told that all the corrosion that happened to his system was due to the silver coil that came with a pump he ordered, or something like that.

I have been very careful to avoid aluminum in my system, not as careful to avoid silver, as in I haven't asked every manufacturer if silver is wetted in at all in their devices, but I've already ordered, so I'm going to hope my lack of foresight won't screw me over. The fact that it's a precious metal helps to alleviate some of my concern because it means it's a substantial extra cost that I'm sure manufacturers would prefer to avoid if they don't specifically mention it being there in the specifications on their websites.

 

[manofchalk]

Koolance are a good company, they havent had any issues like a certain company I will explain below.
I can understand your viewpoint, there are other options like a chemical Biocide such as PT-Nuke or Deadwater if you want. A UV cathode shining into a clear reservoir would also do the trick.

When was this video about EK made? About mid-2011?
EK had a massive issue with the Nickel plating on their products, the issue was so widespread that it was obvious it was a manufacturing fault. Their Nickel plated products corroded quite badly to their plating technique. At the time, EK blamed it on the enthusiasts use of Distilled Water instead of their branded coolants causing the issue (and I wouldn't be surprised if they also pointed at the use of Kill-Coils) which has given them a very bad reputation since in terms of customer service and Nickel products.
Silver wont corrode Nickel, despite what companies say they are very Galvanically similar, it just so happens that of the typical water-cooling metals they are the most dissimilar, so are often advised against by companies whose primary concern is not wanting to replace units.

No worthwhile water-cooling component would use Aluminium, that will corrode your loop pretty quickly.
Silver isn't actually that expensive. My kill-coil cost me all of $4.