Draining improvement - suggestion

Hi all,

While I had some annoying issues with XSPC coolant I found that I need to drain and wash my system many times.

I designed loop with drain valve at the bottom of the loop but I also found some issues with my current set up.

While opening drain valve and filling port I found out that not all coolant/water is leaving the loop. Actually there are a lot of it that remains.

At first I didn't understand why it happens but then I understood. There are also some limitations to keep it nice and simple.

How can I improve my loop ?

https://i.imgur.com/Ke1QONM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aL6Sa9a.jpg

Thanks

It’s usually difficult to design the loop where every single component naturally drains with gravity and continuing to the drain port at the lowest point. As a science experiment on a table it’s not so hard, but the realities of fitting your components into the case and most often with some intended aesthetic properties usually takes priority over making the entire thing self draining. You and I are in a tough spot having to drain multiple times in a short period. This process did force me to modify my loop to remove the “water trap” I had made between the cpu and vrm blocks. However, if this had not happened I would not have drained again for 6 months to a year. Would you re-design the loop for something you only do once a year? Probably not.

In the current moment, the most likely water traps are the radiators. They are a “U” design were the coolant enters one port, goes down to the end, curves around, and then out the other port. With the front 360 ports at the top, the water cannot escape without positive fluid pressure. All you can do here is rock the case backward (rear exhaust down) to get it flow out. Then it slides down into the other radiator. Now you are playing that old game where you try to guide the marble around the maze and get it in the hole at the end. Even if you flip the front radiator to ports down, they will then be below the drain and create another problem. The case usually wins.

With soft tubing you can some times make a temporary bypass or run that takes advantage of gravity. Not in this instance. The only other thing that comes to mind is I used to know someone who was fond of putting a T-valve or air valve in the top part of his loops. After opening the bottom for a partial drain, he would then open the top of T and that now air filled tube. He would then take a small squeeze pump and “blow” the water through the radiator and out the other side he desired. I had to do the same thing with my vertical side radiator in this 011 build, but it is a lot easier with soft tubing to disconnect my GPU out, drain it, and then push the remaining fluid back to the pump in.

You know, that post was helpful in ways you probably didn't imagine, c-attack. Thank you.

Rather than obsessing over making the "perfect" loop which fills well and drains perfectly which is looking real hard with a dual-480 based loop in a 1000D that isn't going to rock around very easily, I'm going to instead focus on good enough filling, reasonably complete draining, and for the troublesome water traps that remain I'll attack them with a temporary fitting drain with a bit of excess hose and an additional compression fitting. Life just got a whole lot easier.