Regular car coolant for PC - Page 3

well, if you want to waste money then why not, although there is nothing wrong about doing that, there is absolutely no benefit.

i'm still trying to decide betwen hydrx or ethyl glycol based coolant. thing is that hydrx is $2.95 w/o shipping, then i have to re-ship to my country so i can end up paying $7+ for each bottle.
i already know all the benefits that car coolant give me... anti-freeze, higher boiling point, pump lube, anti-corrosion and anti-bacterial.
so what does hydrx offer me? once i know i can have conclusions and then know if it is worth to buy hydrx or just pick a gallon of coolant and distilled water at my local shop which will cost me about $10 for both the cooant and distilled water(total 2 gallons of coolant)

I run pure distilled water with a bottle of water wetter in my track car for races, and it is truly awesome stuff, at least in the application for which it was intended. I have upgraded every bit of my cooling system ('00 BMW 328Ci with fully-built engine and heavily modified ESS TSE2+ Lysholm Twin-Screw Supercharger kit with front mounted intercooler pushing over 22psi on 100oct race fuel, and that's just the engine bay), and I get significantly more stable temps with WW than without. Considering the amount of boost (and TS SC's produce max boost throughout the entire rev range, in my case from 1100rpm to 7950rpm), the stuff is truly impressive. I expect nothing less from Redline, but still.

That said, I am undecided as to whether or not I will add 2-3 drops to my loop. On one hand, the reduction of surface tension and the lubrication are very positive traits, but on the other hand I am not so certain that a product designed for 200F+ temps will offer any real benefits at significantly lower temperatures. However, I do notice that with Redline WW, my car gets up to temp quicker, and the few times I drive it in the cold (stored during winter), the heater blows hot air much sooner than without, as in over a minute quicker.

Don't use ethylene glycol, it is of no benefit for this application.

Says who? You?

I've used good ol' ethylene glycol based auto coolant for almost decade without problems - that in itself says it is perfectly fine for any PC watercooling application.

If you are going to throw your rad out a window into sub zero weather then yes, if you are using it inside no. Distilled and algae inhibitor are about all you need, a few drops of dish soap to relieve water tension helps to get those last bubbles out or the antibacterial kind of dish soap if you fell you need it.

There are two problems with using glycol. One, the fluid is not as efficient at removing heat as plain water, the more glycol, the more fluid that has to be passed across the blocks to remove the same about of heat. Two, as the amount of glycol increases the viscosity of the fluid goes up making it harder for the pump to move the fluid. The standard bottled water-cooling fluid is not as efficient at removing heat as plain old distilled water if it’s glycol based.

Ethylene glycol has better viscosity numbers than the green kind, but animals really love the stuff so keep it bottled up (lost a cat to it, guy down the street was a car junkie).

If you are going to use a glycol based product, try this doesn’t have the abrasive additives of some anti-freezes. http://www.matweb.com/search/datasheettext.aspx?matguid=50e069bfa80741b5a5fac4707d210df9
Edited by Aleslammer - 9/8/12 at 9:44pm

I've used it before with no problems - and why would there be problems? if it can keep dissimilar metals at bay...

I do recommend cutting it below 50/50. I'd recommend 70-80% water, 30-20% coolant, as you don't need as much of the other effects. Now if you're going to take it outside in the dead of winter to bench it, you might want to use 50/50 mix to avoid an oops. I got great OC results on an XPC7410 by taking the rig outside in winter...

Preface: sick of those who continually sprout crap - so unfortunately Aleslammer wins the prize of getting my response. Skip this post if you are easily upset by those who know what the fk they are talking about.
This is the most common of the stupid reasons to not use auto coolant, congrats on becoming a sheep and recycling the same dumb reasons that others have posted on forums all over the web for the past decade.

Just because your rig does not operate in sub-zero temps does not mean you shouldn't use it.

Considering you have no thought process of your own and simply sprout out the same garbage as others against using auto coolant, I feel that explaining any reasons why it is a good option would simply go over your head or you wouldn't have the ability to process it anyway.
Or you could take the easy option to achieve the exact same end result - premixed auto coolant with distilled water - do you see what i did there
lol, "not as efficient at removing heat" sounds like the same as "problem" one above, "the fluid is not as efficient at removing heat".

So really, your argument is really just about "plain water" or "standard bottled water-cooling" or "distilled water" (you change so much), being more efficient at moving heat then "glycol" based coolant.

And to that single point, if you did your own tests instead of simply repeating this crap, you'd see the actual CPU temp difference while under load in a PC watercooling loop is marginal at best. And when you consider the down falls of "plain water", it really isn't that great for a PC watercooling loop in the end.
So now we shouldn't use it because animals love it? What ever should we use in our cars now...


At the end of the day you have but 2 real options for your PC watercooling loop, and they can not be argued:
some type of water with an additive to control algae and/or corrosion
some type of manufactured coolant that includes additives for corrosion and kills algae anyway

You can get all exotic and use some fancy stuff for either option or you can take a less exotic approach for either option as well - in the end, both options can work well, but some options will be easier then others, cost less over time, and be much easier to maintain in the long run.

But since this was about using auto coolant, perhaps let those who use it comment and provide info that will actually help - instead of trying to be that person who justifies their own reasons for using a specific solution and then thinks his/her solution is the only solution ppl should use and all other solutions are bad because they read it somewhere else on the web without actually doing any real tests to prove their BS is true.

Peace.
Edited by un-nefer - 9/9/12 at 1:39am

no one seem to have answered my question, but anyways how am I not suposed to use Ethylene glycol for my loop if even premixed coolants that swiftech, koolance, thermaltake, etc sell have it's amount of Ethylene glycol in it(and it is the component with higher % inside the fluid).
so what are you guys telling me?
use plain distilled water?
use hydrx with distilled water?
use car coolant with distilled water?
or just buy premixed coolant??!?!!

i just want to make a decition based on your personal experiences....


ps: thanks un-nefer
Edited by m4st3riNf3rNuS - 9/9/12 at 8:42am

You're not supposed to not use coolant with ethylene glycol. it's fine. "The green kind":
http://econtent.autozone.com:24999/znetcs/msds/en/US/513652 - has ethylene glycol
http://econtent.autozone.com:24999/znetcs/msds/en/US/87934 - has ethylene glycol

dexcool https://cglapps.chevron.com/msdspds/MSDSDetailPage.aspx?docDataId=74256 - has ethylene glycol

Pray tell what kind DOESN'T have ethylene glycol?


insofar as using automotive coolant is concerned, the ONLY downside I can think of off hand is that if you use regular pre-mix, you're probably running a thicker coolant than needed. Engineers know that ethylene glycol isn't as good a coolant as pure water, but there are other factors to consider, and I've yet to see a car have trouble because it was running coolant with ethylene glycol in it.

Often there will be a chart on the bottle telling you what % mix to run for what temperature range, which also factors in the chemical makeup of the resultant mix (so you still have enough lubricating properties and anti-corrosives).
Edited by u3b3rg33k - 9/9/12 at 3:07pm

Pretty good answer


Overall I agree with the pro glycol users and if I was to build a water cooled box that I was dependent upon for work it would use glycol, less maintenance. The only reason I don’t use anti-freeze the climate I live in doesn’t dictate it’s use (bench in my garage) and 2c is 2c. The other problem I have is disposal, the free sites never seem to be open when I’m looking, the dump will take it along with other substances deemed hazardous by California statue but with a nice fee attached. I do try to use animal friendly products if they will work, sorry, I liked that damn cat.

If offense was taken over the car junky comment none was intended my own roots lay there. Pic of the Mustang I fixed up for my daughter, not a lot of mussel, she was 17 at the time.

Picked up at charity action nice price, fairly straight body and interior, but was garbage from the engine to rear end, a lot of abuse a lot of work.

The information supplied for the provided brand of anti freeze was based on one of my neighbors whose son raced carts using water cooled motorcycle engines, which were showing excessive wear in the coolant flow channels, the brand was suggested by him. How some additives present in some US based fluids affect the micro channels present in some blocks over the normal life of a computer is up to discussion. If this raises concerns you might do a little research, ingredient differ per areas of the world.

u3b3rg33k
My green comment was based on the use of propylene glycol as an anti-freeze.