can i mix copper, brass, nickel ?

[Torreck]

looking at going full watercooling for my computer and i need a slim rad to go in the top of my C70 and a thick rad for the front. thinking about getting an Alphacool full copper (60m) rad for the front and a XSPC EX240 (35m) for the top. BUT i think i heard somewhere that some nickel and copper shouldnt be together in the same loop, does this allso count for copper and brass? or how should i aproach it?

 

[CDNMeatShield]

You sir must read up on dissimilar metal corrosion
Some metals play better with others but when building system you want to stay with one metal and stick with it. Try not to have too many different types in your system. Also please remember that a water loop has a life span. It can be 6 months to 6 years or more.
When building with copper stick with acrylic and copper. You can get copper barbs and fittings.
Same with nickel stick with one type of metal.

Now I'm not one to talk about not mixing metals.. I have an anodized alu reservoir going to all copper blocks and rad. but I also have four 90deg elbows made of brass.
As far as my research tells me that yes there is dissimilar metal corrosion happening in my system but it's so slight it's not going to kill my compy right away or in 5+ years. I WILL rebuild this setup when I replace parts and open the blacks to see if there is any damage.

One of my next builds will be to pour, tap and die acrylic barbs and fittings to have even less dissimilar metal corrosion.
hope this helps.
CS

 

[NRG!]

Get a good premixed coolant with corrosion inhibitor and don't worry about it

Try to stay away from aluminium though.

 

[CDNMeatShield]

Yes agreed about alu.. Anodized is better but still...
corrosion inhibitor is a MUST. I'd go with The Feser Companyhttp://www.dazmode.com/store/product/feser_aqua_-_bi-distilled_uber_pure_water

 

[Torreck]

Okay thanks guys, helped alot !

 

[NRG!]

Yes agreed about alu.. Anodized is better but still...
corrosion inhibitor is a MUST. I'd go with The Feser Company

Yep there's just too many good products at all price points to justify buying anything with ally in now.

I go with mayhems as it's a UK company, but I avoid pastel because you have to be precise about your tubing type. I use XT-1 additive.

 

[DarthDudo]

Yep there's just too many good products at all price points to justify buying anything with ally in now.

I go with mayhems as it's a UK company, but I avoid pastel because you have to be precise about your tubing type. I use XT-1 additive.

What do you mean by tubing type?It stains some tubing?

 

[NRG!]

What do you mean by tubing type?It stains some tubing?

All dyed coolant stains tubing proportionately.

But pastel is not compatible with some tubing (some tygons and primochill pro lrt is worst)

also, most clear tubing starts to fade or cloud over time, giving pastel a dull appearence (black looks dullgreyish blue)

The best tubing for pastel is tygon e1000, xspc tubing is also good *apparently*

Personally I prefer translucent coolants anyway..

 

[alpenwasser]

If you get a decent corrosion inhibitor (as mentioned, pre-mixed coolants) everything should be fine.

A note on alu: I've been running an anodized alu reservoir with copper in a loop for 10 years now (always the same res, always in use). Always with corrosion inhibitor of course.

It's still in almost perfect condition. As long as the anodizing is of good quality and you use corrosion inhibitors, running alu isn't a problem. The trouble with anodizing is that there are always micro-fissures in the coating (this is unavoidable due to the nature of the anodizing process), and these fissures can be starting points for corrosion. The anodizing coating itself (Aluminium Oxide) is practically inert as long as pH levels don't get too extreme (they don't in a w/c loop unless something has gone terribly wrong). Heating the parts up too much can also cause micro-fissures because the Alu underneath the coating expands more than the coating itself.

For my next loop I will no longer have anything Alu in it; I'm just saying it's not a big a cause for panic as some people make it out to be

 

[Scoob]

Interesting topic.

I did actually think about this when I first put my original loop together. I'd chosen all EK Nickel Plated stuff (EN, the "fixed" version) for ALL blocks, so the CPU and both GPU's. I'd also gotten some "proper" EK Coolant that, in theory, would mean no worries even if I did mix and match.

However, recently I upgraded my prior GTX 570's with EK Nickel Plated blocks, to a pair of GTX 680's with Alphacool NexXxos Copper / Brushed Steel blocks. I retained the same good EK coolant - it says: "Suitable for all mixed copper, brass, steel, nickel and aluminum cooling loops." so I'm not worried, though I'd not even thought about it until reading this post.

Still, it's interesting to hear if people have actually run into any issues mixing block materials. My friend swears blind that a mixed block material system will die in short order, though I'm not seeing any evidence of this. Of course, the science IS right in theory re: mixing materials = potential problems and all. However choosing the correct coolant (a good pre-mix in my case) should mean zero issues...at least, I've not been concerned thus far lol.

Cheers.

Scoob.

 

[alpenwasser]

Interesting topic.

It is indeed

My friend swears blind that a mixed block material system will die in short order, though I'm not seeing any evidence of this.

I have seen some pictures of horribly corroded alu parts over the years that people said had been ruined within a few months. I think in those cases there was either

• no proper anti-corrosion agent used
• and/or the anodizing was of bad quality (too many/too large fissures).

I only had one semester of chemistry in college (and by god, I hope it was the last one :lol, so I'm definitely no expert on this, but aside from the fissures you have in the Aluminium Oxide coating which expose some extremely minute amount of actual Aluminium, the only thing that gets into contact with the coolant is Aluminum Oxide itself.

And from what I recall (if we have an actual chemist or anodizing expert here some professional input could shed more light on this and correct any possible errors in my train of thought ) Alu-Oxide is not going to corrode, it is for all intents and purposes as inert as good plastic (as long as the PH value of the coolant lies within reasonable borders).

I think when I take apart my current loop I'll set up a test loop with a copper block and my Aquatube and run it completely without anti-corrosion agents just to see what happens. I've already seen that it holds up extremely well with proper protection, would be interested to see what happens with pure water.

 

[CDNMeatShield]

OH please beware ...
see here or here
its what your NOT going to see that will kill your system.
the heat fins that the coolant passes over as they are extremely thin will be corrode very fast.
I'd TRY to stay with one metal through the whole system

 

[alpenwasser]

OH please beware ...
see here

From what I can tell there was direct contact between un-anodized Alu and Nickel? That would speed up the reaction immensely.

or here

Ah yes, the good old EK Nickel story. Now that is an example of how not to handle customer problems

the heat fins that the coolant passes over as they are extremely thin will be corrode very fast.

I would be extremely interested to know what actually happened in those blocks on a chemical level. But I don't think we'll ever get that data. Not entirely sure anyone even knows. Some people have made some claims, but to really get to the bottom of this you'd have to run tests on a large volume of samples in very tightly controlled conditions. If anyone has done this at all it would be EK, and I don't think they would publish that data...

I'd TRY to stay with one metal through the whole system

Not disagreeing on that. Also, I've never run nickel in my loops, just my one anodized alu part and copper blocks. All I'm saying with certainty is my alu reservoir has been running for 10 years without trouble.

The Aquatube has been in Aquacomputer's arsenal for around 10 years now, and I've been a member of their forums for most of that time. I have not once seen anyone with any problem that comes even close to those EK blocks. I have also never seen any complaint threads on there about their Nickel plated blocks. Naturally I do not have access to their sales numbers, but I think it's safe to assume that in 10 years of selling those anodized reservoirs if there was a fundamental problem with them we'd have heard about it by now.

I mean, how long were those EK blocks on the market before their troubles started?

And after all, when those EK problems started popping up, it caused quite an uproar on more than one forum. At some point any Google search on EK had at least one of those threads on the first results page. I would think something similar would happen if this were the case with an AC product?

But as you said, I would TRY to stay away from mixing metals (my next loop will have brass parts on the radiators, the rest will be plastic/rubber, borosilicate glass and copper). I'm pretty sure my res will give out at some point :lol:

 

[Scoob]

Just thinking about what materials make up my loop:

GPU Blocks are copper and "black brushed steel"
CPU Block is copper, but Nickel Plated with an Acetal top
Fittings are all Nickel Plated, unsure what the main material is but it's heavy, so not Alu. They're Phobya, so maybe someone knows what they use. They're Brass, just checked.
My adjustable SLI links are Nickel as well, again, not sure about the underlying material.
My pipes are...plastic, as is my Res with some Acetal.
Rad is all copper.
Pump is...whatever pumps are made of lol.

So, Copper, Steel, Brass, Nickel (plating), Acetal and plastic.

I actually PH checked my loop after running it for over a year and it was still spot on. Nice.

Scoob.

 

[alpenwasser]

Fittings are almost always brass afaik. Copper's too soft (and too expensive), and steel is too hard on the tools (i.e. also too expensive in most cases).

Pumps often have stainless steel in them, which also does not seem to be causing too much trouble. The covers on the Aquacomputer GPU blocks have also been made of steel for years, never heard of any troubles.

Has anyone ever heard of corrosion with brass/nickel plated fittings? Surely almost everyone is running some brass fittings in their loops, whether plated or not, and many radiators still have brass chambers, or even tubes (my new ones have brass chambers, I'm not yet sure about the tubes).

I don't think brass or good quality stainless steel is something to worry about with the PH levels we have in our loops, otherwise the W/C community would be resembling pandemonium by now with the sheer amount of those metals in use :lol:

 

[NRG!]

OH please beware ...
see here or here
its what your NOT going to see that will kill your system.
the heat fins that the coolant passes over as they are extremely thin will be corrode very fast.
I'd TRY to stay with one metal through the whole system

lol'd at the first one. Firstly, buying an EK nickle block and then running some 'watercool in my shed' homemade coolant through it