Plasticizer Problems / Discussion / Gallery - Page 2

I have primochill clear and I dont see much of anything built up yet, its been in for probably a month now. Nothing like the XSPC tubing I had before it! I'll keep my eye on mine, but I hope that yours is just a bad batch that made it past QC

In my experience all clear tubing gets cloudy way to fast. Tygon especially. I wont even use clear tubing unless it is out of view. Like my fill port uses clear. Everything else is either white or black.

Plasticizer (DEHP) is a cloudy, oily substance, there is no way it would coat the inside of pipe like that in two weeks. UNLESS there is also something else going on, for instance too much copper sulphate (base ingredient in PT Nuke) for it to stay diluted and reacting with the leaching. That is a different problem but even so very difficult to image how that could build up like that in two weeks, there must be more to this than just possible dodgy tubing.
Edited by EasterEEL - 1/19/12 at 10:09am

What I don't understand is why it's such a perfect coat. It looks like the loop was run with white-out. The plasticizer we usually see gooped up in blocks, looks like dried rubber cement, rather than white-out. Could this have been a reaction rather than leeching?

I got that on my tubes about the same time as all four of my ek nickel blocks corroding. Coincidence? Have a new tube set just haven't replaced it.

I had my computer apart this weekend and had some normal light inside the case and found some inside my blue hose. The hose has been in the system 3 weeks this Saturday. I used distilled and 1 silver coil, would 2 be better?

I noticed after one leak test, my black Primochill tubing started to show signs of plasticizer (I'm still not clear exactly what specifically the term is). A uniform dark white film forming inside the tubing. This was after less then 24hours of leak testing with distilled water. I do think it might be something else. Not sure exactly, but based on how long it takes to form, usually a few months from what I've read, in my case I'm not sure plasticizer leaching is what transpired.

Does the water it self start to become cloudy along with the inner tubing walls? The water itself was sparkly clean when I had drained it.

This tubing is very stiff compared to what I have used in the past. Not sure what additives they might have thrown in to minimize kinks.

Plasticizer (usually DEHP in tubing we would use) is added to make the tubing less stiff so it can be shaped more easily. Nominally plasticizer leaching occurs and is a problem because we are using tubing that was designed for gas not liquid, or the fluid temp is higher than the tubing is rated for, or the fluid contains chemicals which react with the tubing. There are all sorts of reasons.

As the plasticizer leaches, a cloudy, oily substance is introduced into the liquid. My clear Tygon 3603 (tubing designed for gas) has started to cloud in less than six months. I can see the liquid is more opaque than the crystal clear colour it was from new. I have some white sediment around the waterline of the reservoir. If the plasticizer is suspended in the water it is not really a problem but it does seem to eventually start coating things.

The plasticizer leaching will exhaust itself at some stage and the tubing will be less flexible. I will probably flush my system and accept the tubing is a bit cloudy or it it gets really bad replace the tubing with something that is designed for hot liquids does not contain plasticizer and retains flexibility without kinking if there is such a product. Actually there are some specialist products designed for the food and beverage market for Tygon but the costs are high because of the industrial lengths you have to buy:

http://www.coleparmer.com/Category/TYGON_Food_and_Beverage_Tubing/6775

If anybody is using one of these products successfully I would be interested to know!
Edited by EasterEEL - 1/20/12 at 2:55am

Hi guys i am also having the same problem. when i initially built my system on 27/12/2011 my tubing was crystal clear but on 1/1/2012 after only 6 days my tubing was cloudy. i was using distilled water with primochill liquid utopia and Mayhems Red dye. i had pre-treated the 5 ltrs off distilled water before filling my loop. Here are the pics off before and after.

Before when the loop was first built


After 6 days off running


haere are the tubes after replacing them with the left over Primoflex LRT 1/2 ID X 3/4 OD


After replacing the tubes and filling it with the same distilled water and mayhems Pastelle Red dye the tubes have been coated again.

Replaced tubes on the 10/01/2012 and the tubes have clouded enough to change the dye from blood red to pink on 20/01/2012 thats 10 days after changing out the tubing. *** .

on the 10th this is what it looked like


on the 20/01/2012 this is what it looked like


Primochill really need to fix this if its a problem with their tubing.

im gonna change out the pipes AGAIN for the third time and this time im gonna mix Mayhems Red Pastelle dye with fresh Distilled water (250 ml of dye with 750 ml off Distilled water= 1 Lt off coolant) and see if it happens again. I have a feeling i may have overtreated the water i used in the previous 2 loops.

Really good pictures, it is interesting to see the difference between the tubing and the reservoir. The reservoir is showing the liquid has become more opaque so presumably stuff is suspended in it.

Amazing how quickly the tubing is getting coated which suggests to me this not just plasticizer leaching it has to be plasticizer leaching + chemical interaction with the fluid additives then causing a reaction with the tubing which does seem very receptive to coating.