@AlohaMilton Yeah, my watercooling circuits are all pure aluminium parts or plastic. Mixing copper and aluminium makes bad things happen, you are absolutely right!
Is brass ok with aluminum? It seems like they use brass barbs on the sleeve?
I used brass fittings on my aluminum loop, and there had to be some other metals in the pump (DDC type). I trashed it all after a few years, flow was reduced in the radiator and I am sure it had lots of gunk.
In salinated fluid brass and aluminum will corrode badly but in pure deionized water much less. Its a huge no-no on a marine engine raw water system, but not so much in a closed loop of specific coolant that does not actually have to be water (although water appears to be best at heat removal).
Purified water, deionized, is low conductivity and helps prevent corrosion. But basically there is a lot to it and I don’t remember most.
I ditched my water cooling rig a few years ago because I didn’t want to chase the extreme and expensive hardware one needs to really justify it. Also, I just don’t need an overclocked PC anymore basic i7 6 core is enough. So you all that want to water cool, start reading the huge amount of info online about all aspects of it.
If you needed a new OCD hobby, well water cooling is great for that, have fun!! :o)
@raykholo brass & copper is ok, brass & aluminium is ok, too. Only copper & aluminium is bad. Brass is made out of copper and zinc and afaik does the zinc-part something to the copper, so that copper isn’t that reactive anymore.
@Rene_Jurack no, dude, no. there is a list, of metals and the galvanic rating, there are factors, like salinity. it makes me cringe to think of water cooling applied to a 3d printer so casually. I have seen the images from pumps failing, coolant boiling, and shit flying. Be precise you are selling a product now that can have fluid spewing out onto far more amps than a typical gaming PC with a PSU that has short circuit protection…
i had a pump fail, my system was pretty rock solid and I found swollen tubing about to disconnect from the CPU block and cause disaster. that was about when I started considering what I was using the PC for, and as it turned out the risk/reward of water cooling was just not there. I did run that system 2 years heavily overclocked, it was a very tested system, things fail, is it worth it? air cooling fails the PC shuts down, water cooling fails and ‘shit flies everywhere’
@AlohaMilton Yes, dude, yes. Brass is a homogeneous alloy that will NOT react with bare aluminum. Even IF there is some galvanic corrosion happening somehow against all the chemical laws there are, then the zinc is leaving the brass, leaving back the copper-part which now recrystallizes (bc of missing zinc-atoms) and thus building up some protective layer. Again: Brass & aluminium is safe to combine.
Edit: I am saying be sure, and cite the link. I am not going to get into an argument over this having been there and done that as far as mixing metals in water cooling loops. as I said I used brass splitters in an aluminum parts loop, and it worked for over a year. But i would not recommend it without the user first researching themselves. Your recommendation not mine…
fine, here:
http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm
“Even IF there is some galvanic corrosion happening somehow against all the chemical laws there are”
seriously wtf? why take it to that level? you’re not even correct!
I was talking about comination of brass and aluminium. Not general metals…
@Rene_Jurack What kind of tubing are you using?
What is the purpose of having the thick tubing and then the thinner tubing, improved flow?
What kind of fittings would you recommend, I see you are using barbed ones but with no clamps, is that common/safe?
@Oystein_Krog The shorter the thinner tubing, the better the overall performance. Thin tubes can be moved better without slack and inertia effects. Thick tubing is for compatibility to common water cooling setups used in PCs. You can use plain simple aquarium tube and do acceptable big bending radiuses. Fix the tubes to your carriage so that there is no movement at the connectors themselfs and all the bending/moving is happening on a free section of the tube.
Ok, cool. So you have some 4mm ID tubing and some of the larger tubing… what size is the thick tubing?
What are the tubing adapters called?
I’m trying to do this a bit cheaply now, so I’ve found an ok pump/reservoir from china and a 2x120mm alu radiator.
Now I need fittings and tubing…
@Oystein_Krog I just wrote you an email, please have a look.