Condensation, Froth, Bubbles! OH MY!! - Initial Leak testing questions

[WonderWoman]

Hello,

I am currently performing my initial leak testing and I have some questions on what I am seeing.

Parts List:

Hydro X Series XD5 RGB Pump/Reservoir Combo — White

Hydro X Series XC7 RGB PRO CPU Water Block (1700/1200/AM5/AM4) — White

Hydro X Series XR7 360mm Water Cooling Radiator

Hydro X Coolant

Flexible tubing

Questions:

The reservoir chamber has condensation and the coolant has both froth across the top and bubbles throughout.  Is this normal?

When I was doing the initial filling process with the power cycling to distribute the coolant, I got to a point where the reservoir chamber was not completely filled, it was close to 3/4 filled and I could not add any more coolant because the fill tube was full to the top, but the flexible loop tubes would be empty and of course you cannot tell how much is in the radiator.  I took some videos of my leak testing and the current environmental conditions for the reservoir chamber and uploaded them to my Google Drive.  I am providing a link (I hope that is acceptable) and I am posting a pic here.  Can anyone tell me if any of this is normal or if there is anything wrong and if I have enough coolant?  While the loop is running the reservoir is only half full.

Videos:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tzIsJEk5Hci0UEUU41woyZ_a5A4wn2tw/view?usp=drive_link

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Wonder Woman

 

[Aalb75]

Hi

My system also has condensation in the reservoirs, so i belive that is normal.

I would add some more coolant to the system to raise the water level, i have attached a picture of the water level in my system, it has been running for a year now.

Regarding the foam, it looks like the return is connected to the wrong  port on the top, the return is the one with the tube in it.

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Aalb75

[LeDoyen]

as he said ^^

Condensation is normal. Froth is not really after 2 hours but that may be the splashing if the return is not plugged to the port with the tube, it's hard to see indeed.

[WonderWoman]

Thank you both so much for noticing I had the tube connected to the wrong port for the return.  I will have to cut a new length of tube because it is not long enough to switch.  Will swapping the return tubing from the radiator to the other port on the pump/res fix both the froth and the bubbles for the coolant?

[c-attack]

It should.  Not using the downspout side in a half filled reservoir will cause a fair bit of spray return and that is what's causing the foam up.  It likely would go down a lot by filling all the way up, but it would likely stay frothy up top when running.  Unfortunately on the original XD5 you can't switch that tube and even if you could, it would require complete disassembly of the unit to access the internal reservoir.  Hopefully the new Elite models rectified that with a pop off top like everyone else.  

[WonderWoman]

I have switched the return tubing and the coolant is now running clear with barely any foam at all.  Will the bubbles dissipate over time?  I am providing a pic of the new configuration.  The pic was taken while the loop is running to show the fill level while it is running.  I added some more coolant while it was off.  I gave it as much as I could while it was off.  I have room to add more coolant while it is running, should I do this seeing how much room I have while it is running?

Corsair also needs to make their pump/res smaller in footprint (so-to-speak).  c-attack I don't know if you recognized the pink build in the pic/video I provided but I am the same person that you have been helping over a long time in another posting.  I am the one that has been building the pink, black light poster meets disco meets hippy trippy psychedelic build that has those 3 pink ARGB AsiaHorse fans.  My build turned out to be a nightmare because the case was not as large as I thought it was and was not as large as needed and the pump/res and the GPU took up the entire width of the case.  If Corsair made less square and more round and/or more tall pump/res it would help a whole lot.

As you can see in the pic, due to the situation described with both the GPU and pump/res being so large I was not able to properly mount the pump/res and had to jerry rig it to the bottom.  What you cannot see is that I had to secure the pump/res housing bracket to the bottom of the case with a few pink zip ties and use only one screw.  That was the ONLY option available.  I am hoping that I am still able to fasten the 2 tempered glass panels on when I move it to it's final location in my apartment.  Leaving them open is NOT an option because I have 2 cats which means fur and that does not work well at all with computers.

Edited December 31, 2023 by WonderWoman

[c-attack]

1 hour ago, WonderWoman said:

Will the bubbles dissipate over time?

How long depends on the fluid and really tedious stuff like the surface cohesion on the inside of the reservoir.  Little micro-bubbles in the reservoir may take several days to disappear and in my experience the original XD5 takes a bit longer than other reservoirs.  I liked them in that reservoir and would deliberately create them when filling, but I couldn't make it last longer than 5 days or so.  Big bubbles should filter out within an hour or two of constant running.  If you have some of that going on after you're fully up and ready to go, you can accelerate the process by changing the pump from a really low speed like 800 rpm to the 4800 max, alternating back and forth to create a pressure surge when you speed it up.  

 

The XD5 mounting should be sufficient.  I did the same thing on my first Hydro X build in an original O11 case.  No really good option without drilling and so two plastic screw/nuts on opposite corners had to do.  They did just fine.