Air buildup in water cooling tubing

**foxmobouser** · 05-30-2011, 06:27 AM

Well I seem to be having this odd issue with air bubbles building up in side my loop. Recently I notice temps go up and i checked the loop and I had lots off air in the tube, so I took the system apart and thougt that the pump wasnt working but then after testing it it turned out it did. As I tried to blow out the liquid from the loop I noticed that it was very hard at first as if something was blocking the flow. I finally got it to flow and re-did a few iffy connections and changed some tubing. I got the system up and running but it did seem to be running a bit weeker than usual. I spent a lot of time getting any extra air out of the system. Now every day I watch the loop and there is an air bubble that seems to be growing very slowly.

Any ideas what can be causing this?

Do pumps get weaker as they near their live span or do they just give out?
Is it some kind of buildup in the system clogging it?
Can the radiator have a hole? althou there is no visible leakage anywhere.

**Blacksmith1** · 05-30-2011, 04:32 PM

there has to be a place for ait to be getting in. i would look anywhere there is a restriction AND an o-ring.
the protien skimmer on a water recycle system uses the motion of the water past an opening to induct air into the system. I belive, my opinion anyway, you are experiancing something similar.i f you are sure it isn't your hose connetions, next place to check is the o rings. if your block uses an o-ring to seal the top/bottom together i'd look at it last. just because of the pain it is to get it out.

**Dragon** · 05-30-2011, 05:43 PM

hmmm, in my experiences with pumps they sometimes drop flow rate as they get older towards their life's end. I am not going to say your pump is dead just yet. as far as the air bubbles, is the water returning to the res below the level of the res water? or is it above the level of the water in the res? make sure the return is below the water line on the reservoir. if it is above the water level it will create air bubbles. if it is, then remove all blocks, and all barbs from blocks and radiators. then remove all O-rings from blocks and barbs. Locate some Radio Shack Silicone place a small amount on your fingers and coat all O-rings till they have a nice sheen to them.

**foxmobouser** · 05-30-2011, 06:58 PM

Thx, I was afraid this would require some major disassembling

. All was fine when the pc was running 24/7. This all started when outside temps went up and I started shutting off the pc for the night.

I was also entertaining an idea of changing the pump to fountain pump like this one on amazon: link

You think that would be an over kill ?

**Dragon** · 05-30-2011, 07:25 PM

you can never have too much pump......

**Blacksmith1** · 05-30-2011, 08:51 PM

Has threaded male inlet and outlet for standard garden hose attachment.

next step is to get a radiator from a water cooled motorcycle

j/k
after you put the necessary adaptors on it it should move more than you need. however kepp in mind that if the water travels too fast, it won't have time to cool.
removing the thermostat for a car will cause it to overheat if run hard in high temp areas because of this. the liquid needs the time at the rad to shed all it's heat. if need be you can put a speed control on the system (any knob type fan control would work)

**swmeek** · 05-31-2011, 10:21 PM

Personally (and I don't know a lot about water cooling set ups ) I don't think any system is a 100% sealed. Just my 2 cents

**Blacksmith1** · 05-31-2011, 10:41 PM

probably isn't but as long as it's got enough of a seal that there are no leaks, and no contaminants can get in, who cares?

**foxmobouser** · 06-10-2011, 07:04 PM

Update

Well I took the whole dam thing apart and changed all the tubes and seals and even took out one of the rads from the loop, changed barbs and as it turns out its the pump that is simply pumping weaker than originally. Since I have used the thermaltake p400 pump with res for about 2 years now I decided to replace it and ordered the XSPC X2O 750 Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir Pump combo that I found in promo at SVC.

To Dragon: what silicone at Radio Shack were you referring to? The only ones I could find were a silicone based heat sink compound and some sort of electronics adhesive.

**foxmobouser** · 06-12-2011, 08:44 AM

Boo Hoo on me, after all that it turned out the swiftech waterblock was gunked up and obstructing the flow *sigh*.

**Dragon** · 06-12-2011, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by foxmobouser

Update

Well I took the whole dam thing apart and changed all the tubes and seals and even took out one of the rads from the loop, changed barbs and as it turns out its the pump that is simply pumping weaker than originally. Since I have used the thermaltake p400 pump with res for about 2 years now I decided to replace it and ordered the XSPC X2O 750 Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir Pump combo that I found in promo at SVC.

To Dragon: what silicone at Radio Shack were you referring to? The only ones I could find were a silicone based heat sink compound and some sort of electronics adhesive.

Originally Posted by foxmobouser

Boo Hoo on me, after all that it turned out the swiftech waterblock was gunked up and obstructing the flow *sigh*.

Thats the stuff I use is the radio shack heatsink paste. and I hate it when my blocks get all gummed up.

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