David Zhang thanks on this upload, always wanted to try this but not worth voiding any warranty. Why would they do copper and not aluminum or titanium? For the contact pad that meets the processor.
Keller weskier lol mineral oil submerged pcs require much more maintenance. Not saying it's bad just saying most people want something they can install and leave in for months to years.
My Corsair h115i developed this same problem in just over a year. Currently have my i7 5820k idling at 58c @ 1.16ghz... AIOs have always been a bit of a gamble in my experience.
I never trust closed loops, and after seeing this video, my concerns are validated. All that crap coming from the rad is enough to screw up the pump. Even on custom water loops, its always good to flush new radiators, many brands do not even bother with this in the manufacture process. Still, good video. Thanks for sharing.
Finally someone explained this in a non-confusing way :P Thanks for the breakdown! Might buy one soon cause my air cooler is making my room practically a sauna.
Old post, but CPU coolers do the job of moving heat from the CPU, and into the room the computer is in. There's no magic to get rid of heat. Which is why server labs have to move the heat out of the room, somewhere else. I have thought before, it would be nice to vent the PC's heat outside, or move it underground. I once saw someone with a mobile home, dig a hole, for a water tank in the ground, and build a cooling solution around that.
David, I literally just went through almost this exact issue. I also have the same cooler as you, the Antek Kuhler 920. So mine started making impeller failing noises after i had cleaned out the system one day. I was stressed and worried that I had to replace it, so I waited a day. The next day I took mine apart like you did. Mine was not clogged like yours, but you can see the same issue is happening as they seem to use Antifreeze (based on the smell). I cleaned out my motor, cleaned out the fin array, and started to reassemble the pump. I used a small syringe to add distilled water to the pump before closing it up so the impeller had something to pup once it started back up. Reassembled and am currently back up and running on the same system. Their is still a small heat issue as I am running at idle 43c (109f). But once under load don't really get all that much hotter. I do plan on going custom loop on my next build, but if I do keep this cooler for another PC, I will be flushing and replacing the coolant in the system with proper coolant from EK (as it's a much cleaner and less likely to fail solution). Now you said that it is difficult to add liquid to the loop, but this is not true. You can flush the system with distilled water, you would just need a large plastic syringe to push new liquid through one tube, the radiator and out the other. Assemble, and then do as I did, just add more water by pushing water into the system to push all the air out before assembly.
2 questions: 1. Do prebuilt PCs typically come pre-filled? Are the cooling systems always pre-filled? 2. How could debris get in the system like yours?
+David Zhang I am thinking of buying a used closed system, but it might need to have the liquid changed. So when I typed this into youtube search, this was one of the top videos. Your video is very informative on this subject. I like how you explained what you were taking apart, and what to look for in case I do buy the used closed loop system. Good video all around.
+Ervin Goss Thanks for the comment. Although I'd just like to say that I don't recommend you change the liquid in a closed loop (unless it is one of those expandable setups) Filling these back up is extremely difficult as the fill port typically requires a high pressure injection to remove most of the air. It's not impossible just extremely difficult without a reservoir or a port to bleed air. Good luck!
uhhh, you could have just cleaned out the micro fins, flushed out the loop and refilled, boom fixed. The pump is obviously working, just debris clogging up. The debris you got is due to the coolant being an ethoyl-glycol (probably spelt wrong) mix which is know to react with plastics. Alphacool and many others have premixed solutions by the liter on the cheap. Great video!
Would you risk putting this back together only to spring a leak and damage your expensive components? Worst part is that you've probably voided the warranty by opening it up.
You probably could but you'd have to bleed the system of air bubbles when resealing the system. Air in the system causes improper cooling / temperature fluxuations, the less the better. AIO's don't have a purge valve so you'd have to make one yourself. Pretty much works like a car radiator.
Many CPU coolers have a filling port on the side of the block/pump. You just need to find a corresponding nozzle online (Ebay for instance). I had to replace the liquid in my Corsair H60 once, and it was VERY much clogged. But DO NOT take it apart for fun, it's a messy job that is OBVIOUSLY going to ruin your warranty.
You can refill. I did it with mine. Although, I wouldn't recommend using the fluid I chose. Although, I'll probably replace it if I notice any issues down the road with it. I'll get some distilled water. When I shot my video it was late at night and I just wanted to move along with the project so I used 50/50 diluted anti-freeze. I read that if you go this route you should do a mix of 1 part anti-freeze and 9 parts distilled water.
Steve Vachaviolos I didn't want to replace anything, just get it working again. I did bleed the system about 5 times. That might be a project for the future if the system gets clogged up again.
Very informative video. I was curious how the heat fins and reservoir cycled the fluid (as I thought, through heat pipes to the opposite side of the cooler, and back, for maximum surface area). Thanks!
You can easily clean the contact find inside with lemon juice and blow clean with air . Since your motor work fine just refill with new fluid , just be sure to run it through a coffee filter to remove any hidden debris. Also can test with cooler removed to check flow before reinstalling.
That foam is not for noise and vibration. It works like a expansion tank. But instead of bubble of air it is a foam. Bubble in pump is problem. Foam does not travel through loop.
I just wanted to know how an AIO works, but I was a little bit in doubt, if someone makes Videos like this or not, but fortunately, a very good video is here ! Thanks for making such a nice Video bro...
This is the best breakdown I've seen. Seriously. I'd watched like 10 useless videos before I got here. Btw. If a pump fails, what happens to the PC components? Are they immediately damaged?
Your pump being hot isn't a sign of failure. You have to actively check the temperature of the processor under load to really determine if the pump is failing. It's actually understandable for the pump to actively be hot, and manufacturers know this and design their components to withstand said heat. If the pump is failing you'd see idle temperatures of like 60-70C. The fact that you were able to turn on the pump and the rotor began to spin means the pump is perfectly functional.
+PaciDrifter Yeah I couldn't take the stock fan anymore. I had some custom liquid cooling gear laying around so I just rigged up a quick loop for my CPU. It's pretty ugly in my case right now. lol. I do enjoy building custom loops but in the end I always just prefer a zero maintenance air cooling setup.
I used to braze these for a living . The heater as we called them is made of brass and sometimes copper . Both good heat conducted .unfortunately the EU buracrats decided that soldering and most importantly acid flu was not the best way to solder the heater snd banned in the EU .the cores are pretty made from manufactures then we added the brass tanks and bottoms with a baffle separating the inlet and outlet .so liquid flows through the whole core thus cooling the heat around it
nice video! that fluid was supposed to be green or blue like the most anti-freeze fluids...actually i think is the same fluid as the engine coolant on a car but i am not sure...Anyway i need one detail if you can give me... i have the h60 cooling about 5 years now :P yours h60 how old is it? i have start to thinking that i must change that fluid...
Clean the base with some mild acid. You can run for a while (20 mins) with the circuit filled with water and a mild acid...it will dissolve any kind of calcium debree. Then run it with clean water then fill it with 70% distilled water and 30% ammonia (prevents any algae and bacteria to form).
Nice looking AIO, seems to have been well made. My cooler just died, maybe I should take it apart like you did. It made a lot of noise before dying ( I thought the noise was from hard drives, because that's what it sounded like, and I use some hard drives still, due to the cheap cost, for more storage for games.) I wonder what caused the debris in the coolant?
That is just a few more reasons why I don't want to switch to water cooling solutions. Water cooling solutions are unreliable because of that tiny magnetic impeller. That impeller dies when the circuit dies and then u have a hunk of metal that is over heating on one end and cool on the other (It would have still have potential if it was passively cooling by convection motion but it doesn't) causing ur cpu to throttle and shut down. I am sticking with air coolers until they finally make a practical design for a CPU Peltier coolers. Those thermoelectric coolers came out around the time of the 1st gen i7 and have a working life of upto 22 years without moving parts.
really nice video, awesome video and audio quality. also it is only around 4 minuts...hate this unnecessary long videos... would you like to make a video where you show how you record and editing?
+alberto9911 Honestly I'm still learning so it would be silly for me to try and teach this stuff right now. I guess because I have a short attention span myself I don't enjoy making long videos. The big guys (eg. MKBHD, TLD, Austin, HardwareCanucks) provide a lot of inspiration and information on this stuff already so definitely check them out. Thanks for the comment.
THANKS!! I wanted to know how water flowed inside radiator to know if 14mm tube would be the bottleneck of the flow. Guess the radiator channels are so small that the bottleneck is definitely in there, no point getting larger tubes!
Awesome video!!!!!!!! very informative!!! i always wanted to know whats inside one. will be getting an AIO cpu cooler to try. i've never used one before.
Good Fan cooler are so much reliable than those CPU liquid cooler and work great too at high temperature. So what't the point at the end unless you plan to choose your CPU cooler every 3 years.
I hope you washed your hands after touching that stock HSF! Cool vid, couldn't you just flush and re assemble the AIO if the pump is actually functioning and its just flow rates? You sure its glycol based coolant as well? Apparently (im relatively new to water cooling) some plastics have issues with glycol based solution's. I use a non-glycol based racing coolant 50/50 with distilled water in the custom loop i have.No discoloration or any other issues to speak of in the couple of months its been in use.
Its nice that you didnt get a $140 cooler and did that. And you got a $40. Finally a tech tuber that doesnt waste and throw away 1080ti's like their garbage
Well I can say my 7 year 240 mm aio is still kicking i opened it and man it needed a change it was permeating but its still running and for many more years to come
As I am sure others have stated... if the motor works, and the gaskets Etc are fine.. clean out the gunk, flush the radiator.. and put it back together.. buying new coolant is WAY cheaper then complete replacement
Thanks for the video, i have the same issue with my corsair H55, and im tempted to tear it apart, drain it, clean the microfins and put the whole shoot n match back together to see if it works. its nice to see someone already did this
+Slither747 Np! I was surprised how easy it was to disassemble. Haven't tried putting it back together yet. Not sure how well that will fair. but let me know if you do it.
i have exactly that CPU cooler. the problem is that tape and glue one the cold plate, you see it at 1:15 . my cooler went crazy the other day so i took it apart and it was full of that glue, i washed it out and removed the tape and cleaned the coldplate. then i fill it with normal water, while it was turned on and screw the cold plate back on, it sound and works like it was brand new again
If you want to reinvent the wheel build both in 1 unit and get rid of the radiator in the closed loop and cool the closed loop water with an open loop. Its easy simple smaller and way more efficient . But who wants to run an open loop and waste all that fresh water
Hi, thanks for posting this video. I'm building a rig to game/stream/edit on and was just researching CPU coolers. What video editor do you use? I like the effect you incorporated at 2:32 to show the flow of the solution through the cooler.
David Zhang:: Running into your video, after long research was a relief, thank you, i just have a question, from my understanding, they last from 2 to 3 years, then they need to be replaced??? and the most important question for me, do these Liquid Coolant Radiators AIO come with Liquid solution Ready to just install ?? Hope you Can reply, it's important for me to know this?? and thank you again for the video.
I think I’ve been using a dead Corsair liquid cooler for 7 years, there’s no vibration at all, the 2 fans on the cooler spins all the time because it’s connected to the CPU fan connector and fan speed controller, the cooler itself has it’s own power source connected to a molex cable from the PSU (so if it’s working then it’s at full speed at all the time). I bought it 2nd hand, the seller is a scam artist as he didn’t give me the $100 TV card that should be part of the auctioned goods. These products should has LED light on to show it’s working.
Thanks for the video! My cooler also failed a while back and i'm taking it apart now to find out why it broke Did you ever find out where the debris came from? I'm thinking friction from some part of the impeller spinning grinds it up. or it's poor quality and the hoses degrade somehow?
Hi U self said, that the one screw at the pump may is for filling it up at the factory. Im not sure but u used the taken apart parts of the pump to show us how it works, and ya it works. So, why not trying to make ur self a cooling liquit (maybe several tests befor using it) based on the component mixture of the Factory and Refill it, after checking if the flow in the radiotor is not clogt, if it is, u maybe able to clean it (not so sure how if im hones). At this point u alrdy have enough Video Material for a another Video about the miniVaCü pump :D And yes, im sorry but thats the first vid i ever seen from your channel so im sorry if i hit the wrong content :D (coming from repair videos mostly electroniks). I hope this idea is something u may can work with. Greez and have a nice day (btw, ENG isn my nativ Language so ya :S )
Great video! I knew how it all worked but it was nice to see the inside. Now if only the damn stupid Corsair units were this easy to take apart and fix. Note to self: Never support Corsair AIO products again!
lol its so easy to repair... why u go back to stock? The pump works! just unclog/clear the heatsink and fill the radiator with any rust clear product and let it rest for 1day. Drain/clean the radiator refill with distilled water for water cooler and its like new.
