Which liquid for my watercooler in the winter like -30C

Rafael Maciel

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In winter if I open the window
 

Hard Line

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liquid should not freeze in a liquid loop under normal conditions.. it should not get close to freezing inside your home outside temp does not matter in a liquid loop. if you are planning to take your pc outside then yes you would.. but you would also need to take other precautions like insulating the tubing and the board and other internal parts from condensation. if you just crack the window, it should not get cold enough to freeze the liquid ( i do this in the winter at times ) though keep in mind if will dramatically increase your heating bill if doing this fro long periods
 
Agree with ihog, if your room temperature can hit -30°C than you have other problems, such as running water or hypothermia :lol:.
Where do you live to be exposed to such unmerciful temperatures?
Also with an ambient temperature like that, I can easily see a good air-cooler outperforming the best of the water-cooled rigs out there.

Alcohol in general (including Anti-Freeze, Ethelyne Glycol is just sugary alcohol) would also ruin any acrylic pieces that may be in the loop, so most reservoirs and some EK blocks.
 

Rafael Maciel

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Montreal and the -30 is only if someone stupid in the house open the window and turn off the heating.
 

rubix_1011

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A better solution would be to build an external RAD box and run tubing outside. You could keep your room warm and your water cooled. You'll likely want to look into using some sort of glycol mixture...alcohol doesn't tend to play well with acrylics and many plastics very well (both which populate watercooling loops).

A 50/50 mix of automotive coolant is typically good for -40F temps in automobile use, so even a mixture of 20-30% would likely be beneficial. I would thorougly test this prior to filling my loop and not knowing for sure, though.
 

Hard Line

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He will also need to insulate the tubing, res and motherboard or condensation would kill it honestly I don't think his endeavor is worth it.. he might get away with water temps about 10C cooler than ambients.. but colder than that and he will have condensation issues
 

rubix_1011

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He will also need to insulate the tubing, res and motherboard or condensation would kill it honestly I don't think his endeavor is worth it.. he might get away with water temps about 10C cooler than ambients.. but colder than that and he will have condensation issues

Indeed, I missed this, but is certainly very true any time you run sub-ambient coolants. In the winter, the dew point is usually much lower and less moisture in the air, but still can be a problem (big one, at that).

Good points, nice catch and addition. Thanks!