Coolant Advice: Distilled Water OK?

[rdonr]

Hi there, I'm working with a custom soft-tube (TPV) loop, an Eisbaer, & a gpu block. Because I live in a region where the costs of shipping coolant is pretty prohibitive I have to go a different route.

What I have: distilled water (for laboratories, i.e. good quality) & EK Cryofuel concentrate (it's the clear kind because it seems that the colored stuff can gunk up). Since the Cryofuel is intended to be mixed with distilled water, I'm assuming there should not be any problem using this in my loop.

That said, this is the first time I'm doing a custom loom with this type of fluid & just want to err on the side of caution.

So, for my question(s)

• Will the fluid consisting of distilled water / coolant concentrate be acceptable?
• Are there any other things that I need to consider?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Eddy]

Distilled water alone can work, but I would not recommend it. Important are additives against algae and a PH stabilizer. The Cryofuel concentrate should have this inside. I would add this in any case. Distilled water amg be pure, but as soon as you open the bottle and dump the water into the circuit, a flake of dust is enough to turn distilled water into a germ slingshot. Sounds exaggerated now, it is, but if there is nothing in the water that prevents bacteria or algae from growing, it can end unpleasantly. And the pH value must also be kept stable. If this drops too far, then it can dissolve nickel plating and other coatings.
These are the reasons why I personally would never use only distilled water, and I've been around this subject for a very long time.

 

[rdonr]

Thanks for the quick reply! Are there any other widely available options besides distilled water & additives?

My understanding that some of the other options are (but probably not limited to)

• ethylene glycol and water (EGW)
• propylene glycol and water (PGW)

1. Which would be the ideal?
2. Does it even make any sense to try to source one of the aforementioned instead of distilled water? [As a point of clarification, where I live it's infeasible / just not possible to buy products that are specifically marketed as coolants for PCs, but things like propylene glycol are available]

Thanks in advance!

 

[Thomas_S]

Take a look at the data sheet, there you will find the composition of Tec Protect 2. Of course, we cannot give out the exact formulations.

https://www.alphacool.com/media/pdf/de/45/52/ENG_1021554_Alphacool_Tec_Protect_2_Clear_1000ml_Datasheet.pdf

 

[Eddy]

20% Ethylene glycol and 80% destilled water would be fine. Some are using 50:50, some 30:70 but 20:80 is enough Thylene glycol.

@Thomas_S
Since we have other substances in it, you can't really take Tec Protect 2 as a comparison here. It needs more glycol in the circuit than we have in Tec Protect.