DonaldG

Eight months ago, on 21st October 2008, I converted my quad core computer to water cooling. I purchase a new Zalman ‘Reserator TX hybrid liquid cooling system’ I wrote and article on converting from air cooled to water cooled CPU. Click here for the original article.

The following charts the progress and problems associated with the project .

The installation was very simple with the easy to follow instructions Zalman provided.

The Zalman kit was supplied with quarter litre of concentrated Anti Corrosion Coolant ZM-G300 which must be diluted with distilled water. The main problem was associated before installation: locating distilled water!

In the UK, it is not easy to obtain pure distilled water. Go into any motor shop and ask for distilled water and you will be given de-ionised water, not distilled. The distilled water available in supermarkets for use in domestic irons contains perfumes and other contaminants.

A pharmacy sold me a bottle of ‘Pure Water’ assuring me that it was distilled. I telephoned the manufacturers and spoke with their quality control pharmacist. He confirmed it was de-ionised, not distilled. However, discussing my needs etc, he assured me that it would be absolutely safe to use de-ionised water and no harm would become of my system.

So, I diluted the deep blue ZM-G300 according to instructions. I filled and commissioned the Reserator TX. All seemed fine. It worked like it said on the box. I was very pleased and wrote up the article on the installation etc.

However... During March 2008, the alarm would go off occasionally. There are three items that can trigger an alarm: Low coolant level, no coolant flow and over temperature. The alarm does not advise which triggered it.

Investigating the alarms, I determined at the time, that it was low coolant level that triggered the alarm.

During the interim period, I had located a seller of real distilled water on Internet and purchased 5 litres and another bottle of Zalman anti-corrosion coolant additive.

So, two months ago, I emptied the Reserator, removed the water block and pipe work and reverse flushed it out. During this process, I noticed that there were some small particles of blue ‘bits’ about the size of sugar crystals but didn’t take much notice or concern because of the cleaning.

Reinstalled the water block and filling with zm-G300/distilled water mix and all was well.

Yesterday, 15th May, the alarm went off permanently. I noticed that there was no liquid flow, indicating pump failure or blockage.

I disconnected the pipes from the CPU water block. I then connected the Reserator outlet & inlet pipes together. Powering the Reserator via an external 12v supply, full coolant flow was observed. Therefore, the blockage was most likely to be in the CPU water block.



I carefully removed the water block from the CPU. Cleaned off the thermal compound and stuck insulating tape underneath so as to protect the heat plane from scratching etc. I peeled off the warning notice: ‘Removing this sticker will void the warrantee’. Using the correct size allen key, I took it apart.

Caution: do not dismantle your water block unless you are prepared to write it off and have to buy another or be prepared to invalidate warrantee!

Extreme care must be taken when dismantling and handling the parts. There is a water seal ring that must not be touched. Likewise the sealing surface on the mating part must not get scratched.

What I discovered was astounding. The flow chamber matrix was blocked with a hard deposit or growth of some sort of crystalline material.




The blockage was in the centre of the matrix, coinciding with the inlet pipe. It was mechanically removed with a small probe tool and then immersed in a jar of vinegar (acetic acid) to help dissolve any alkaline deposits such as calcium. It was then scrubbed thoroughly with an old tooth brush, rinsed and put to one side to dry.

The top section of the water block had massive growths of the same crystalline material in and around the inlet and outlet pipes. The majority being on the inlet pipe aperture.



There also appeared to be some sort of blistering around the inlet/outlet aperture. I discovered that the internal surfaces of the water block are coated with a very thin layer of a plastic material. This had lifted and allowed coolant to ingress under it.



Side view showing the growth of crystalline material.


Close up



Removing the deposit/growth required a sharp knife to ‘slice’ away the stuff. It took some 30 minutes and another session with vinegar to remove nine tenths of it.



This is just a small amount of the dried out material removed from the top chamber of the water block. Crushing a small amount was very similar to crushing sugar crystals.



This shows the etching of the metal where the crystals were growing. The outline of the displaced plastic coating can be seen. (The oops is a scratch caused by careless handling of the removal knife!)

Eventually it seemed clean enough to re assemble. I offered a prayer that It would not leak all over a £600 CPU!

On reinstalling, everything appears fine – full flow is restored! (& my CPU remains dry!)

Conclusion.

I am now convinced that the earlier alarms were caused by restricted coolant flow. I am not sure of the cause of this problem. Two possibilities come to mind:

1) Using de-ionised water may be the culprit. Although I have been assured that it should not cause corrosion by an industrial chemist who specialised in de-ionised water. Because of my experience and unless it is proven otherwise, I do not recommend the use of de-ionised water.

2) I have a faulty water block that allowed coolant to make contact with the internal metal. I don’t favour this option.

Unanswered questions:

*The Anti-corrosion additive did not do its job! Why?

* What is the crystaline material - a precipitate? A chemical reaction with anti-corrosion liquid & de-ionised water?

I shall be forwarding these findings and photographs to Zalman and will report back their comments.

[all photographs copyright DonaldG

dai

i just use distilled off the supermarket shelf with car radiator inhibitor and have had no problems so far with it

i would think the a/corrosion liquid would be the first suspect

DonaldG

Unfortunately Dai, no where in town sells true distilled water - when you ask for it in all the places one would expect, they say yes, we have it & then offer a de-ionised water - they just don't know the difference.

The only distilled water available in the supermarket has so many additives, perfumes, along with benzines, alcohol and a raft of other chemical stuff. I looked at several brands.. all had additives that I am not happy to try.

Anyway, I now have distilled water so that part of the equation is taken care of.

I have just spent a social evening with a retired industrial chemist friend. He thinks it may have been a reaction between the anti-corrosion liquid and the de-ionised stuff. He tried to educate me with the details that de-ionised stuff has the calcium removed and sodium takes its place...

whatever, I have emailed the content of my posting above to Zalman in Korea asking for their comments. If & when they reply, I will update the thread.

dai

my brother was here
he went back to the uk a couple of weeks ago
he is also a industrial chemist he had a chemical works in coventry pity it did not come up while he was here
it's not what you expect to happen with a high end piece of equipment

DonaldG

Thats how it goes!

Absolutely! However, in fairness, I did deviate from their mixing instructions using de-ionised rather than distilled because of said difficulty in procuring..

Chemically, it may be OK to use de-ionised but something is dramatically wrong.

I cannot, for one moment, think that the Zalman Reserator XT is a bad piece of kit. It has been out long enough for any shakedown faults or errors to have been sorted (& reported on the 'net)

It is beautifully engineered. I did lift the lid and peeked inside. There are two integral heat exchangers. The main body is machined & anodised aluminium which also has coolant pathways machined into it so that the whole body acts like a heat sink. The internal reservoir is large and the built in electronics control looks like a very high standard PCB & components.

The water block is likewise beautifully engineered.

My only criticism is the single alarm. It is certainly attention getting, beeping and flashing on/off all the indicator LEDs. But it is the same alarm irrespective of what triggered it. It is triggered on: Low coolant level, low or no flow rate and coolant temperature.

It would be nice to have some indication as which of the three points triggers it...

Even with the problems I am having, I still like it & would recommend it to anyone with the caution re de-ionised water.

DonaldG

So far I have had 2 emails back from Zalman - both saying that they are refering my email to the appropriate department. I live in hopes.

dai

well at least they have not put it in the no answer basket

DonaldG

Further Sitrep
I have not heard back from Zalman as yet... Do I expect to? I live in hopes.

In the meanwhile, after only TWO MONTHS, I am getting the same alarms - there is no coolant flow when on automatic flow but works on manual flow. This is exactly the same symptom as before. It is my belief that the water block is becoming clogged with the 'growth' again. I shall have to strip it down again to investigate.

I have just telephoned Overclockers UK, where I purchased the unit from back in October 2008. They were most UN-HELPFUL saying that I "...had invalidated the whole system warranty because I used the wrong water" (Is deionised water the wrong water? I have been assured by the QA Manager of a pharmaceutical supplier to hospitals & pharmacies that the de-ionised water will have no adverse effect on the anti-corrosion fluid and/or the system.)

I was not trying to get a repair or replacement under warranty, although it would be nice, I just wanted to get to the root cause of the problem - They told me that they do not deal directly with Zalman but get the kit from 'QuietPC' - Overclockers will take my machine and send it to QuietPC if I pay for the 'repair'...

I explained that all I want is to speak with someone who is technically oriented so that I can sort the problem out and warn/advise our members what went wrong. The guy I talked to claimed that he did not have contact information for QuietPC.

When I asked to talk to a manager at Overclockers, I was told that he does not speak to customers, I must email....

I am very disenchanted with the lack of help and co-operation I have got from Overclockers UK

Keep tuned for the next episode....

DonaldG

Further sitrep:

I have just had tremendous help from QuietPC (UK) - their telephone number is on their Home page.

After some discussion on the subject, they are going to contact Zalman direct on my behalf and see if they can help in resolving the cause of the problems.

QuietPC's Tech support have a theory as to the cause which is in line with my thoughts but as it is only a theory, I don't want to suggest yet it in case we are wrong! Best wait for confirmation from Zalman....

I would like to mention the help cooperation from QuietPC is great customer service. It was a pleasure to speak with someone who took an interest in this problem. Thanks 'A'

DonaldG

Further update
First of all, please note that the Zalman Anti corrosion liquid is a deep blue colour.

On 15th May 09, I stripped and cleaned the Zalman waterblock – It was clogged as reported and photographed in the posting #1 above. I cleaned the unit and refilled it with fresh Zalman Anti-corrosion/distilled water as per Zalman’s instruction sheet. All went well for a while.

On July 1st, the flow alarm went off again, only 1½ months later. Unfortunately due to pressure of work and a constant stream of overseas visitors, I was unable to address the problem until a few days ago. What I found was horrific.

Firstly, I disconnected the pipes leading to & from the water block and connected the outlet of the Reserator to the inlet to check the flow. Sure enough, it was OK.


However, I immediately noticed that the colour of the coolant was clear – not blue at all!


But the pipes had little lumps of something inside them.


The clear transparent pipes leading to & from the water block were coloured blue, making me believe it was the colour of the coolant. I soon discovered that the pipes had a coating of ‘blue residue’ in them and that the coolant was a clear, colourless liquid.


I drew up coolant mixture from the reservoir and that was a clear colourless liquid too. It seemed as if the colorant in the Zalman anti corrosion fluid had precipitated out.

I was convinced that the water block was clogged up again and needed to be removed, dismantled & cleaned out.


The inside of the heat plane showing the clogging matter




The growth of matter in the top of the water block. The aperture on the right is the inlet to the water block.

I was now very concerned as to what growths/crystallization was in the main unit; pump, radiators (2), internal pipes etc.


I shone a torch through the filling hole and could see contamination around an aperture within. It appears that my suspicion of internal problems was correct.


I removed the top plate carefully to reveal the reservoir.


I immediately noticed growths of stuff around the inlet/outlet pipes. There were further growths of matter in patches on the various surfaces of the reservoir.

It was also apparent that just draining the liquid via by removing the pipe work leading to/from the main unit was not enough. Note the liquid level at the bottom of the outlet pipe.


I used a large syringe to suck out all the coolant. I discovered that the reservoir had a trough either side. I presume they are designed to catch any solid matter.
After drying out the reservoir I tried to wipe away the growths of matter. They had the consistency of crystalised sugar and wipes away relatively easy.


However when the material was removed, the metal surface showed considerable erosion as if the aluminium had oxidised (rusted away). The 'oxides' were white in colour which is consistant with alluminium oxide. This erosion was apparent in several places throughout the reservoir container.




The surface of the reservoir is anodised but has some rough areas.

I cleaned the ‘oxides’ away as best I could. The unit needed a very thorough flushing out. The only efficient way was to fill the tank with plain water and run the system on manual mode, with maximum pump flow for 10 minutes. The water was replaced several times. I then did the same, flushing out with clinical ‘Pure’ water, changing it several times. Then finally, I did the same with distilled water letting the various changes pump through the system for 10 – 15 minutes each. This process took several hours & could not be rushed. Perhaps it is an overkill but I wanted to make sure that all traces of the old stuff was gone as far as I could achieve. I could not address the perceived issued with possible oxidisation in the pump & radiators.


I had been given a second hand water block


This is what mine should have looked like!

I put on the second hand water block and replaced all the old pipe work to/from it.

For the time being, I have replaced the coolant with ‘Feser One’ which is ready mixed. It claims to “…Protect copper, aluminium, brass & nickel”.

As the Zalman mixture I had quite plainly did not protect the system, I felt it was wise to change until I have the root cause of the problem resolved. I am a believer of using the maker’s recommendation but in this case….


A close up of the clogged pins within the water block. I am not sure of the metal that the heat plane of the water block is but it is not the same as the top. It cleaned up perfectly with a stiff tooth brush and showed no signs of damage/corrosion etc.


The top of the water block appears to be made from stainless steel. The whole unit appears to be beautifully engineered. However after cleaning out all the growth, I noticed much pitting and erosion on the surface of where the plastic coating had lifted and been removed (See my earlier posting). The stainless steel pipe ends show severe erosion too.


A close up of the erosion pitting. This pitting was not evident 1½ months ago.

The whole unit was brand new only 10 months ago. I would expect a product if this quality to last a lot longer!

I am still waiting a comment from Zalman. I shall post an update as and when a reply comes back from them.

dai

great when their own fluid cause all that rubbish

for flushing out i put a desert spoon of kerosene in the water and circulate it for a few hours
then flush it with clean water

then refill

DonaldG

I have my opinions on that too Dai, but in fairness to Zalman, I am happy to reserve them until I get a statement from them.

It is a beautifully engineered piece of kit. Now I have seen inside, I am very impressed with the design. I think that I may have got a 'bad copy' - perhaps some form of electrolyses between the aluminium of the reservoir and the stainless steel of the water block - I just don't know.

I cannot believe that it is a bad design - there are too many out there & Zalman do have a good name. If this had been a problem, the forums would be buzzing...

DonaldG

Hi folks - I would appreciate posting kept on topic (IE: sitrep on Zalman Reserator)
Many thanks.

Dblanchard1278

I too would assume the coolant is at fault from the evidence I have seen. The seperation of the coolant and the crystals that clog up the heat sink and tubes. IMHO don't sell some thing if people are going to have trouble getting things to use it(like the distilled water)

ebackhus

Distilled water can be purchased at virtually any grocery store. I'm also pretty sure you can make it yourself.

Some of what I see in there looks like it gelled a bit, especially on the block.

Phædrus2401

From the OP he said he can only get de-ionized water where he lives, which is better than tap water but far from ideal.

DonaldG

- I did manage to get distilled water on line. -

Without a proper still, home brew distilled water is a no-no. Apart from anything else, doing it in the kitchen, there is a sever risk of organic contamination. It also takes a lot of power & time with little return. (I tried to distill it myself)

Epirb

Hi all,

I am new here, Google brought me along and I joined specifically to post on this thread.

I recently got my first water cooling system, a reserator 1 Mk II. I fitted it into a mega 865 SFF HTPC (Of all places and bizarre projects to start on)

I was so impressed that I decided that Zalman, me and cooling have a future. I have a new office PC build coming up so I started looking out on Ebay (UK) for a cheapie.

The Reserator XT came up, one year old and less than half price, I bought it.

When it arrived the unit was filthy, really full of dust, it smelt pretty unpleasant too.

I stripped it down, hoovered and cleaned the unit and dropped the previous owner an email. I was worried that it was actually much older than he had said. It had the look about it of something that had got overloaded, clogged up with dust and then really hot.

The previous owner replied and said that it was dusty but had been no problem and that he had used it as recommended with no problems.

This evening I stripped the heatsink.......



Look familiar?

Really interested to see the results of your investigations. I beleive the problem lies in the OEM coolant additive.

I guess I will have to strip the reervoir and investigate more.

More pics here http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/g...irb/Reserator/

And some of the Mega here: http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg261/epirb/Mega/

Good to meet someone in a similar predicament and who knows maybe we will find the solution!

All the best, Epirb.

DonaldG

Hi Epirb

First of all, a very warm welcome to TSF

When the flow alarm on the XT goes off, I disconnect the pipes from the waterblock and connect the degassing pipe. If the flow rate is normal with just the degassing pipe on, then it is a blockage in one or more water blocks (if you have multiple waterblocks).

I suggest that you make up a spare degassing tube. You can buy spare pipe connectors from QuietPC. Click on the Union Flag for the QuietPC UK site...

Have another look at my photographs showing the Reservoir. You will notice two shallow troughs on either side.. Just draining out the unit from the in/out pipes on the back is not good enough to empty it completely. (It will contain old stale liquid as will the radiators in all probability.)

Take the screws out of the top plate, then remove the screws round the filling aperture & lift the top plate away. Undo 8 screws on the top of the reservoir.

I found that a large syring was very handy at removing the liquid in the troughs.

Edit: Hey - I have just looked at the Mega - Nice looking job - Neat one.

DonaldG

Just a an addendum to the above post, when you dismantle the water blocks for cleaning, be very careful not to damage the very thin plasticised coating. On my waterblock, when I first dismantled it, i noticed that the flow of liquid had actually ingressed under the coating revealing the metal itself. (Stainless steel?)