cleaning watercooling kit

[mmaaxx]

hey guys,
once again another question for ya.
i was reading a website a couple of days ago on how to clean your watercooling kit.
it said using alcohol. fine, i've bought some kind of surgical thing which should clean out all the algae (there's a lot stuck to the tubes, pump, waterblocks and radiators.)

Now the question is, how do i do this? should i just take out all the liquid and use another pc's powersupply to power the pump which lets the alcohol flow through the circuit? im pretty sure that powering on my pc is not the smartest idea here so XD if anyone would like to help me out, please do so, and should i be worried regarding leaving a little alcohol inside?

thanks everyone

 

[QuaziBee]

I'm by far no guru on the water cooling subject but it's saturday morning and im at work so I'll give this a shot.

If you have no reservations about taking the thing out I would go through each piece individually. This way you can be sure all the alcohol evaporates before putting the thing back together.

If just running it through the system is the way to go (i would think this to be bad because your just leaving all that material floating in the system) then you can unplug your PSU from your mobo and use a paper clip to turn it on, google that its easy to find.

In the future, there must be either an additive you can apply to your water as a microbial inhibitor. Or, fluid made specially for that purpose to use as coolant.

 

[mmaaxx]

thanks a lot for that, that helps, yeah i'm planning on buying some new thermaltake fluid as there is nothing else available in this country (UAE) except for gigabyte fluid.

here ya go, this is obviously the thermaltake fluid, is there anyone that would recommend me not to use it?
once again, thanks people

 

[BongWizard]

im not sure about cleaning your loop... but i know you can go to any pet store and get some biocide that they use in fish tanks to kill just about anything you could imagine in your setup... its sooo much better than Tt or GA fluid (or just about any fluid for that matter)... cheaper too... a few drops and everything dies lol

 

[thirdshiftdj]

green wire and black wire to jump your psu. Just use distilled water and biocide for coolant

 

[aspire]

You should not be reusing tubing that had bacterial or algae growth.

Go out and buy some new bits.

It's not that expensive and will save you a lot of work.

 

[mmaaxx]

hey all
im afraid i cant buy new tubing, there's barely anything to buy regarding watercooling or anything for that matter, hardware stores do not sell any tubing either.

that biocide, can i leave it in the loop later on? i mean i just install my loop with distilled water and thermaltake coolant and then add a little biocide?

if i leave the tubes in a bath of alcohol long enough itll be clean enough right:S

thanks all

 

[BongWizard]

dont use Tt coolant... just distilled water and a few drops of concentrated biocide...

the alcohol might compromise the integrity of the tubing to a degree after an extended period of time (or multiple immersions), but it should clean it well enough...

ideally, new tubing is the way to go... why cant you get any??

 

[mmaaxx]

oh cause i live in the united arab emirates, they only sell complete kits here
there are no add-ons or replacements or whatsoever, i just managed to find some thermaltake coolant apart from buying the whole kit.
i've also tried finding some variants to the tubing but there's nothing i can find

ACE hardware stores has everything you don't need you know hahah.

i've thought about ordering something but when i check out websites they don't ship to the UAE right away, you'll need to go through a whole lot of trouble to ship something over here, also price goes up a lot, we're not talkking 20USD here

 

[thirdshiftdj]

sounds like a rough place to live. You can't find any neoprene tubing or anything at all?