How often to change coolant?

[Bolter01]

Hi,
I am using Swiftech HydrX Coolant & distilled water with great success.

Was wondering what the expected life of it is? My system is all copper.

I have some Feser One Fluid - UV Red to put in and realize it will need a thorough flush before adding a new coolant.

Thanks

[Arbite]

You can go up to a year without changing coolant, but i would recomend changing every 6-8 months.

[Frag_Lord]

I have been running Nulon + distilled for about 10 months now, it looks kinda nasty now :P

I would recommend every 6 months to changing coolant and tubing.

[Bolter01]

and tubing...argh! yes I suspected I may have to sometime. That will be "Fun"

[lowdog]

I just re-did my loop in November, it had been running on nothing more than straight distilled water for over 14 months straight and the water that came out was fine, there was nothing in it. All my blocks were clean as well with NO build up of any crap that all those coolant things tend to cause. new loop is straight distilled as well, I'll leave it for well over a year this time unless I have to change out components.

Straight distilled for the win.

[K3nii]

about every school holidays i have the urge to change my pc so thats how often i do it

[javascripterror]

The same water has been in the Potted Eheim project since December 26, 2005. Must be some kind of record by now I suppose.

[Kaine[zof]]

Changing coolant every six months is a bit on the anal side.

Changing tubing that often is just downright wasteful. Only reason to change tubing ever is if it is decaying (ie going hard and splitting or leaking). I reuse tubing from install to install. Some of it is pretty stained by Nulon at this point but it really isn't an issue.

I've changed coolant at roughly 9-12 month intervals simply because that's when I've reconfigured my loop. Good, stable coolant without any residue buildup or corrosion should be fine for at least 12 months.

HydrX is shite. Feser is overpriced and nothing special. Nulon + de-mineralised water has worked fantastically for me.

[Bolter01]

Thanks for the feedback all and have a great holiday season.
I was of the understanding that coolant prevents algae and reduces the likely hood of a galvanic cell so that's why I used it.

You fellows using Nulon is there a particular one to use?

And yer its been roughly 6 mths so I'll give it a couple more and the tubing can wait, its still soft.
Thanks

[okydoke]

I went about 1 3/4 years before redoing my loop (previously had hydrx in it) the other week. No buildups or gunk or discolouration, tubes were in ok condition (although i replaced them anyway). Ran some white vinegar/distilled water through it a few times with next to no foreign materials coming out (followed with extensive flushing out of the components). Next time I will probably go for a year so/ 9 months to keep the tubes in better nick, but yeah, all good

[DeejW]

If you do it right the first time and get Tygon throughout you will never have to replace the tubes again.

[Bolter01]

Great feedback "oky" and DeejW I am looking at getting tygon tubing as the replacement though I have had no trouble with what Ive got.

Cheers

[onoff312]

I dont get how tygon tubing is any better then dtek or feser tubes.

[Trog Star]

Originally Posted by DeejW

If you do it right the first time and get Tygon throughout you will never have to replace the tubes again.

do you work for them or some shit?

[Damianb]

Plastics are made up with all different mixes. some have more of a certain ingredient than others. some companies know how to make plastic better than others. that can all affect how the tubing works, there is also wall thickness, Tygon uses 1/8th wall thickness instead of 1/16th.