Custom loop with D5 Vario possibly airlocked

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moatt

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I have a custom loop being driven by a single D5 Vario pump. I was changing out the fluid and now it won't flow. There is a bubble I can't get out, but not sure if that's a symptom or the problem. When I turn the pump on, everything moves for just a second then stops. I worried that my pump was blown, but if I open the bleeder valve with the pump going it shoots fluid.

My setup is as follows:

Pump-->Bleeder Valve-->Flow Indicator-->Radiator -->CPU Block-->GPU Block-->Pump. The air bubble is trapped in the short hose between the CPU and the GPU. I've tried everything I can think of to get it out of there. I've twisted and turned and flipped the machine and the block but it won't go past the CPU block so I can get it back to the bleeder valve. Liquid flows freely through there so I know it's not clogged.

At first I worried that the D5 wasn't strong enough. I do have a good bit of hose (an XSPC 360 radiator is mounted outside of the case), but it's less than 6 feet of hose so everything I'm reading says it should be fine. Is it just this air bubble or do I have another issue? How can I get it cleared?

Thanks for all the help guys. Sorry to ask stupid questions. I've just been fighting with this for 5 or 6 weeks and I'm at my wits end.

Chris
 
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getochkn

getochkn

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Jul 2, 2006
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well i'm not a water cooling guy, but some logic would say that if liquid comes out the bleeder valve right past the pump, but not the whole system than it's either too weak or something blocking.

I would process of elimination.

pump->bleeder->flow->pump. Does it work. add a block. etc, etc.

Also, are you not using a res? Again, not a water cooling guy. lol.

But as I said logically, the pump works since it spits out the feeder value. Or what about the pump, 2 tubes, a container of water. does it pump it out.

Work from there. It seems the pump works though.
 
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Vellinious

Vellinious

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Dec 3, 2013
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Pictures, please. We need to see the loop.
 
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moatt

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/krf6d02mbav6jog/20161107_210334.jpg?dl=0g

Hard to see. I moved the computer into the living room so I could work on it, so there are hoses everywhere and it's all haphazard.

The pump is inside of an XSPC reservoir. Can't see it in the pic. Doesn't hold a lot but it holds enough.

I've thought about removing blocks to further test but I was saving that FOR a last ditch effort because it's a huge PITA and makes a huge mess. Seriously regretting the colored additive.

I just didn't want to start messing with pulling hoses if there was something else I should try first.
 
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Vellinious

Vellinious

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Move the CPU block up, so that the air bubble moves through it, into the radiator in the top...once it's there, it should work itself out and into the reservoir.

That doesn't fix the issue with the D5 pump apparently only working for a few seconds.....is it making any odd noise as it runs? If the pump is sucking air, it'll make a god awful racket....and then burn out. I don't recommend running it very long without it pumping fluid. You may need a new pump.
 
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moatt

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I've tried that, but I can't get the air to move thru the cpu block. It'll move into it but no matter what I do it flows back towards the gpu block. I thought it might be blocked, but liquid will flow through it with no resistance.
 
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moatt

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Correct, bay reservoir. And no, it doesn't stop, it keeps running. Looking at the air bubble, if I turn it on the air bubble gets closer to the block (not all the way, but closer) but stops moving. When I turn it off, the air bubble shoots back. So it's maintaining pressure, it's just not enough to push anything through. I'd considered adding a second D5 post radiator but wasn't sure if it could be installed without a reservoir or if that would even be feasible.

The pump I have now is definitely working, it just doesn't seem strong enough to circulate through the whole system. Not sure if that's because it's screwed up, or because if the bubble, or my routing of hoses, etc.
 
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Vellinious

Vellinious

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A single D5 that's working properly is plenty for that loop.
 
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moatt

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That's what I thought. You know, I wonder if there could be something blocking the actual port on the pump/reservoir. Water flows out of it no problem but nothing is flowing back in. I think at this point there's nothing else to do but pull the reservoir and check it and the pump.
 
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Vellinious

Vellinious

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It's probably time to check everything, yeah....
 
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moatt

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Ok, so not the pump. Bought a brand new D5 Vario kit and swapped it out. Still doing the same thing. I also found out that if the pump is on, I can disconnect the short hose from the graphics card to the cpu (disconnected at the cpu block) and suction will hold the water in place...not even a drop comes out. I filled it up with pure distilled water directly into that short hose and burped all air bubbles completely, and there still doesn't seem to be any movement.

Picture

The water between the cpu and graphics card is starting to change colors a little but it's still not mixed like the water in the rest of the loop. And my flow indicator spinning wheel doesn't move at all. Shouldn't there be movement? I get that we're looking at laminar flow here, but seems like the key word here is "flow". Thoughts?
 
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Vellinious

Vellinious

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Yes, there should be flow. Hard to tell what you've got going on there. I'd try to simplify the loop and see what happens. Is there more than one "in" port on the reservoir / pump unit? Is one side of the loop on the "out"?
 
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moatt

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And as usual, I'm an idiot. The top outlet on the reservoir is marked "out". I always thought that was a weird design, but I ran it from the "out" of the reservoir to the "in" on the cpu block. Finally, I decided to say to hell with the marked out port on the reservoir and swapped it so it's running from the in port of the reservoir to the in port if the cpu block. Whole system flows like a freaking jet ski. The flow indicator wheel that was completely still is hammering along at a blur.

Weirdest part of it is, I had it hooked up like this for almost a year and didn't realize there was no flow. Never had any overheating. Just realized it this time when I added the flow indicator to change the fluid.
 
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moatt

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That's how I originally had it setup, but either that outlet is marked wrong, or the inlet on my raystorm CPU block is marked wrong, because if I run a hose from that outlet port to my CPU block, the pump runs and nothing comes out the other barb of the CPU block. Once I switched them so that the inlet port of the reservoir runs to the inlet port of the CPU block, it flows perfectly.

I left the pump running all night, and everything still looks perfect. The reservoir is also cool now, where before if I left the pump running for 5 minutes the reservoir started getting warm (apparently because no water was flowing out of the reservoir, so the pump was just churning.)

It's so weird to me that the outlet port would be on the top of the reservoir. From a pure fluid dynamics standpoint, it seems like you would want the outlet on the bottom so that if the water level ever dropped below the top port, the pump would still pull water instead of running dry. With the outlet on top, if the level ever drops below that port the pump would be bone dry. Or at least, that's what I would guess.
 
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