Water Wetter - A thought on this substance

The alternative to direct air cooling

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~El~Jefe~
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Water Wetter - A thought on this substance

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:57 am

I read for about 2 weeks forums that complained about this additive. I read several hundred posts, talked to forum ops in chat on the topic of additives, etc etc.

well, all of the negatives were completely false. I could smell it but not anymore. it is sealed. cant smell a sealed system.

I noticed something really obvious about my zalman reserator 1 and the water I initially put into it for the first moments it was on. I used steamed distilled Poland Spring water. gpu and cpu on a loop. The pump made some low hum, very low, only could hear it with my ear nearer to the base in a quiet room. Then I added the water wetter. 5 4 3 2 1....... no noise. the water flowed like some sci fi cheesey special effect about spirits in a room. looked odd. 2 1/2 years later, one liquid change accomplished, not a sound, pump is smooth as shit.

Now, I might have gotten a cherry picked pump. Possible. I keep the system on 24/7, 2.2ghz amd x2, x1900 aiwonder ati card. I game on it 3-4 times a week.

I have to say, that if you are considering any liquid cooling, you try 3-5% water wetter and steam distilled water. It just works. water is still clear, although pinkish. happy and dandy all day.

My next system is getting the reserator 2. I will not be using zalman's coolant in it. not as good as near pure water setup that I have.

I think the WW lubricates pumps in ways others just dont. completely different consistency than car antifreeze.

THis is just a tip to anyone starting out in the WC business. This would have cut down my reading considerably had I read it back then.

jhhoffma
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Post by jhhoffma » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:16 am

More than likely it increases the surface tension of the water making it harder for the it to cavitate. It probably has some glycol in it as well that may increase the density of the solution, but at 3-5% percent it won't be much.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:02 am

More than likely it increases the surface tension of the water making it harder for it to cavitate.
WW reduces the surface tension of water (link). no idea how this affects cavitation.

jhhoffma
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Post by jhhoffma » Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:18 am

I probably should have read up on that stuff before posting, but it was just a guess.

I erroneously said that it reduced the surface tension, when in fact, any nonpolar impurity would decrease the surface tension (that's what a wetting agent does). However the same paper jaganath linked to indicates that it uses some sort of foam control (defoamer, usually petroleum or silicone-based) to reduce cavitation.

I'll take a 50% right answer on this...

spookmineer
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Post by spookmineer » Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:17 pm

This article is a good read, covering a lot of aspects (corrosion, pH values, advantages and disadvantages of different mixtures).

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