Anti-freeze?

[BiG_Weasel]

A co-worker of mine pitched me a curve ball. I'm considering putting a water cooling system in my PC, and said that his friend tried running anti-freeze through the system instead of water. He said it worked really well. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this, and did it work well and/or what problems did you run into, or might I need to consider before I try this? Thanks.

[RazorDX]

It may cause some problems with cooling blocks, depending on what type. Some are really sensitive to what kind of fluid is in it, but in theory anti-freeze is supposed to be a coolant so... it should work well. It may cause some problems with the water-cooling system itself, but for the duration of it's use it should work pretty well.

[FLG]

Distilled Water by itself if the best "coolant" for a water cooling system. Anti-Freeze or any kind of additive is simply to stop the formation of alge and other bacteria in the system which would otherwise form with the water alone. Even with cars you mix the anti-freeze with water because water is better at removing heat then anti-freeze is, the more anti-freeze there is the less heat can be removed by the water. You want to stick with distilled water and about 10-15% anti-freeze, or what i think is pretty good stuff..Swiftecs Hydrx.

In my water cooling system i use hydrx, and some ani-freeze (as i ran out of the hydrx) but either one work well, just hydrx is more aimed tward water cooling. If you want to see pics the link is in my sig. Water is simply the best thing you can run through the system and will remove heat better then additives alone can.

Just to add, if your looking for a absolutely great green uv dye...use a yellow highlighter...yes yellow highlighter. Take out the tube inside and soak it in a cup of distilled water, and try to squeeze the fluid out...simply makes the best dye, and so far (almost a year if not one) it hasent stained the tubes.

~Frank

[David M]

You want anti-freeze for cooling for three main reasons.

1. Anti-freeze stops biological growth which would clog your system and act as an insulator.

2. Anti-freeze has pH buffers which prevents the coolant from going acidic which would eat away at metal components, especially aluminum. (positive ions Cu+ are acidic) Your aluminum becomes the sacrificial anode.

3. Anti-freeze stops electrolysis of aluminum caused by free copper ions in the water. Anti-freeze provides its own sacrificial electrolytes.


All the chemicals you need for watercooling are already in anti-freeze and it's a waste of money to buy chemicals from computer parts retailers since anti-freeze is so cheap. There seems to be a lot of hype about water cooling chemicals. The vast majority of these chemicals don't do everything that radiator coolant does.

Never use pure water alone to cool a system.

You can dilute the anti-freeze down to about 20% ethylene glycol from 50% percent ethlyne glycol in regular automotive pre-mix anti-freeze.

You can get anti-freeze in blue, green and other colors.

Anti-freeze wont clog or cause any negative side effects. Yes, pure water carries the most heat but pure water does not stop other problems from occuring like anti-freeze does.

Always dilute your anti-freeze with distilled water...not purified, tap water, de-ionized, Perrier, or any other sort of water.

I use Cummins Fleetguard coolant for my computer. It's a clear tropical lagoon blue color. I dilute it out to about 25% ethylene glycol.

[BIG jay]

about 99% sure that most good a/freeze are also a summer coolant, so this to is also a great reason to use it

[Strider]

I read an article in a magazine saying NOT to use anti-freeze, but for the life of me I can't remember why, I'm going to try to dig up the article and reply again when I do.

[David M]

That would be an interesting article..would you forward it to me?