Coolent Question

[Skippman]

I'm going to be doing the final build on my machine on Wednesday. I'm planning to use anti-freeze / automotive coolent for the coolent solution. I've done a little reading and found out a few things and I'm hoping you can help fill in the gaps.

Methanol
Other than it being a simple alchohol its flamable. So that eliminates it right there as I don't want my PC catching fire.


Ethylene glycol
Seems to be the best choice. I know it's toxic but I'm not planning to drink the stuff. It's readily available, proven, and anti-corosive.

Propylene glycol
Tends to gum up. Also tends to grow bacteria, something I'm trying to avoid.


So, right now it looks like my choice is ethylene glycol is going to be my best choice. I have a few questions about that.

1.) Do I dilute to 1:1, buy pre-mixed (w/ destilled), or run straight coolent?
2.) Do I still need an anti-bacterial agent?
3.) Is this stuff UV reactive?
4.) I know diffrent brands use diffrent colors. Any idea who uses a red color?

[DMB2000uk]

I use about 10% anti-freeze to 90% de-ionised (or distilled) water. You don't really need much more than that really.

No, it's not particularly UV reactive.

With the 10% mix, you don't really get that much colour from the anti-freeze, if you want you can use food dyes to add a bit of colour to it. But it still wont make it any better under UV.

You could try something like this though:
http://www.primochill.com/index.php?tar ... t_id=30457

Dan

[martini161]

really if you dont want bacteria then your going to have to stray away from uv reactive, as when you ahve uv getting in it tends to encourage the growth of little nasty's in the loop.

[stev]

Propylene glycol
Tends to gum up. Also tends to grow bacteria, something I'm trying to avoid.

With a mixture of 20% PG and 80% DW, I've never had any with my four systems guming up nor any bacteria nor algae growing in the cooling loops. PG has been used in my systems since 1999.

A majority of aftermarket WCing kits use PG without any troubles either.

The only time I've actually come across a gum up and things growing in the cooling loop was when a fellow gamer took my advice to flushed his system. The only thing he did wrong was to use regular apple based vinegar vs. distilled vinegar. In a short time his loop got messy.

[Bio-Hazard]

Propylene glycol
Tends to gum up. Also tends to grow bacteria, something I'm trying to avoid.

With a mixture of 20% PG and 80% DW, I've never had any with my four systems guming up nor any bacteria nor algae growing in the cooling loops. PG has been used in my systems since 1999.

A majority of aftermarket WCing kits use PG without any troubles either.

The only time I've actually come across a gum up and things growing in the cooling loop was when a fellow gamer took my advice to flushed his system. The only thing he did wrong was to use regular apple based vinegar vs. distilled vinegar. In a short time his loop got messy.

What Stev said, I've been using PG from the day I started water cooling (Stev suggested it back then) without any issues. I use a bit lower percentage of a mixture depending on what types of different metals are in the loop.

[Skippman]

I ended up ordering some Fesser One F1 coolent for the rig. I like that it's UV and red. I understand what you mean about potential growth due to the UV ingrediant but this stuff is supposed to be anti-bacterial.

[Bio-Hazard]

I've heard that the Fesser One F1 stuff is supposed to be fairly good, I'm just way to cheap and poor to pay that kind of money for coolant.

I've still got part of a gallon of PG anti-freeze that I bought like 5 years ago...............