The air inside is by design. If your AIO splashes when you shake it, it doesn't mean it's faulty. In fact, you can shake a new AIO and it will make splashing noise if you shake hard enough. Water expands when heated, this is the reason why manufacturers don't fill their units to the brim
@@TopherC. because he’s a bit of an idiot. He focuses on water evaporating through material - which, unless you’re running an AIO for 10 years and never opened it, the amount of fluid lost is barely enough to fill a teaspoon. What should be focused on when you’re opening an AIO, is to focus on the pumps fins and how degraded the fluid has become. Overtime, no matter what, corrosion will start to form as the biocides and other additives break down and no longer are effective - so as the fluid quality degrades, cooling performance will also eventually degrade as the buildup increases and gets into the radiator tubes and micro fins on tbe waterblock.
*ALERT* For people attempting to try this: Make sure you dry any spilled liquid in all of the pockets of the cpu block that are outside of the O-ring area!! Anywhere outside of the O-ring area is not sealed and will drip onto your CPU/motherboard! Edit: Also, if you spilled fluid outside of the O-ring area, there is a channel in the block that could lead fluid to the pump electronics. You must dry that area as well.
If u refill the coolant fluid warm 40-50 degree Celsius in your AiO and then seal it in warm condition, u will avoid any issues with fluid expanding in the future. I think this is the secret of manufactured fill of this fluid.
@@mitch5114 Negative pressure? You mean vacuum? Don't squeeze anything. You'll notice the level move as the lines are flexed. No, it won't burst if there's no air. That's a bogus myth. They leave an air pocket for shipping below freezing. Don't believe everything you read on Reddit.
The green water is actually antifreeze. It is used in cars rads to keep the water from creating rust. I'm a trade mechanic and resently starting my PC building hobby. Found this incredibly cool that cars and pcs use the same fluid. It smells like disinfectant.
I just drilled a small hole in the top of my radiator and filled it from the top. I let it run for about an hour on full speed to get rid of air bubbles. I then plugged the hole in the top of the radiator with a rubber plug about 1mm too big for the hole so it was snug. Whenever I need to know if it is low, I pull out the plug and see if it is dry or wet. If the plug is wet, it has enough water in it
Jufes, I just did this and restored my heavily permeated H115i Pro XT, barely more than year old, back to new status, there's no one like you in space in actually helping the consumer, my respects to you, in my case IT DID actually improve performance!! Again, Thank you!!
Really helpful video! I have an old Corsair H100 and inside was actually quite clean but a bit low on fluid. Topped it up with a bit of demineralised water and its running great.
Just drill and tap a plug into the top of the rad. Fill and bleed just like you would a car system. Works great been doing it for years. Also I just use regular dextron car antifreeze. Cheap and works just fine.
thanks for the tutorial, i refilled my old corsair h80i v1 with a bit of distillated water, but when i turn on the pump made a huge splash fountain! the pump is so powerful Its very difficult to get all air out, however it is certainly better now than before. short note: after 11 years that works, the water was good, no big impurities, the only thing is that the seals that tighten the manifolds at the ends are degrading and breaking down, but the manifold turns out good, i reinforced seals with plastic cable ties
Part of using any aio on a system is installing it correctly! MSI has an issue with the micro fins clogging at the cpu block and causing cpu heating problems on the older models where the pump is in the radiator, not sure if they have fixed that issue or not. Aside from that installing the radiator with the hose's at the bottom is the ideal way to install to insure longevity of the cpu pump block and avoid air in the cpu pump block. The pump block (if it is on the cpu) should always be below the hose connectors on the radiator in either case hose's at the bottom or hose's at the top. Never mount the radiator on the bottom of the case below the cpu pump block for an aio unit. Should you have to drain the unit it works better if you can vent the radiator. Otherwise it will create a vacuum and will take longer to drain the unit for flushing. Removing the cold plate alone should work as long as both tubes are clear to provide venting. I've watched a few vids where the guy would just remove the fill screw and then sit there and shake the radiator trying to empty it for 15 or 20 minutes all because there wasn't anyway for the unit to vent properly and the same is true for refilling it.
Nice to see a aio from the inside but i would never ever top off the AIO myself. Basic physics: air will ALWAYSmove to the highest point to as long as the rad is above the pump, air will be trapped inside the rad in the inlet chamber. Water will still be cooled as air wont be trapped in the cooling channnels. The chance of leakage after dismanteling will be WAY higher and does not stand up against some air being trapped in the inlet chamber.
The fluid might be green as there might be an anti corrosive additive included. It might also be a reaction to copper. When copper corrodes it goes green. So that might be the reason. It won't be algae as algae needs sunlight to produce photosynthesis. There is no light inside an aio. I'd say the best way to replace the coolant would be to replace it with coolant for a custom water cooling system you put together or... Maybe some sort of motor vehicle radiator coolant. I've also seen videos of mineral oil used as coolant. But might be a good idea to do some research. Also check the seals. Make sure they aren't cracked. If they are and your using plain distilled water any leak could completely destroy your system. Refill a sealed system at your own risk! Probably better if you have very little money to get an air cooler and ditch the water cooled system. If you just want to repair it and don't care if you f**k up. It's entirely up to you. And if you need to use liquid cooled and don't have the cash to replace... I'm afraid you should really look at selling a couple of items you own and use the money to buy a brand new water cooler. That's my best advice.
You have to leave a small amount of air for liquid expansion. Roughly a tip of a pinkies worth. The liquid can compress the air allowing for expansion when it heats up.
Negative! Liquids cannot compress any air, only air can be compressed and liquids can only be pressurized. I know what you said but, Any air in a pressurized system can only rise to the top of an y system.. bleed that off? and top up? reseal, good 2 go!
@@robinhood1577 as liquids are heated, they expand. this is why water has a different density depending on temperature. as the loop heats up, the liquid will expand. If you have a small amount of air in the loop, the expanding liquid will pressurize that air. If there is no air gap, you will be pressurizing the system and likely have water leaking out of fittings.
@@ShellSide thermal dynamics laws here lol. Plenty of knowledge on closed loop systems involving just water, and other liquids too. As for the system becoming pressurized, I'm guessing Corsair knew what they were doing and choose rubber hoses intentionally to allow for expansion of liquids in the closed space. The cool thing about all of these systems is that even being closed loop, water will still escape. I'm not a professional in the closed loops category but I'm certain Corsair took all this into a account, as during assembly I bet they have margins of safety that allows for both over and underfilled. Part of the reason why the pump should always be one of the lowest points in a closed loop. Doing that ensures that any air well always stay away from the pump. As for filling, what I saw here would seem adequate for a closed loop with rubber hoses. Now in hard lines you should allow for expansion via a tank, without, you risk damage to the system. Also I really doubt this pump is capable of pressurizing the system above 1 atmosphere. It's a volume moving pump, probably a low power low head centrifugal pump (I've never taken a loop apart to look at it so I could be very wrong). I just figure that Corsair wanted simple but working, easy to assemble and easy to refurbish so that the company makes money instead of losing money on simple stuff like an over filled loop pressurizing and causing damage.
I have this exact same AIO in a build from 2013 that is basically my father's youtube/email machine now. He's recently been getting boot failures due to a CPU temp warning and when I took the machine apart and did a deep cleaning to see what was up, I could feel the liquid in the AIO drain when tilting it left to right. Thing feels like 60-70% empty. Guess over the last 9 years the water just permeated through the tubing/block. Ended up ordering him a 212 air cooler, but will give this a try and see if I can get the AIO back in service.
Very useful vid, thank you! :) Wasn't sure whether liquid sound in the radiator is the problem but you made everything I couldn't find on the internet clear
Now my 7 y.o. Corsair h50i's still rocking but without new forms of life inside it XD Used car g12+ antifreeze cooling liquid. It's pretty close to the water cooling liquids but way cheaper in my country
Regarding your comment about performance, you can see a bump for sure. I did not realize that I had an issue until I noticed my CPU was hitting 100 C+ and my system was being laggy. My Be Quiet! after topping it up, my temps are back down into the 50 C (pushes into the 60s under load) and the PC is snappy again. Still not a lot of fluid to add to top it up. In my case, I am not able to install the rad in an optimal orientation which means that very little fluid loss can and will have a big impact. That said, it took the AiO 5 years to get to the point that it did, hopefully I'll get another 5 years out of it.
the green fluid is a proprietary fluid. keeps corrsion from building up. plus dont fill al the way. water expands with heat. they leave a little air on purpose.
one thing you should have mentioned and done is a leak test and to make sure no fluid gets to the electronics chamber. other than that, very informative and good video. thanks
Gravity is your friend here.... You only need enough water to make sure the pump is submerged, as long as the pump is lower than the radiator then the small amount of air will not hurt the pump... I'm not saying to half ass it, but you do NOT need to be this meticulous in trying to get every ML of water to the brim.
Aside from that-thanks for showing how to perform maintenance on a used AIO. Mine is about 5 years old(Corsair) and I was dreading it a bit. I think the biggest issue for long term use would be pump failure, and I'm not sure manufacturer's sell replacement pumps or if that's worth the hassle. Hopefully my pump will last a while 😂🤷
Hey yea as the top comment already says you _shouldn't_ do this. If your loop gets hot because of an extended load the tubes could easily burst from the super added pressure. Now it's fine to add a tiny amount to make sure (if you've been running the loop for 5 years) but tbh you should only use this video more as a guide to check if you think your AIO is failing due to poor coolant. No idea how or if you could rinse and revive a "dead" (clogged) AIO though. Even if you could, instead of spending $20+ on expensive coolant for the Aluminum rad, you should just buy a high end AIO that's all copper.
Some people hashed out the math that the plastic tubes+aluminum heatsink expand more than water does so the pressure wouldn't possibly burst your AIO. Someone did suggest doing this when the water is warm and adding warm water to it to help with that even further. There's no doubt old AIOs lose a LOT of water, the guy who said it at best loses mere teaspoons is out of his mind, you can hear the gurgling and when it gets bad I'd try this myself to be honest... What I would be concerned with would be the water that leaks beyond the gasket, I'd want to account for that somehow.
@@OGPatriot03 I'd like to make the comparison to a bottle of pop but idk how similar they are so I won't. Pretty hard to figure out what you're meaning. Are you saying they expand more than water under heat or they can just expand to compensate for the water pressure? If it's the later the parts that connect the plastic to the aluminum are the worry. A small leak could turn into a small spray of water at an unlucky angle. If it's the former that's either some super basic rough math that works or some stupidly complicated math taking into account how much heat the plastics and aluminum are sapping from the water.
I just watched this as my AOI is about 8 years old... so watched a couple of others... this is the only one that said NO AIR.... All the rest said 2-10% air.... Think I'll go with the majority of 2-10% air though. but nice to see how this was done.
Hey thank you for making this!!! My AIO started to make a crackling sound after some months of use so I guess water just evaporated and air got into the system.
Pulled apart my Corsair h100iv2 and there were actual crystals spewing out of the loop in the coolant. Bunch of build-up in the cold plate. Now I know why it failed lol.
It happens when there are different metals in the loop such as aluminum and copper. Add anti corrosive agents or just some antifreeze (has those in it) with distilled water.
@@magnapeccatrix This. I got thermaltake water 3.0 performer c on jan of 2017. After 4 years around feb 2021 i was getting insane high temps on my 2600k overclocked back then i used insane high voltage im talking about 1,53v The temps reached 90c in fortnite It was summer time. I was like fuck it opened up the case took off the aio. The rad was light as a feather. It had 1 table spoon of liquid inside. I didnt have any premium liquid what i used was premix of antifreeze. Welp it said it has corrosive and bacterial additives cant tell if its just marketing on the label. But im still using the same AIO. Currently with 200ge the temp dont go above 65c overclocked. Also im using 1.38v on this mf
Great video for refurbishing an AIO, I hate how much we throw away as consumers. But now i realize i have about 4 of these in my house I will probably need to fill now D: What about the pump part, any advice on that? Is there any maintenance that can be done to the pump or barrings?
My old radiator has some sponge like white particles on fins at the edge that connects to water container. Its not leaking but cant identify that white substance
Umm, I am no expert here but would removing all the air not increase pressure? You cant compress water but can compress gas, a %age of air/gas is needed to regulate the water as it passes hot to cold stressing seals in the process. A wee bit of air wont hurt ')
I've had my h100 for 10 years, only recently has there been noise and sometimes it takes a while to start, its clear I need to top it up, do you know the size of allen key needed to usncrew them? The smallest key I have is not a tight fit so dont want to damage them.
Don't mix up the screws dude, remember which screw are for which hole to minimize integrity disruptions. Some AIO have screws with different lengths while not providing any visual indication of where each should go.
@@EpicBunty You want a perfectly flat contact surface. If you mix up the screws, that surface might become disrupted (warped). While it may not be visually recognizable, it will affect cooling performance. So, remember which screw goes in which hole, and never mix them up. Because screws maintain the integrity, so I used the word. Sorry for the engineering jargons.
SO HELPFUL, as other commenters have pointed out ill pour a lil fluid out after confirmed no air bubbles to assure room for expansion. My cooler is old and had 4k hrs on it and is gurgling and no longer cooling(like at all) i'll report back my results here.
Hmm not to good.You need to leave little water out for heat expansion.The air helps the fluid pressure around the AIO...ie: car dont fill the radiator bottle to the top they leave a full mark and at least 10 - 20 % space for expansion.. that AIO will die rather fast..
why do you say this? dont you know that the expansion is equal to the amount condensed by the radiating coils? the result is neutrality, no vacuum and no pressure.
I appreciate your knowledge...my cpu was over heating so i started my search to figure out why. My AIO is a little over a year old but it didnt occur to me that maybe it may need coolant or air bubbles causing it not to work correctly. If I can't fix it will end up buying a new AIO or just cpu cooler.
how long do aio coolers last? my current pc is 11 years old now and the fan cooler has been solid I am wanting to build a new one and want it to last 10 years....should i use AIo cooling or go for a heatsink fan?
He's using a PSU detached from the pc. The 24 pin connector is not attached to a motherboard and it has a metal pin in it, in order to create a bridge and make it start when you move the power switch from 0 to 1. Google it to se how it's done.
This was nice informative Video! some good to know stuff! can you confirm later in comment if that was the coolant fluid which we use it for cars? those are generally green but I may be wrong!
I cannot for the bare of my life comprehend why NOT just replace that silly cheap coolant soup with automotive cheap ethylene glycol G40 coolant. It's been used for many many decades in cars and in a system like a funny puny CPU AIO cooler it should last for decades again and is 100% safe against corrosion/sludgeing etc. Glycol has an extremely low evaporation rate compared to pure water. Piss easy!
Most AIOs do have glycol, and given the color that came out of this one, it looks to be a typical water/glycol mix. The reason to use distilled water is the higher heat capacity.
Would be better to use Propylene Glycol as it is safe for humans. PG is not quite as effective as an antifreeze, but we aren't running our PC's in freezing environments anyway. Buy some inhibited PG and you're good to go. In fact, these companies use Propylene Glycol in these loops to begin with.
I have that same model... but it is 8 years old xD...I've never done any kind or maintenance and I already decided to buy a new one, BUT I saw this... so MAYBE... just maybe for the sake of trying this out I can then install it on my wife's computer... what do you recommend? (most likely just throw it away haha)
Just opened mine and barely had 3 table spoons worth of fluid come out, also had some black flecks, Im not sure on the age of mine, but sure its over 5 years. Im ording a new one, but going to fill this one back up just to use until the new one arrives....if it even pumps any more.
Another day I was dedusting my PC and I was moving it around near my ear and I could hear the "water" and I thought "HA! Still good!" So, actually, it's bad...
@Frame Chasers Hello I have 3yo 360mm Asetek Aio and Cpu temp is on constant increase. Pump is working and no noise unless pump block is on top of radiator. Fans blowing cold air and stopping fans not change cpu temp. Stopping pump skyrocket temps. One tube is hot other one is cold. Only inlet tube area is warm on whole radiator. I hear water splash if i shake radiator. What is the problem? To me not enough liquid to circulate or flow is blocked. Thanks.
Your radiator is probably clogged by an air bubble. You can solve the issue in two ways: gently tap the point where the warm water becomes suddenly colder, then keep following the loop and tap where the bubble lands next. Do it for the whole radiator path and stop when you get to the other tube. If you can't feel warm water moving through (your fans will blow hot air when going through a working radiator, so you will just feel hotter air all of a sudden), tap with more force. This is done assuming the radiator is mounted horizontally above the aio pump, so you don't have to worry about the bubble getting to the pump as it's below it. If for some reason tapping doesn't work, and you tried tapping decently hard, try to incline the whole pc (or take out the radiator and incline that only), trying to make the next part of the water path higher than the blockage. Usually a radiator will have a U-shaped water path, so you should repeat the tilting process three times (long end of rad - short end of rad - other long end of rad). You need to be more careful when using this method, as to not let the air bubble get back to the previous rad section when tilting. The rad needs to be running so have your pc on, preferably with a cpu stresstest running so you can feel the hot air more easily. Make sure you didn't unclog half of the rad only: the fan/s will blow air through both the start and end sections of the radiator, so simply having hot air coming through may mean only half of the rad is free of bubbles!
Would it be posible to add a reservoir to it or even a 2nd pumps as a backup? Or would the first pump prevent liquid from flowing pumped by the 2nd pump?
Did it make a noise when it was simply powered up? My old one makes a high pitch whine, but you need your ear actually on it to hear it. Does anyone know what this would mean? I'm about to open it up, just waiting on the tiny triangle screwdriver set. That's a neat trick to get the air bubbles out. BTW I heard on another vid that water expands when it heats up and that you need a tiny amount of air in the loop to account for that expansion or it won't work properly.
Do I need the AIO to be powered on while filling it, cause it doesn't seem the new liquid finds its way into it. I got out all of the old coolant, but I can't get 50ml to move inside easily. That's why I ask, thank you
I need help so I refilled my cooler all the way and put it back together but now it's leaking everything looks perfectly fine any pointers very regretting taking it apart now
So I have a question, so what ur saying is every 2 years I have to dump out the liquid and new buy liquid coolant to put in there?? Ofc unless there is gunk In there before the 2 year mark.
My computer been down for few months bc I couldn’t figure out the plug ins but now I think I’ve got it and when I initially started it up my liquid cooler made a lot of water swooshing noise but doesn’t anymore after few restarts. Is that normal?
Air expands at a much greater rate than liquid, meaning that far greater pressures are at risk, in this sealed CPU cooler system, the more air is in it. Many of these guys are believing that the cooler manufacturers are leaving air inside the coolers on purpose, due to the fact that liquid expands. This logic doesn't make sense if the goal was to mitigate expansion in the sealed system. Could it be that the manufacturers find it difficult to fill these coolers "to the brim", and that's why you can hear the air bubbles inside when you shake them?
i have a corsair aio.i think its a i80.its been running since 2013. it never gets hot so i havent done anything to it. there has to be some coolant loss but i dont want to open it.
Someone said that the plastic expansion ratio is the same as the water, so I'm not sure that would be an issue. + you're not going to keep all the air out when you close it back up, there's your drop of air.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Mamushi (Remix) [feat. TWICE] [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5c0_u9PsrsQ/mqdefault.jpg)
8:04 sounds like fapping
LMAOO
Specially when he says "Look at that !" lmao ! The subtitle should say for that noise: "fapping noise..."
“Look at all those bubbles cumin out”. So appropriate 🤣
I've reserved a special place in hell for everyone in this thread.
disclaimer: J/K I love you guys 😅
@@PutsOnSneakers Okay now THAT was funny!
The air inside is by design. If your AIO splashes when you shake it, it doesn't mean it's faulty. In fact, you can shake a new AIO and it will make splashing noise if you shake hard enough. Water expands when heated, this is the reason why manufacturers don't fill their units to the brim
Exactly the same reason there is an expansion tank on your vehicle.
@@robinhood1577 Just that I was thinking. You beat me on the finish line :)
Why isn't this pinned as the top comment. One of the tubes or seals will fail.
@@TopherC. because he’s a bit of an idiot. He focuses on water evaporating through material - which, unless you’re running an AIO for 10 years and never opened it, the amount of fluid lost is barely enough to fill a teaspoon.
What should be focused on when you’re opening an AIO, is to focus on the pumps fins and how degraded the fluid has become.
Overtime, no matter what, corrosion will start to form as the biocides and other additives break down and no longer are effective - so as the fluid quality degrades, cooling performance will also eventually degrade as the buildup increases and gets into the radiator tubes and micro fins on tbe waterblock.
Mine had so little water left in it, there was barely enough to make it up to the radiator.
*ALERT* For people attempting to try this: Make sure you dry any spilled liquid in all of the pockets of the cpu block that are outside of the O-ring area!! Anywhere outside of the O-ring area is not sealed and will drip onto your CPU/motherboard!
Edit: Also, if you spilled fluid outside of the O-ring area, there is a channel in the block that could lead fluid to the pump electronics. You must dry that area as well.
This is why you turn the pump after filling, and certainly Outside of your PC casing before you place the block onto the CPU.
I always recommend leaving to dry under a fan overnight.
If u refill the coolant fluid warm 40-50 degree Celsius in your AiO and then seal it in warm condition, u will avoid any issues with fluid expanding in the future. I think this is the secret of manufactured fill of this fluid.
this is genius I was wondering if anyone tried to create negative pressure before sealing. I was thinking squeeze the lines lol but urs is better
@@mitch5114 Negative pressure? You mean vacuum? Don't squeeze anything. You'll notice the level move as the lines are flexed. No, it won't burst if there's no air. That's a bogus myth. They leave an air pocket for shipping below freezing. Don't believe everything you read on Reddit.
@@VndNvwYvvSvv sure man a vacuum... sorry... I did what they said and it worked
@@VndNvwYvvSvv were you trying to be helpful or sound smart?
The green water is actually antifreeze. It is used in cars rads to keep the water from creating rust. I'm a trade mechanic and resently starting my PC building hobby. Found this incredibly cool that cars and pcs use the same fluid. It smells like disinfectant.
The idea of water cooling the pc is taken from the car world too
Antifreeze? Is a PC in danger of freezing? It will be a corrosion inhibitor with biocide to prevent bacterial growth.
@@jamescarter1088 Propylene glycol + water mixture in an AIO is very similar to antifreeze
It's naturally clear.
I think so too
I just drilled a small hole in the top of my radiator and filled it from the top. I let it run for about an hour on full speed to get rid of air bubbles. I then plugged the hole in the top of the radiator with a rubber plug about 1mm too big for the hole so it was snug. Whenever I need to know if it is low, I pull out the plug and see if it is dry or wet. If the plug is wet, it has enough water in it
interesting. I hope that plug is facing toward the outside top so if the plug ever comes loose it will not Spew water on your MoBO
Jufes, I just did this and restored my heavily permeated H115i Pro XT, barely more than year old, back to new status, there's no one like you in space in actually helping the consumer, my respects to you, in my case IT DID actually improve performance!! Again, Thank you!!
Yes I am going to try it soon
Really helpful video!
I have an old Corsair H100 and inside was actually quite clean but a bit low on fluid. Topped it up with a bit of demineralised water and its running great.
Just drill and tap a plug into the top of the rad. Fill and bleed just like you would a car system. Works great been doing it for years. Also I just use regular dextron car antifreeze. Cheap and works just fine.
Do you mix distilled water or just straight antifreeze?
my started to overheat and as I took the cooler out I noticed lots of dust and sounds of low water. Thank You, very helpful!
thanks for the tutorial, i refilled my old corsair h80i v1 with a bit of distillated water, but when i turn on the pump made a huge splash fountain! the pump is so powerful
Its very difficult to get all air out, however it is certainly better now than before.
short note: after 11 years that works, the water was good, no big impurities, the only thing is that the seals that tighten the manifolds at the ends are degrading and breaking down, but the manifold turns out good, i reinforced seals with plastic cable ties
My Corsair aio has been going since 2013. No problems. Never fucked with it.
Hey guys if you see this video please consider subbing and helping me get to that magical 1000 sub milestone, the hardest part is always the start
If I were to attempt this I'd use a vise to hold the pump as level as I could and a syringe to add and remove water.
This was actually very helpful! thank you so much for making the video!
Part of using any aio on a system is installing it correctly! MSI has an issue with the micro fins clogging at the cpu block and causing cpu heating problems on the older models where the pump is in the radiator, not sure if they have fixed that issue or not. Aside from that installing the radiator with the hose's at the bottom is the ideal way to install to insure longevity of the cpu pump block and avoid air in the cpu pump block. The pump block (if it is on the cpu) should always be below the hose connectors on the radiator in either case hose's at the bottom or hose's at the top. Never mount the radiator on the bottom of the case below the cpu pump block for an aio unit. Should you have to drain the unit it works better if you can vent the radiator. Otherwise it will create a vacuum and will take longer to drain the unit for flushing. Removing the cold plate alone should work as long as both tubes are clear to provide venting. I've watched a few vids where the guy would just remove the fill screw and then sit there and shake the radiator trying to empty it for 15 or 20 minutes all because there wasn't anyway for the unit to vent properly and the same is true for refilling it.
I have Corsair H90 for 10 years now without any maintenance. Will do it soon when I upgrade CPU and Motherboard.
Nice to see a aio from the inside but i would never ever top off the AIO myself. Basic physics: air will ALWAYSmove to the highest point to as long as the rad is above the pump, air will be trapped inside the rad in the inlet chamber. Water will still be cooled as air wont be trapped in the cooling channnels. The chance of leakage after dismanteling will be WAY higher and does not stand up against some air being trapped in the inlet chamber.
The fluid might be green as there might be an anti corrosive additive included. It might also be a reaction to copper. When copper corrodes it goes green. So that might be the reason. It won't be algae as algae needs sunlight to produce photosynthesis. There is no light inside an aio. I'd say the best way to replace the coolant would be to replace it with coolant for a custom water cooling system you put together or... Maybe some sort of motor vehicle radiator coolant. I've also seen videos of mineral oil used as coolant. But might be a good idea to do some research. Also check the seals. Make sure they aren't cracked. If they are and your using plain distilled water any leak could completely destroy your system. Refill a sealed system at your own risk! Probably better if you have very little money to get an air cooler and ditch the water cooled system. If you just want to repair it and don't care if you f**k up. It's entirely up to you. And if you need to use liquid cooled and don't have the cash to replace... I'm afraid you should really look at selling a couple of items you own and use the money to buy a brand new water cooler. That's my best advice.
Absolutely Banging! I did the same thing with my car radiator! 5/5 I am glad to see content that steers new people with water PC cooling! :D
Practically all AIO have an aluminium radiator and copper block, so corrosion is an issue and you should not just use distilled water
What should you use if not distilled water?
@@hippopotamus86 Inhibited Propylene Glycol. It's what the CLC makers use. I think they mix it with water, but I am not sure the ratio.
I do believe you are thinking of de-ionized water (bad around metals). Distilled is appropriate.
@@j.petisch deionized or distilled water will leach metallic ions
You’re supposed to use a coolant with anti corrosive properties.
You have to leave a small amount of air for liquid expansion. Roughly a tip of a pinkies worth. The liquid can compress the air allowing for expansion when it heats up.
Negative! Liquids cannot compress any air, only air can be compressed and liquids can only be pressurized. I know what you said but, Any air in a pressurized system can only rise to the top of an y system.. bleed that off? and top up? reseal, good 2 go!
@@robinhood1577 as liquids are heated, they expand. this is why water has a different density depending on temperature. as the loop heats up, the liquid will expand. If you have a small amount of air in the loop, the expanding liquid will pressurize that air. If there is no air gap, you will be pressurizing the system and likely have water leaking out of fittings.
Air isnt compressed by water, air gets dissolved into it
@@ShellSide thermal dynamics laws here lol.
Plenty of knowledge on closed loop systems involving just water, and other liquids too.
As for the system becoming pressurized, I'm guessing Corsair knew what they were doing and choose rubber hoses intentionally to allow for expansion of liquids in the closed space.
The cool thing about all of these systems is that even being closed loop, water will still escape.
I'm not a professional in the closed loops category but I'm certain Corsair took all this into a account, as during assembly I bet they have margins of safety that allows for both over and underfilled. Part of the reason why the pump should always be one of the lowest points in a closed loop. Doing that ensures that any air well always stay away from the pump.
As for filling, what I saw here would seem adequate for a closed loop with rubber hoses. Now in hard lines you should allow for expansion via a tank, without, you risk damage to the system. Also I really doubt this pump is capable of pressurizing the system above 1 atmosphere. It's a volume moving pump, probably a low power low head centrifugal pump (I've never taken a loop apart to look at it so I could be very wrong). I just figure that Corsair wanted simple but working, easy to assemble and easy to refurbish so that the company makes money instead of losing money on simple stuff like an over filled loop pressurizing and causing damage.
Water is incompressible, genius
Water expands when heated, this is the reason why YOU HAVE TO LEAVE A BIT OF AIR INSIDE IT. PROBABLY, AFTER THIS... THIS THING BLEW UP.
I thought it expands when frozen.
Wait, yours blew up ???
all the new experiences and surprises faced in this video, didn't realize this was a learn together vs a how to.
I just got a corsair AIO from a friend, that was having issues. I'll have to try this out. Thank you!
I have this exact same AIO in a build from 2013 that is basically my father's youtube/email machine now. He's recently been getting boot failures due to a CPU temp warning and when I took the machine apart and did a deep cleaning to see what was up, I could feel the liquid in the AIO drain when tilting it left to right. Thing feels like 60-70% empty. Guess over the last 9 years the water just permeated through the tubing/block.
Ended up ordering him a 212 air cooler, but will give this a try and see if I can get the AIO back in service.
Did it work?
U alive bro?
Very useful vid, thank you! :) Wasn't sure whether liquid sound in the radiator is the problem but you made everything I couldn't find on the internet clear
Now my 7 y.o. Corsair h50i's still rocking but without new forms of life inside it XD
Used car g12+ antifreeze cooling liquid. It's pretty close to the water cooling liquids but way cheaper in my country
@@snow4dv what did you use? a coolant of a car do you mean?
@@SutututuuX Yep. Still works great.
@@snow4dv dang, did not expecting someone putting coolant of a car in a AIO cooling system. but they have the same funtions so, might work your way.
Regarding your comment about performance, you can see a bump for sure. I did not realize that I had an issue until I noticed my CPU was hitting 100 C+ and my system was being laggy. My Be Quiet! after topping it up, my temps are back down into the 50 C (pushes into the 60s under load) and the PC is snappy again. Still not a lot of fluid to add to top it up. In my case, I am not able to install the rad in an optimal orientation which means that very little fluid loss can and will have a big impact. That said, it took the AiO 5 years to get to the point that it did, hopefully I'll get another 5 years out of it.
What if it was just the thermal paste
the green fluid is a proprietary fluid. keeps corrsion from building up. plus dont fill al the way. water expands with heat. they leave a little air on purpose.
Drill a hole in the radiator tank and epoxy a bung in place...you now have a easy forever port and don't have to mess with the block.
Do you have a guide on where to do this? I have 0 confidence in doing something like this. Even some pictures would work wonderfully.
a small portable Bench Vice might be useful to hold the Pump. clamp it gently and the heavy Vice will hold it up for you so you still have both Hands.
one thing you should have mentioned and done is a leak test and to make sure no fluid gets to the electronics chamber. other than that, very informative and good video. thanks
Algae requires light to form, thats the normal color of corsaire coolers
I don't even own a AIO Cooler and I enjoyed this lol
definitely gonna do this tomorrow. this was helpful. thx
Gravity is your friend here.... You only need enough water to make sure the pump is submerged, as long as the pump is lower than the radiator then the small amount of air will not hurt the pump...
I'm not saying to half ass it, but you do NOT need to be this meticulous in trying to get every ML of water to the brim.
Aside from that-thanks for showing how to perform maintenance on a used AIO. Mine is about 5 years old(Corsair) and I was dreading it a bit. I think the biggest issue for long term use would be pump failure, and I'm not sure manufacturer's sell replacement pumps or if that's worth the hassle.
Hopefully my pump will last a while 😂🤷
Hey yea as the top comment already says you _shouldn't_ do this. If your loop gets hot because of an extended load the tubes could easily burst from the super added pressure. Now it's fine to add a tiny amount to make sure (if you've been running the loop for 5 years) but tbh you should only use this video more as a guide to check if you think your AIO is failing due to poor coolant.
No idea how or if you could rinse and revive a "dead" (clogged) AIO though. Even if you could, instead of spending $20+ on expensive coolant for the Aluminum rad, you should just buy a high end AIO that's all copper.
Some people hashed out the math that the plastic tubes+aluminum heatsink expand more than water does so the pressure wouldn't possibly burst your AIO. Someone did suggest doing this when the water is warm and adding warm water to it to help with that even further.
There's no doubt old AIOs lose a LOT of water, the guy who said it at best loses mere teaspoons is out of his mind, you can hear the gurgling and when it gets bad I'd try this myself to be honest...
What I would be concerned with would be the water that leaks beyond the gasket, I'd want to account for that somehow.
@@OGPatriot03 I'd like to make the comparison to a bottle of pop but idk how similar they are so I won't.
Pretty hard to figure out what you're meaning. Are you saying they expand more than water under heat or they can just expand to compensate for the water pressure? If it's the later the parts that connect the plastic to the aluminum are the worry. A small leak could turn into a small spray of water at an unlucky angle.
If it's the former that's either some super basic rough math that works or some stupidly complicated math taking into account how much heat the plastics and aluminum are sapping from the water.
Been running a Corsair H150 for 10 yrs now: no permeation, no weird noises, just does its job.
Did u have to refill it
Just took mine off to clean off the caked up dust from the radiator, and now my computer overheats even in the BIOS.
@@DiogenesNephew same here, did you solve it?
@@MrPingui56 I opened it up, and it was completely fucked inside. Super dirty liquid and clogged cooler fins. If yours is old, just replace it.
@@DiogenesNephew thanks mate. You get any specific coolant liquid or just distilled water?
that aio is going to explode once it is heated up... leave some air in it for liquid expansion
I just watched this as my AOI is about 8 years old... so watched a couple of others... this is the only one that said NO AIR.... All the rest said 2-10% air.... Think I'll go with the majority of 2-10% air though. but nice to see how this was done.
@@harag9 So any more info?
Good thing the hoses are rubber and they will simply expand slightly instead.
You're funny, man. Thanks, very useful and clear!
Glad I found this vid. I bought a Lenovo Legion less than a year ago and there's a ticking sound coming from the cooler. Guessing it's air bubbles.
09:59 This gives the entirely wrong impression.
Hey thank you for making this!!! My AIO started to make a crackling sound after some months of use so I guess water just evaporated and air got into the system.
Pulled apart my Corsair h100iv2 and there were actual crystals spewing out of the loop in the coolant. Bunch of build-up in the cold plate. Now I know why it failed lol.
It happens when there are different metals in the loop such as aluminum and copper. Add anti corrosive agents or just some antifreeze (has those in it) with distilled water.
@@magnapeccatrix This. I got thermaltake water 3.0 performer c on jan of 2017. After 4 years around feb 2021 i was getting insane high temps on my 2600k overclocked back then i used insane high voltage im talking about 1,53v The temps reached 90c in fortnite It was summer time. I was like fuck it opened up the case took off the aio. The rad was light as a feather. It had 1 table spoon of liquid inside. I didnt have any premium liquid what i used was premix of antifreeze. Welp it said it has corrosive and bacterial additives cant tell if its just marketing on the label. But im still using the same AIO. Currently with 200ge the temp dont go above 65c overclocked. Also im using 1.38v on this mf
My pump exploded and flew out the window doing this mod :(
Really?
What???
Great video for refurbishing an AIO, I hate how much we throw away as consumers. But now i realize i have about 4 of these in my house I will probably need to fill now D: What about the pump part, any advice on that? Is there any maintenance that can be done to the pump or barrings?
This is the best way to refurbish a perfectly good aio
My old radiator has some sponge like white particles on fins at the edge that connects to water container. Its not leaking but cant identify that white substance
Filling to 100% will cause leaks, heat expansion overpressure, also it's supposed to be propylene glycol not water in those things.
Umm, I am no expert here but would removing all the air not increase pressure? You cant compress water but can compress gas, a %age of air/gas is needed to regulate the water as it passes hot to cold stressing seals in the process. A wee bit of air wont hurt ')
Correct, it needs a tiny air pocket to fluctuate between pressure differentials in fluid\gas temperature dynamics.💯
Distilled Water: 70p
New AIO Cooler: £100
Hmmmm....
I was thinking it was impossible to refill these things but I did not think to just take off the Coldplate
Yes just got my aio re filled it was nasty but after the clean its gonna be good for another 7 years
You should screw from the center out in criss cross btw not from outside in.
I've had my h100 for 10 years, only recently has there been noise and sometimes it takes a while to start, its clear I need to top it up, do you know the size of allen key needed to usncrew them? The smallest key I have is not a tight fit so dont want to damage them.
Top tip, put the radiator on the desk and the pump on a box.
Don't mix up the screws dude, remember which screw are for which hole to minimize integrity disruptions. Some AIO have screws with different lengths while not providing any visual indication of where each should go.
Integrity disruptions?? Lol
@@EpicBunty
You want a perfectly flat contact surface. If you mix up the screws, that surface might become disrupted (warped). While it may not be visually recognizable, it will affect cooling performance. So, remember which screw goes in which hole, and never mix them up.
Because screws maintain the integrity, so I used the word. Sorry for the engineering jargons.
I like how you fill it from the jug instead of a turkey baster like an og aha.
I just cut through the hose, inserted a T-piece and mounted a reservoir on the T-piece.
thinking of doing this to my new x63 nzxt wanted to add a res is it hard
How was the mod?
SO HELPFUL, as other commenters have pointed out ill pour a lil fluid out after confirmed no air bubbles to assure room for expansion. My cooler is old and had 4k hrs on it and is gurgling and no longer cooling(like at all) i'll report back my results here.
So what happened
@@theo3888 it worked a bit. Circulation is better but not as it was new.
@@BBond88 leave room for water expansion
@@BBond88 Probably some corrosion in there. It probably needed a total flush and cleaning. If that doesn't fix it, then the motor must be going bad.
@@Wowzersdude-k5c motor feels good still. I think I’ll be fully flushing it this time around
best guide out there , i hate submerging radiator etc bullshit
Hmm not to good.You need to leave little water out for heat expansion.The air helps the fluid pressure around the AIO...ie: car dont fill the radiator bottle to the top they leave a full mark and at least 10 - 20 % space for expansion.. that AIO will die rather fast..
why do you say this? dont you know that the expansion is equal to the amount condensed by the radiating coils? the result is neutrality, no vacuum and no pressure.
coolermaster likes to use those one way tamper-proof screws.
I appreciate your knowledge...my cpu was over heating so i started my search to figure out why. My AIO is a little over a year old but it didnt occur to me that maybe it may need coolant or air bubbles causing it not to work correctly. If I can't fix it will end up buying a new AIO or just cpu cooler.
I have the "i" version of that model. mine was clean but clear water. interesting it was green fluid in yours.
how long do aio coolers last?
my current pc is 11 years old now and the fan cooler has been solid
I am wanting to build a new one and want it to last 10 years....should i use AIo cooling or go for a heatsink fan?
How to add power to the pump?
I connected my sata cable to my psu and nothing happened.
Sry for this noob queston.
He's using a PSU detached from the pc. The 24 pin connector is not attached to a motherboard and it has a metal pin in it, in order to create a bridge and make it start when you move the power switch from 0 to 1. Google it to se how it's done.
This was nice informative Video! some good to know stuff! can you confirm later in comment if that was the coolant fluid which we use it for cars? those are generally green but I may be wrong!
did you taste it? im thinking of refilling mine.
I cannot for the bare of my life comprehend why NOT just replace that silly cheap coolant soup with automotive cheap ethylene glycol G40 coolant. It's been used for many many decades in cars and in a system like a funny puny CPU AIO cooler it should last for decades again and is 100% safe against corrosion/sludgeing etc. Glycol has an extremely low evaporation rate compared to pure water. Piss easy!
I think people do do this but mostly in custom loops. Probably cheaper to use water and some anti growth chemicals.
Most AIOs do have glycol, and given the color that came out of this one, it looks to be a typical water/glycol mix. The reason to use distilled water is the higher heat capacity.
Would be better to use Propylene Glycol as it is safe for humans. PG is not quite as effective as an antifreeze, but we aren't running our PC's in freezing environments anyway. Buy some inhibited PG and you're good to go. In fact, these companies use Propylene Glycol in these loops to begin with.
@@Wowzersdude-k5c yes
I have that same model... but it is 8 years old xD...I've never done any kind or maintenance and I already decided to buy a new one, BUT I saw this... so MAYBE... just maybe for the sake of trying this out I can then install it on my wife's computer... what do you recommend? (most likely just throw it away haha)
can you refill a NZXT Kraken M22 AIO cooler?
Did you do it ?
Just opened mine and barely had 3 table spoons worth of fluid come out, also had some black flecks, Im not sure on the age of mine, but sure its over 5 years. Im ording a new one, but going to fill this one back up just to use until the new one arrives....if it even pumps any more.
I’m being petty. But all the “uhhhh”s are driving me crazy. But thanks for the info. Still giving a like.
Another day I was dedusting my PC and I was moving it around near my ear and I could hear the "water" and I thought "HA! Still good!" So, actually, it's bad...
I have a corsair h100i AIO that I'm trying to fix and I CANNOT get the screws out of the cold plate and I have no idea how to fix this.
Isnt the little amount of air suppose to help the for the expansion of the liquid, if u have no air and it gets warm it can leak out i think
@Frame Chasers Hello I have 3yo 360mm Asetek Aio and Cpu temp is on constant increase. Pump is working and no noise unless pump block is on top of radiator. Fans blowing cold air and stopping fans not change cpu temp. Stopping pump skyrocket temps. One tube is hot other one is cold. Only inlet tube area is warm on whole radiator. I hear water splash if i shake radiator. What is the problem? To me not enough liquid to circulate or flow is blocked. Thanks.
Your radiator is probably clogged by an air bubble.
You can solve the issue in two ways: gently tap the point where the warm water becomes suddenly colder, then keep following the loop and tap where the bubble lands next. Do it for the whole radiator path and stop when you get to the other tube. If you can't feel warm water moving through (your fans will blow hot air when going through a working radiator, so you will just feel hotter air all of a sudden), tap with more force. This is done assuming the radiator is mounted horizontally above the aio pump, so you don't have to worry about the bubble getting to the pump as it's below it.
If for some reason tapping doesn't work, and you tried tapping decently hard, try to incline the whole pc (or take out the radiator and incline that only), trying to make the next part of the water path higher than the blockage. Usually a radiator will have a U-shaped water path, so you should repeat the tilting process three times (long end of rad - short end of rad - other long end of rad). You need to be more careful when using this method, as to not let the air bubble get back to the previous rad section when tilting.
The rad needs to be running so have your pc on, preferably with a cpu stresstest running so you can feel the hot air more easily.
Make sure you didn't unclog half of the rad only: the fan/s will blow air through both the start and end sections of the radiator, so simply having hot air coming through may mean only half of the rad is free of bubbles!
Well explained man! You still game on twitch?
Would it be posible to add a reservoir to it or even a 2nd pumps as a backup?
Or would the first pump prevent liquid from flowing pumped by the 2nd pump?
Did it make a noise when it was simply powered up? My old one makes a high pitch whine, but you need your ear actually on it to hear it. Does anyone know what this would mean? I'm about to open it up, just waiting on the tiny triangle screwdriver set. That's a neat trick to get the air bubbles out. BTW I heard on another vid that water expands when it heats up and that you need a tiny amount of air in the loop to account for that expansion or it won't work properly.
Correct, the coolant needs a tiny air pocket to fluctuate between pressure differentials in fluid\gas temperature dynamics.💯
Do I need the AIO to be powered on while filling it, cause it doesn't seem the new liquid finds its way into it. I got out all of the old coolant, but I can't get 50ml to move inside easily. That's why I ask, thank you
I need help so I refilled my cooler all the way and put it back together but now it's leaking everything looks perfectly fine any pointers very regretting taking it apart now
So I have a question, so what ur saying is every 2 years I have to dump out the liquid and new buy liquid coolant to put in there?? Ofc unless there is gunk
In there before the 2 year mark.
Very nice demo "THANKS"
I think technique is very good, but I couldn't remove the copper plate from my AIO because the screws have stripped :(
8:01 looks kiiiiiinda weird ;)
LOL I thought about that later, makes good noises too
I activated the subtitle and it says "fapping noise..." lol
My computer been down for few months bc I couldn’t figure out the plug ins but now I think I’ve got it and when I initially started it up my liquid cooler made a lot of water swooshing noise but doesn’t anymore after few restarts. Is that normal?
great , thanks very much helpful
Air expands at a much greater rate than liquid, meaning that far greater pressures are at risk, in this sealed CPU cooler system, the more air is in it. Many of these guys are believing that the cooler manufacturers are leaving air inside the coolers on purpose, due to the fact that liquid expands. This logic doesn't make sense if the goal was to mitigate expansion in the sealed system. Could it be that the manufacturers find it difficult to fill these coolers "to the brim", and that's why you can hear the air bubbles inside when you shake them?
Air is compressible though you noob. Go back to 6th grade science.
Can I use car coolant to refill this thing?
I am thinking on using Liqui Moli coolant
3:25 I can't unscrew those at all, either my allen key wrench are not strong enough or the screws are glued :(
Que liquido debería usar para rellenar este tipo de cooler?
Thanks, helpful!
i have a corsair aio.i think its a i80.its been running since 2013. it never gets hot so i havent done anything to it. there has to be some coolant loss but i dont want to open it.
I have the same thought but i wonder if its a catastrophic failure or if its shutdownable lol
So where is the water expansion suppose to go if it’s full? Are the seals faulty yet?
Someone said that the plastic expansion ratio is the same as the water, so I'm not sure that would be an issue. + you're not going to keep all the air out when you close it back up, there's your drop of air.
Rubber hoses
Any updates on if this is still functioning?
I also wonder now a year later?? How's is running now?????
Got a cooler recently it sloshes like crazy, sounds like air in the pump and reaches 80-95°C is it possible this could fix it?
Did it fix it?
Mine is spewing foam with air bubbles.
Buying a used AIO for 60 bucks is insane🤣