Cleaning
Before installing, and for regular maintenence.
Note: Regular maintenence is required whenever the water in you loop looks weird, has things floating, or is real cloudy.
Almost all water blocks and radiators have to be cleaned before using them. Its not required, but its better to do it before, instead of after. If your radiator is dirty, and you install it, withing a few days you will have film on your tubes, and the water will contain particles that will eventually clog waterblocks, which in turns will kill performance. A dirty radiator will also turn your water milky.
Since I dont recommend aluminum, im not going to show you how to clean it, but beware, vinegar eats aluminum.
Cleaning Copper Water Blocks
Its way easier and safer to take apart your water blocks before you clean them. And, to clean them, we will need vinegar and distilled water. Ketchup can also be used to clean copper, but dont leave it on too long (4 hr max) or cloudy stains will appear. We use distilled water because tap water usually contains chlorine and sodium, and other additives that are not good for watercooling.
1. Run some water onto the block, and brush all the jets/pins with a toothbrush to remove debris. Toothpaste will also clean waterblocks btw.
2. Soak the Copper Base only, in a cup or bowl of vinegar. You can do this for a while. But after 10hrs, it wont get any cleaner.
3. Just brush the other parts that come in contact with water with a toothbrush (toothpaste optional).
4. Rinse all parts with distilled water, make sure you rins very well as vinegar destroys PVC tubing.
Cleaning Copper Radiators
Radiators are the parts that are almost always dirty, and the ones that contain most of the dirt. So cleaning them is essential. They are a little harder to clean than water blocks, but they use the same cleaning ingredients. (Scrubbing bubbles is also known to work good. Its easy to use, just spary in in, fill the rad with water, then let sit for a little, and then rinse.)
1. Lay radiator horizontally, then fill with vinegar. It would be good to make sure the vinegar isnt touching the barbs, as sometimes the nickel plating is weak, and will get eaten by the vinegar. So best thing to do would be to remoze the barbs before using the vinegar.
2. Cover the holes for the barbs or plug the barbs, and shake the whole radiator. Shake it long and hard.
3. Let it soak for around 12 hours.
4. Rinse, and repeat.
5. Now, flushing out the vinegar and dirt... I connect a tube to the rad, then connect a funnel to the tube, then pour distilled water in, then shake the rad and then drain it. You should do this as many times as posssible. More is better when it comes to flushing
)(pity cant do 4850 crossfire
).
