jon_snodgrass Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 See attached images. After adding a rad and changing tubing, I'm observing diminished luster of nickel plating and strange fogginess in acrylic. Also observing bubbles that seem unshakeable attached to metal in CPU block. Loop was all Corsair Hydro X, including fittings and radiators and tubing. Then for cosmetics I swapped Softline XT clear tubing out for opaque soft rubber tubing (performance-pc.com "Watercool EPDM Tubing ID 3/8" - 1/2" OD (13/10mm) black matte"). Reused same Corsair XL5 coolant. At same time as tubing swap, added an XR7 radiator after flushing it with distilled water and observing no detritus coming out. Obvious culprit is the tubing, I thought ah, plasticizer it must be! But the rubber tubing I purchased from performance-PCs says it has no plasticizer. Within a day or so the blocks looked as pictured. It looks like the acrylic and the nickel-plated have both been coated with something. The acrylic almost looks like fingerprints are on it, but it's clean on the outside. The nickel plating looks like it's undergoing some kind of...transformative experience. Coolant itself is not opaque; reservoir is clear. Is this just normal result of running F@H to fight covid 24/7? Temps are fine, manually overclocked old hot 2700X idling around 44C with ambient of 27C and it gets to 80C if the GPU is also at 100%. Coolant has never exceeded 42C, GPU has never exceeded ~55C, CPU has sometimes gotten too hot but that's from my bad overclocking not the block :) How do I make it all shiny again without taking it all apart? I need shiny! Thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acemaninwa871 Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 You might want to flush it. Here's a recent video of someone who kinda had the same problem, but worse. [ame] [/ame] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 18, 2020 Author Share Posted April 18, 2020 Thanks, I'm mildly embarrassed that I hadn't seen that video yet given the amount of time I spend watching Youtube, including Hardware Canucks as well as all the other Youtubers he touched base with in the video lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acemaninwa871 Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 No prob. A flush should be all ya need. Just some distilled water run through it for a bit, and then drained, and reg fluild added. You shouldn't need to disassemble it. Unless you didn't put a drain in....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuaZar-Kid Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 I'm having the same foggy problem in the GPU block... not happy I'll probably be disassembling the entire water cooling system and swapped out with fluid free cooling - back to free air systems never done a water cooled system - never doing another one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 19, 2020 Author Share Posted April 19, 2020 Sorry to hear you're having a similar issue. I've flushed and replaced coolant with distilled water. It has been running with distilled water for about 8 hours with no visible change. When I'm feeling ambitious later this week I'll disassemble and clean the blocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuaZar-Kid Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 Sorry to hear you're having a similar issue. I've flushed and replaced coolant with distilled water. It has been running with distilled water for about 8 hours with no visible change. When I'm feeling ambitious later this week I'll disassemble and clean the blocks. my loop is 100% Corsair works great - looks cool - runs cool but ultimately the foggy GPU and all the future potential cleaning its really more than I'm interested in maintaining I'm glad I learned how and enjoyed the build process Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 20, 2020 Author Share Posted April 20, 2020 I agree it's completely not worth the effort in any objective sense. You have to want to take it apart and fiddle with it. After years of AiO coolers that worked just fine, I chose to enter the hobby knowing that the justification would be emotional rather than rational. Makes no sense to spend hundreds of dollars to cool my PC. Makes no sense to spending hours taking things apart just to make them shiny again. Anyway I took everything apart, cleaned with distilled water and toothbrush and the results are a shiny clear block. (see attachment) The residue made my toothbrush brown. Either (1) I didn't do a great job with the acrylic; or (2) something in the loop re-filthed the block quickly after I cleaned it. Lo, some residue is back! New Corsair XL5 coolant in the loop. Will see how long it lasts before fully tarnishing again. I have a vertical GPU mount so the lustrous nickel is on display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuaZar-Kid Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) I agree it's completely not worth the effort in any objective sense. You have to want to take it apart and fiddle with it. After years of AiO coolers that worked just fine, I chose to enter the hobby knowing that the justification would be emotional rather than rational. Makes no sense to spend hundreds of dollars to cool my PC. Makes no sense to spending hours taking things apart just to make them shiny again. Anyway I took everything apart, cleaned with distilled water and toothbrush and the results are a shiny clear block. (see attachment) The residue made my toothbrush brown. Either (1) I didn't do a great job with the acrylic; or (2) something in the loop re-filthed the block quickly after I cleaned it. Lo, some residue is back! New Corsair XL5 coolant in the loop. Will see how long it lasts before fully tarnishing again. I have a vertical GPU mount so the lustrous nickel is on display. Agreed... Right now I'm building a secondary computer (Yeah you heard me right) Which is the Phanteks Evolve X case (amazing case very impressed) using an old X470 ASUS board and an AMD 5 3600X CPU got an older 2070 video card lying around once I get that unit standing upright and running I'll disassemble the waterloop system and take my time and completely clean it after I'm done cleaning it - I'll make my final decision on its fate likely I'll reassemble that 2080 and remove that cooler from it - I'm curious if I can get it back together completely that's a bunch of tiny screws Edited April 25, 2020 by QuaZar-Kid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 Good luck with your build! Corsair Support indicates that the source of this residue was likely "flux" from the radiator or new hoses. So don't forget to flush your radiators with more than just distilled water and you will minimize the chance of this occurring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiborrr Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 To be honest, rubber (EPDM or norprene) tubing is normally also coated with white powder called "bloom". This is to prevent rubber tubing to decay prematurely under the effects of UV light. What you saw in your loop could perfectly indicate your issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 I think that's likely correct, tiborrr, as I did not rinse the tubing beforehand! I would note that the rubber did not have a detectable coating on the outside. But in truth I didn't check the inside (do they put anti-UV coating inside of opaque rubber tubes?) and I did not flush it. For the record the Corsair Softline XT tubing created no residue even without rinse. So, future troubleshooters, don't be like me: always rinse rubber hoses and always flush rads with gentle acid. If you don't, whatever time you saved not rinsing you will spend doubly in troubleshooting, disassembling, and cleaning. The coating has not returned in the week or so that the loop has been running. Using (mostly) same XL5 coolant after flushing it through a coffee filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuaZar-Kid Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 I think that's likely correct, tiborrr, as I did not rinse the tubing beforehand! I would note that the rubber did not have a detectable coating on the outside. But in truth I didn't check the inside (do they put anti-UV coating inside of opaque rubber tubes?) and I did not flush it. For the record the Corsair Softline XT tubing created no residue even without rinse. So, future troubleshooters, don't be like me: always rinse rubber hoses and always flush rads with gentle acid. If you don't, whatever time you saved not rinsing you will spend doubly in troubleshooting, disassembling, and cleaning. The coating has not returned in the week or so that the loop has been running. Using (mostly) same XL5 coolant after flushing it through a coffee filter. This ^ as I can attest first hand :brick: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiKDMoNKY Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 What kind of acid do you recommend using to clean the radiator? Can the acid be flushed through it after it has been used for a week? Obviously with the radiator removed from the loop. I installed an XD3/XD7/XR5 420 kit and my XD7 and XT soft tubing are crystal clear, but the XD3 seems foggy. I plan on flushing, disassembling the loop and installing a proper drain valve this week when my i9 9900K de-lid/direct die kit comes. I may take the XD7 apart and give it a once over with a toothbrush and some distilled water. I would really like to take the XD3 apart and scrub it out, but I am not sure if it can be done. I think that's likely correct, tiborrr, as I did not rinse the tubing beforehand! I would note that the rubber did not have a detectable coating on the outside. But in truth I didn't check the inside (do they put anti-UV coating inside of opaque rubber tubes?) and I did not flush it. For the record the Corsair Softline XT tubing created no residue even without rinse. So, future troubleshooters, don't be like me: always rinse rubber hoses and always flush rads with gentle acid. If you don't, whatever time you saved not rinsing you will spend doubly in troubleshooting, disassembling, and cleaning. The coating has not returned in the week or so that the loop has been running. Using (mostly) same XL5 coolant after flushing it through a coffee filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 For flushing new rad I used this method by Mayhems, diluted vinegar followed by baking soda followed by distilled water: [ame] [/ame]. The acid does not go through the loop, you just plunk it in your radiator for a day, remove it, neutralize remaining residue, and rinse out. I disassembled and cleaned my XD5 pump/res combo, which had the same gunk in it. This video was helpful: [ame] [/ame] Even without the video the dis/re-assembly is straightforward; there's only so many screws. Take pictures as you go to remind yourself how things are oriented. You just need a lot of tiny torx bits. The gpu waterblock disassembly struck me as more delicate than the pump/res. If you did GPU you shouldn't have a problem with pump/res. I doubt they made a unit that cannot be disassembled, but who knows? These things have to be assembled somehow and cleaned eventually...good luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiKDMoNKY Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Thanks for the videos, but I have an XD3 pump/res combo and I have not found a teardown for it yet. For flushing new rad I used this method by Mayhems, diluted vinegar followed by baking soda followed by distilled water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zd7y04Xg-w. The acid does not go through the loop, you just plunk it in your radiator for a day, remove it, neutralize remaining residue, and rinse out. I disassembled and cleaned my XD5 pump/res combo, which had the same gunk in it. This video was helpful: Even without the video the dis/re-assembly is straightforward; there's only so many screws. Take pictures as you go to remind yourself how things are oriented. You just need a lot of tiny torx bits. The gpu waterblock disassembly struck me as more delicate than the pump/res. If you did GPU you shouldn't have a problem with pump/res. I doubt they made a unit that cannot be disassembled, but who knows? These things have to be assembled somehow and cleaned eventually...good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 Yes I saw that you have XD3 not XD5, completely different unit, just thought that video might be more helpful than no video at all because Corsair reuses as many parts as possible to cut down on manufacturing costs. For example, what appear to be rubber feet on the XD5 are in fact screws...never would've known that without that video! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuro Houou Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Just had this happen toe too, totally forgot to clean the tubing :(. So took the whole loop apart and have started the scrub process on my blocks. Have to get new tubing now.. will have to figure out the best way to fully clean tubing this time! What a pain!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_snodgrass Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 Sorry to hear that! What brand/type of tubing did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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