Initial cooling system: flexible hoses moving away from connectors
Initial cooling system: flexible hoses moving away from connectors
Hello everyone, yesterday I finally created my first custom loop. During stress testing, the tubing slipped off the fitting and caused my GPU, PSU, and part of my motherboard to get wet twice. Probably because of increased pressure in the loop, but it seems unusual. Also, when I drained the loop, the tubing began sliding again and eventually detached completely overnight. The parts I used: CPU block (Bykski AMD AM4 CPU-XPR-AM-V2), GPU (AORUS Radeon™ RX 6900 XT XTREME WATERFORCE WB Reservoir), water reservoir (Alphacool Rise Flat), pump (Alphacool D5 VPP755), fittings (EK Water Blocks, EK-STC Classic 13/10mm tube), radiators (Alphacool AlphaTube HF 13/10 white UV, EKWB EK-Quantum Surface S120, EKWB EK-Quantum Surface S240). I'm wondering if I made a mistake or if the fittings/tubing are faulty. Wishing you all a happy holiday!
My initial idea is that the tubing might be too small for the fittings, possibly because it was sent in the incorrect dimension. Even without adding compression rings, the tubing shouldn't come loose easily. I’d like to use calipers to verify the measurements and confirm the correct size.
I made a clean cut, likely with a 0.5mm tolerance at most. The connections seem secure enough, especially the ones on the acrylic components which are a bit snug. Tubes were completely flipped over. Right before the first click I observed them loosening and then reinserted them correctly. Although this is my first experience with loops, I’m familiar with handling water. I use an external filter for my aquarium and haven’t faced any issues like this before. The tubing dimensions match: 13mm outer, 10mm inner. The inner fittings are larger than 10mm, and the cap screw (presumably a compression ring) is 14mm in diameter. I can easily remove the tubing even after tightening everything. I also left the tubes unsecured overnight, just letting them dangle from the radiator until morning. What I noticed was that the tube felt quite sticky when new—was that typical?
It’s strange how these dimensions work together. The screw cap reference points to a single O-ring with compression fittings—a setup that seems unusual. I haven’t purchased Alphacool’s UV reactive tubing before, so it’s conceivable that components for the coating are present, but none of the other tubing I’ve bought (mostly from EKWB, a few from XSPC and generic hardware) has ever felt sticky. If it were, I’d be concerned about contamination in the water loop. My assumption leans toward the tubing itself being the issue. Since it’s also sticky, I wouldn’t feel confident using it. It might be worth checking a local hardware store—they likely carry matching tubing in that size and could be more affordable than online options.