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Complete Coolant Guide

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Chunkylover763

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Location
123 Fake Street
I have been reading up on the forums and I haven't found anything that covers all the bases of coolant options, just bits and pieces. Here is what I have come up with from my research.

Everyone that water cools either uses a water based or non water based solution (pretty deep huh?). There are advantages and disadvantages to cooling with a water based setup as opposed to a nonwater based setup.

The advantages include
1. Lower cost
2. Better performance
3. More control over just how you want your WC setup to look and perform
4. The pride of using your own combination of ingrediants

The disadvantages include
1. Using a waterbased solution can potentially damage your PC if a leak develops
2. Many additives are poisonous to animals/humans (this can be a big problem, as the smell attracts them)
3. It can take time to use trial and error to find a combination that suits you

*note you can also use straight distilled or deionized water if you wish, but you may get algea.

Ok, now onto some of the various ingrediants you can use.
Water based solutions are made from distilled water (~1 US dollars per gallon) or deionized water (~5usd/gal) and 1 or more additives including but not limited to...

1. Standard automotive antifreeze (~3usd/gal) Makes from 5-20gal of coolant
2. Windsheild washer fluid (>1usd/gal) Can be used straight, but can make up to 10gal coolant
3. Zerex (~9usd/bottle) Makes 2gal of coolant @manufacturers specified ratio (msr)
4. Neo Keep Cool (~10usd/bottle) Makes 4gal of coolant @ "msr"
5. Purple Ice (~13usd/bottle) Makes 2.5gal of coolant @ "msr"
6. RMI-25 (~8usd/bottle) Makes 5gal of coolant @ "msr"
7. Water Wetter (8usd/bottle) Makes 3-4gal of coolant @ "msr"
8. Pro-blend 40 Below (~20usd/bottle) Makes 2-4gal of coolant @ "msr"
9. Xoxide UV dye (~10usd/bottle) Makes virtually unlimited coolant
10. Swiftech HydrX Coolant (~3usd/bottle) Makes 1L coolant @ "msr"
11. Zalman G100 Cooling additive (~20usd/bottle) Makes 2-10gal coolant

Each of these coolants has benefits they offer, but overall they are designed to do one or more of the following...
1. Prevent corrision
2. Improve heat transfer and thus the performance of your system
3. Reduce freezing temperature
4. Look sweet

Now, the antifreeze, UV dyes and windsheild wiper fluid do not offer any performance benefit like the others. They are simply an inexpensive cooling solution and the dye has no anti-corrosive properties. Another note on antifreeze, you shouldn't use the 50/50 blend that the bottle recommends as it will tremendously cripple the performance of your WC setup. It is also extremely toxic and can even damage your pump if you use too much of it.

A few notes on mixtures
Of these ingrediants, I have only used antifreeze, wiper fluid, zerex, and water wetter. I found that they performed as follows
1. Water wetter
2. Zerex
3. Windsheild wiper fluid
4. Antifreeze

*Edit- some ingrediants, such as water wetter, advertise that they improve the performance of your system as opposed to straight water. This is in fact, false. I did a bit more research on it and found out that water wetter lowers the boiling point of your coolant to about 208F. Seeing how none of our WC setups will get that high, you are more likely to see a very slight decrease in your overall performance with the use of additives


If you are looking for ideas on what ratios/ingrediants to use, you can check out this thread
But here is some information on the ingrediants above. Everything from #3 to #8 is an automotive performance enhancer and can be added to antifreeze if you wish. I would recommend simply using the manufacturer's specified ratios, but you can feel free to tinker around with them. Ingrediant #9, the UV dye is nothing more than just that, so if you are looking for a performance boost, or don't want algea, you need to add it too something else. Ingrediants #10 and #11 are made for computer WC setups so there is the least need for tampering with them, but again, feel free to do what you want, just look into what can and can't be mixed.
*Edit- You can be as creative as you like with your coolant, I know someone who cools his rig with vodka, just be warned that most of these things include ingrediants like sugar, alcohol, carbonation and dyes, all of which affect your system by either damaging your pump/blocks/radiatiors or staining your hoses.

In short, if you are an experianced watercooler, and are looking for performance and aren't worried about a leak, than a water based solution is probibly the ideal setup

*note, deionized water is considered nonconductive and therefore "safe" however you can't put full trust in it, as the longer it runs in your system, it will become more and more conductive. It is, however a better choice than plain distilled water

*Edit- Over time, distilled and deionized water will pick up, and drop off valence electrons with the copper waterblocks used in your setup, thus making them gradually more and more ionic. Even if you use aluminum, the ionic process will take place within the water itself, just at a slower rate

*Edit- It should be noted that you should not use tap water as it is will at best, leave your hoses green with algea or at worst kill your PC if any splashes on it. Certain bottled waters can be used as long as the do not contain minerals, but they are not advisible as distilled water is still less conductive and cheaper.

I also want to point out that if you plan on using any detergeant in your setup, I recommend that you only put a drop or so in. It will cause air bubbles to develop when it runs through your pump.



Now, what if you aren't ready to risk loosing that new $1000 rig to a small leak? If you are willing to put the money forward and sacrifice a tad on performance, you can purchase any of several non-conductive solutions. These offer different advantages/disadvantages from water based setups.
The advantages include

1. Assurance that you PC won't die if a leak develops
2. A simple, tried and true, solution that doesn't need any additives
3. Some can reach extreme sub-zero temperatures without freezing or "geling over"

The disadvantages include
1. Cost- roughly 5-10 times as much money as a water-based solution
2. Slightly lowered performance *except with flourinert
3. Less ability to add ingrediants, as these solutions aren't water soluble (not that you would necessarily want to add anything but...)

Ok, here is a list of nonconductive solutions I have found that are acceptible for PC use

1. Fluid Xp (~35usd/Quart)
2. PrimoChill PC ICE (~20usd/Quart)
3. MCT-5 (~22usd/Quart)
4. Flourinert FC84 (~200usd/Quart)

Now then, here is a rundown of the performance of these solutions
1. Flourinert- a solution made by 3M, known for its performance in thermal transfer and Ultra low temperature capilities, it starts turning into gel at -95C. Honestly though, who can afford it? If you can, you might as well get a phase change setup.
*Edit- Flourinert is the only liquid here that actaully will perform better at heat transfer than water @25C

2. PrimoChill PC ICE- The best bang for the buck in my opinion, performs about the same as FluidXP and has a freezing point of -51C

3. FluidXP- probibly the most well known of nonconductive solutions, has a freezing temp of -12.5C and cools about as good as straight water.

4. MCT-5- Slightly lower performance than the others, but not much, has a freezing point of -20C.

*note, none of the non-conductive solutions are considered "toxic". As a matter of fact, the latter three are considered FDA "edible"

Personally, I am a fan of the Primochill most of all. I see it as a good insurance policy for my PC and well worth the investment. I hope this helps you all in selecting your coolant, please add ideas or correct me where I may be misinformed.
 
Last edited:
I nominate this for "Sticky" status!

Although many people overlook the additive as being less important as the actual components in the WC loop, its the additives that protect those costly components. Also, the additive, though it may not be by much, have influence in the efficiency of the cooling capabilities of a water-cooled rig.My suspicion tells me that, as water-cooling evolves, so will the additives.
 
I agree on the sticky nomination. This is a good summary. I agree and have also recommended the article on PC watercooling chemistry part1 & 2 as they are a must read.
 
Nice write-up. Some corrections though...

Chunkylover763 said:
...

Ok, now onto some of the various ingrediants you can use.
Water based solutions are made from distilled water (~1 US dollars per gallon) or deionized water (~5usd/gal) and 1 or more additives including but not limited to...

the only reason you should use deionized water is if distilled isn't available to you. Someone in Scotland(Eh somewhere in Europe) posted here saying they could only get deionized, distilled was illegal or something really weird :shrug: "water that lacks ions, such as cations from sodium, calcium, iron, copper and anions such as chloride and bromide. This means it has been purified from all other ions but H+ or more correctly H3O+ and OH−, but it may still contain other non-ionic types of impurities such as organic compounds." Taken from Wikipedia. So it can still have bacteria etc.

...
2. Improve heat transfer and thus the performance of your system
...
Now, the antifreeze, UV dyes and windsheild wiper fluid do not offer any performance benefit like the others.
...
No additives will increase your systems C/W. Pure H2O will give you the best performance. There are tons of "I added this **** too my loop and it lowered my temps by this much!1!1!one." Read through the entire thread and you'll notice other factors being brought up. Either they aren't getting good readings or something else changed in their loop(bled properly, remounting, etc...).
...
*note, deionized water is considered nonconductive and therefore "safe" however you can't put full trust in it, as the longer it runs in your system, it will become more and more conductive. It is, however a better choice than plain distilled water
...
Now I really dont remember if it was deionized water or one of those "non-conductive" solutions, maybe it was both :shrug:, but it would make sense that it was deionized water. Anyways one of them pull ions from the metals it comes in contact with and becomes conductive after a short period of time.
 
Distilled water is also "non-conductive" for the most part.

You need to add stuff about antifungal/antibacterial agents such as iodine.

You're also missing information regarding certain UV dyes being detrimental to plastic (in pumps, tubing) after long term exposure.

Need to say as to why you should not use tap water, drinking water, bottled water.

Also should probably separate coolant descriptions for chilled and regular water setups.
 
Maviryk said:
Distilled water is also "non-conductive" for the most part.

You need to add stuff about antifungal/antibacterial agents such as iodine.

You're also missing information regarding certain UV dyes being detrimental to plastic (in pumps, tubing) after long term exposure.

Need to say as to why you should not use tap water, drinking water, bottled water.

Also should probably separate coolant descriptions for chilled and regular water setups.

Good call

Perhaps a summary of how/which additives affect mixed-metal systems would
add to the usefulness of the article.
 
Maviryk said:
Distilled water is also "non-conductive" for the most part.

You need to add stuff about antifungal/antibacterial agents such as iodine.

You're also missing information regarding certain UV dyes being detrimental to plastic (in pumps, tubing) after long term exposure.

Need to say as to why you should not use tap water, drinking water, bottled water.

Also should probably separate coolant descriptions for chilled and regular water setups.

Is the UV dyes really detrimental to plastic?



BTW, I read the http://www.overclockers.com/articles993/ it's really good. Is the 2nd part out?
 
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