It all started with a bold vision to heat my pool using waste heat from my
server rack at home. In practice, it's less about heating the pool and more
about cooling the computers. But hey, that was fine, too, until one day it
wasn't. I came home to a terrible noise
and water all over the floor, which was caused by corrosion. After cleaning up
the mess, grounding all the systems, and adding this isolation transformer thing
that I'm pretty sure still isn't hooked up properly, we refilled the loop with
some kind of purple BMW fluid. And here
we are a few months later and I've got organic shoo growing in both of the
reservoirs. If that wasn't enough evidence that I had a problem, I cracked
open one of the cooling blocks from one of the systems and the smell was worse
than day four of a land party in the middle of August. There is good news,
though. I didn't find any new corrosion. However, it's clear that there's a lot
of work to be done to get the system back to peak performance. So, here's
what I'm thinking. We pull all of these out of the rack and clean the green
stuff out of the blocks. We find an additive that actually prevents organic
growth, and we come up with a way to filter out all of the gunk that's
already in the loops. Now, and we'll also need a segue to our sponsor,
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Step one is to assemble my team of Avengers and get them started cracking
all of these systems open. They're probably going to need some instructions
though because uh these systems are a little bit on the special side. We'll
check in with these guys in a minute. Step two is to channel me inner
Blackbeard and bury me treasure.
Actually, in all seriousness, I used to keep a silver coil in my water cooling
loop back in the old days because I heard that silver ions were actually
great for unaliving microbes. Now, I was
led to believe that I wouldn't need any silver with this particular coolant, but
either it's not as antimicrobial as we thought, or the concentration isn't high
enough. Either way, I'm hoping this will solve the problem without causing a new
interaction with our coolant because I don't know exactly what's in it. So,
good luck everybody. Now, it's time to have a look at our
filters. Both the inside loop, which goes between this heat exchanger and the
rack of PCs, and the outside loop, which goes between this heat exchanger and the
walls of the pool, have filter canisters plumbed into them. But, uh, only one of
them actually has a filter in it because, I don't know, we intended to
put one in and then we never did. So, what we're going to do is we're going to
put new filters in both of them. I got a five pack of filters. So, the idea being
that I can just throw fresh ones in here to hopefully catch the bulk of the junk
that's been floating around in the loops and then once that happens, I can throw
in new ones for longerterm maintenance.
Oh god. Oh, it smells. >> Just don't breathe.
>> Filters are just rope. Anywh who, the new ones are 10 micron
filters from Lafuy, so they should still
allow a decent flow rate while catching whatever we manage to un alive with our
silver ions. I guess it just goes in like this. >> Just looks like a spool.
>> Yeah. How is this a filter? I don't Yeah, sure. Whatever. This next one's a
little trickier because I think there's more loop to drain into it, but much
less room for buckets. Oh, this one has a valve on it. That's actually way
better. I recommend the Aquaflow 26069
over the other one that I have. That's super handy. This is the one that has no
filter in it whatsoever. Thanks, Jordan. Uh
>> oh, gross. I see you guys got started without me. That's good. There's three
main tasks for each of the systems. One is to drain the systems. Second is to
clean the GPU block. Third is to clean the CPU block. And then also check the
orientation because as it turns out, it's a 50/50 shot whether the water is
going through those blocks in the right direction.
>> All right, >> we labeled them wrong. >> So, this has not been drained yet.
>> I had found that the easiest way to drain them was just to pull the GPU off
and then just open it up over a bucket.
That may not be correct. I see you removed the quick connect fittings at
the back of the system. >> That seems smarter to me, but you know, >> you know what? Sure. [screaming] Ah,
these don't have wrench point spells,
>> do they? >> If you guys want to grab your systems
and then we'll we'll all kind of do the same thing. We'll go through together.
This tubing is a nightmare to get off.
It really bites on there on these fittings. Oh, how did I do this? Okay,
Jordan, new plan. Okay, >> we're just going to open up the block.
>> That's one way to do it. >> Yep. One of the big problems today is all of these systems were built by
different people. After the fact, I went through and I corrected the two to five
errors that were in all of the systems. But there are still differences that are
not down to being necessarily errors, but just philosophically different
judgment. Like this one, for instance, has the GPU velcroed in place, while
this one does not. Everyone get ready for the smell.
Sorry. Ew, [screaming] groy.
It's amazing that these things were still performing. Okay. Oh, ew. Oh,
gross. But this is really good news. As
I saw with the first system that I disassembled, there is no sign
whatsoever of any kind of corrosion in here. It's all just organic.
>> Oh, gross. >> What do you got? >> Check that out. >> Oh my goodness. Yours is even worse.
That is >> That is terrible. >> That is literally disgusting. Yep. >> Cool. Whose system was this?
>> Yep. Oh, this is my youngest daughter's kids always making messes. You know, I'd
like to make it clear if it wasn't already that this is not normal. Maintenance is part of having a water
cooled system. But if you use the proper coolants, you should never have organic
growth or corrosion in your loop. While Jordan buttons up that GPU, let's talk
about what happened with these CPU blocks. See, we thought that the
internals of them were symmetrical. So, when we labeled the inlets and outlets
on both sides, we did them such that they were the same regardless of which
way we put these stainless steel plates on. As it turns out, that is not the
case, which we're about to find out when I crack open this block. Get out.
What is holding it on right now? Oh, it's just the O-ring was tight. Okay,
that is nasty. See, the two inlets are
here and here. They go into here, through the accelerator jet, and then
into the fins. But for whatever reason, we had it labeled as in here and in
here. But this clearly is what gathers
the water that comes out of the jets and comes out here, way over here. It looks
like there's also a more efficient flow
path depending on sort of which way you have it oriented. It looks like this
side would be the more efficient side cuz it comes straight in here and then
comes straight out here instead of being pulled in way over here to come out
here. Okay, that's great to know. spent the last five minutes looking for the
screws to go into the back of this GPU. Okay, Jordan, thank you for spotting
them. Also, curse you for putting them on [laughter] this rag. Jordan's like
beer. >> I was sorting. >> He's the solution to and cause of all of
life's problems. >> Jeez, >> it's a Simpsons quote.
>> No duh. >> Do you need help with that? Okay. Oh jeez. Yeah, I got it.
>> Jeez, Jordan. Oh my god, there's water on the power supply.
>> A little bit. Yeah, >> mostly algae. It's okay. >> How's it going, newbies?
>> So far so good. I haven't broken anything >> that you know. If anyone's wondering,
no, I would not recommend this configuration for your home. I doubt
anyone was asking, but now it's answered.
>> This block is in terrible shape. >> Oh, okay. So, that was a thing. Because
of all of the corrosion and crap that was in them, we actually like took a
razor blade and like scraped off the nickel plate. >> So, you broke it?
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, this is fine. This is fine for performance. This is totally totally fine. With the CPU block clean,
now it's time to put it back together properly this time. Wait, no. Because
before we do this, we've got to actually check your loop order. Remember, I said
that it's a 50/50 shot whether the coolant is flowing through the CPU block
correctly. >> Right. >> Right. Because we either assembled them
this way or this way and we labeled them
randomly. >> Okay. So, let's have a look. In goes to
out. This one's wrong. >> We were close. >> We were close. So, that's bad news
because what that means is that we need to get those tubes off. And these tubes
are a nightmare. >> Yep. Fun time. >> I'm going to go clean my block. Here's
an idea. Why don't we just take all the screws out of here?
>> I've lost my screw for >> No screw for you. >> Oh boy.
>> Don't feel bad. It happens to me all the time. The more of these systems I get
apart, the more sure I am that we don't have any issues with corrosion. None of
the same symptoms from last time. So, whatever it is that we did has clearly
addressed that. This looks great. There is a bit of blue color in some spots
that could be attributed to copper corrosion, but it comes off very easily
with the fingernail, which tells me it's probably just dye from the coolant. Now, it's time to figure out how the heck I
managed to get these tubes off on the one that I did do it on. No, I remember
I used two flatheads. So, I levered this
up and then I held it somehow and then I
got a second one up in there and then I got kind of on it and then got to Ah,
yes. Fuel line hoses recommended,
I guess. I mean, they don't come off. Well, I may have savaged the tube a
little bit, though, so we may end up having to cut them anyway. Uh, but not
much. This is really important. Don't underestimate this. When you're building
a water cooled system, the orientation of the tube as you slide it onto the
barb matters because if you have it twisted one way, then over time it will
apply more pressure to the fitting. If you have it twisted the other way,
[music] then it can apply a loosening pressure to the fitting. So, what we
want to do is we want to run this here and make sure that there is no tension
on it whatsoever.
Okay, I don't think that's going anywhere. Man, I am running out of how
many times I can snip a little bit off of these. >> Yeah, we're getting a little iffy here.
>> Yep. Still good today, though. And that's all I need today. Uh
>> oh. >> How did these ones end up upside down?
Uh guys, on the GPU, make sure you when you put the worm drive clamps back on,
they're right side up. >> Yeah,
>> that's fine. Whatever. It's just as much work to take it out now and fix it and
put it back as it will be next time. So,
that's a future Linus problem. Wait a
minute. >> This was your computer. >> Which one? >> You did this one.
>> I did the GPU. >> Yeah, >> but I didn't I didn't loosen those fittings, though.
>> I don't know what to tell you.
>> Future Linus problem. While we find out if this system is going to leak by
pressurizing it and then waiting to see if the pressure is going to drop, let's
go have a look at another strategy that we're going to be employing for
antimicrobial treatment for the loop. For our microorganism death rays, we
thought about using the ultraviolet or UV lights from that time that Dbrand
made my car glow in the dark. Unfortunately, it turns out these put
out the wrong kind of UV. Uh, it's great for making your t-shirt glow. But UVA,
which is at the upper end of the UV spectrum, is just below the light that
we humans can see. And if we want to actually kill microorganisms, we need to
go deeper past UVB all the way to the
sweet spot at a wavelength of about 253
nmters down in UVC territory. This is
what's going to help us disinfect the coolant by penetrating all the
microorganisms and damaging their DNA and RNA. Also not great for your skin or
eyes, though, so take appropriate precautions if you're following along at
home with your pool to server rack cooling loop. You can buy UVC filters
for aquariums and pools that plum into your loop. But I don't know if my plan
today is going to work at all, and we've already got a ton to do. So, we opted
for these drop-in cleaning systems. Basically, what they do is they have a
little pump built into them. They slurp up coolant, expose it to UVC, and then
just spit it back out into the reservoir. They're even fully enclosed,
so we don't have to worry about any stray UVC doing any damage to the
plastics in our loops. Got a little quick connect thing here. So, we could
maybe feed it through the lid somehow. >> Yeah. Our plan was actually to replace
the lids and just put like a little cover on it cuz this is sort of a
short-term experiment. But maybe I could just jam this in there.
>> It might work. Yeah. >> Here. Let's Let's see. All right. So, I
just chuck it in there, right? >> Yeah, I guess so. >> Okay. >> Good luck, everyone.
>> I mean, whatever. I've been touching this stuff all day. I guess what difference does it make?
>> Not dead yet. >> Yeah. >> Where' that paper towel go?
>> Uh oh. It's up there. Uh there's uh there's some like loose. No, no. Right.
Wait, where'd it go? Oh, here it is. It fell behind me.
>> Oh jeez. Okay. Thought I was crazy. >> No, no, no, no. Well, maybe, but not
from that. >> My thinking is you can just plug this in with your pumps.
>> Yeah, >> this will just stick onto the >> Sure. >> reservoir here. >> Love it. This is quite tight. Let's do
another one. >> What about second one? >> Yeah.
>> Oh, why did I even dry my arm? >> Uh, that was stupid.
>> Because stupid. >> Yeah. Well, it is worth noting that
these are only designed to last for about a year at a time. So, I'm going to
have to set an alarm for myself in a year to um put in new ones. Oh, it
stinks. This is the stinkier one for sure. Well, I'm going to unplug the
pumps for now and then we can turn these on and see if they I don't know, do
anything interesting.
12hour. Do I have to manually run these every time? >> No, you're good. It's 24-hour cycle.
>> Okay, so this will turn on and off every 12 then. That seems reasonable, right? I
don't know. I'm not a scientist. >> We got the filters and we got the
silver. So, theoretically, these are overkill. >> There will never be a problem again.
>> Why would you say that?
>> Let's go see how the systems are doing. >> Oh, I got a leak. >> What? >> Video card.
>> That explains why this fitting was not oriented correctly.
>> Right. >> It [music] got twisted at some point. This might be one of those cases of that
thing I was talking about where there's tension on the tube. Okay, so now it's
going to loosen at this end. A crud. I think what we need to do is we need to
loosen the worm drives on both sides, tighten them both, and then put the worm
drives back on so that the tubing can spin. I can't spin the tube. Oh, yes, I
can. >> Oh, shoot. But I'm spinning it not the way that I wanted. I can't tell if I'm
spinning the tube or the fitting or both. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay, there we go. Now she's
tight. Okay, that's tight. That's tight. That's tight. I think we've got one test
subject ready for [music] subjecting to
tests. Sorry. >> Nice. Where's the screws for the top
here? There are four. There are only supposed to be three. >> There should be three. I only gave you
three screws. Did you invent another screw? >> 1 2 3 4.
>> No, the force wasn't in the same bin. >> Oh, okay. >> That's for this one.
>> Okay. Okay. >> Don't be adding to the thing. >> I'm not trying to add to the thing.
Tempers were running high. It was hour
four of fixing computers. Four.
>> Okay. I'm confident. I'm so confident I'm putting the screws in.
>> Yeah. Yeah. It's not a good idea. >> Actually, this is a cool opportunity to
show you guys a bench that I made for this off camera. Back when we checked
out this external radiator pump system from Bixie, we found that it had a bit
of a fatal flaw. It was darn near impossible to fill. So, what I did to
fix it was I added another fill port.
Okay, there's some pressure in it right now. That's interesting. I added another
fill port so that when you need to top it up, you can just crack the other one
and it will make it easier for the fluid that you're putting in to displace the
air and it will come out and it bleeds super easy. Now, so this is here for
anytime I need to do maintenance on these systems. And uh burp and burp.
Okay, this is going to seem crazy because it is, but I'm just going to
reuse the coolant from earlier. I mean, what we got filtration, we got bioside.
>> Not in this system. You don't. >> What could go wrong? And and
hopefully we didn't break any of these systems today. Hey, there we go. All
right. Beauty. >> All right, we've got everything back in
the rack here. We'll leave it for maybe a week or so. Then we'll come back and
see how the filters are looking.
>> Time to find out if any of that worked. Let's start with the indoor loop. Um,
oh, like before, the indoor loop is clearer than the outdoor loop, but like
before, both of them still have gunk in them. And like before, sometimes Lionus'
ADD brain overlooks things. Jordan. >> Yes, sir. >> The bypasses are on.
>> Well, why'd you do that? >> Because I forgot, Jordan.
>> That was all for nothing, then? >> No, not at all. It just means that we
weren't really actively cleaning the water in the reservoirs. the rest of the
loops are still running through the filters. >> Okay, >> so we're just not getting the kind of
water flow through these that it might take in order to actually clean them.
>> Okay, >> it also means that well the silver ions are probably not circulating to quite
the same degree [music] and the UV cleaning that we're doing is not going
to be very thorough because the water isn't all cycling through the resz.
>> All right, should we check the filters? >> I think we should just check in in
another week. Okay,
>> big moment. Oh, dude. Whoa, dude. She's clear, dude. She's
clear, buddy. Like, there's still some shoo in the bottom. I kind of like wiped
it out a little while ago when I couldn't really see anything, but wow.
>> Is the pump thing still stuck to the side? >> Yep. >> Still in there. So, that stuck better
once I gave it a little wipe down. Now, reservoir number two. Still a couple
little floaties on the surface. I think this one might be more clear, too. Where
are the coins? That's the easiest way to tell how well I can see to the bottom.
How strong is this shelf? Just don't don't worry. Don't Don't worry about it.
I wonder if the concentration of the coolant is just way higher on this one,
though, because it is harder for me to see down to the bottom. Like, the light
doesn't penetrate and and bounce around as much. >> It's a darker blue,
>> but I can definitely see all the way down to the bottom. Nice.
>> 100%. >> We could not do that before. So, >> like there's my coins now to see how
much crap is in the filters. Other than just feeling kind of slimy. It doesn't
seem that full of stuff. Should we replace it anyway? >> Might as well. We got more filters.
>> Okay, let's do it. Like, tell me the difference between this and that. This just looks like it's soggier.
>> Oh, that's interesting. There's [music] a big air bubble. >> Oh, yeah. It'll get stuck there for a
while. >> Give it like a week and it'll be gone cuz the flow rate's not that high.
>> Yeah. For the inside loop, I don't have a valve on it, so I just need to turn
off the pump and then move fast.
>> Okay,
bypass. Wait, >> what just happened? Oh, yeah, right.
[laughter] That explains why the other loop had a little flip out while I did that. Wait,
wait, wait, wait. Glenn, you mentioned you used to change these filters on a
pretty regular basis. Is this clean or dirty? That one looked
middle >> in the middle. >> Quite yellow. >> Yeah. >> So, the outside loop was more gked,
which kind of makes sense cuz it's a much larger loop. So, if it had stuff
growing in it, then it had a lot more growing in it. Okay. Night and day. So,
I just replaced a clean filter and also a dirty one. So, I could maybe even
leave this one on here for a bit, give it like a month, and then maybe do it
one more time. I'm getting better at losing less of my coolant when I do
this. >> Time to declare victory. >> I think so. >> What was the solution?
>> Don't do this at home. >> Well, right, but I just But was it the
filtration, the silver, or the UV? >> Yes.
>> Okay, fair enough. See you later after this segue to our sponsor, Squarespace.
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maybe it'd be fun to go back to the very early concepts. It started with a
drawing on a piece of cardboard and ended up
here. >> It was a simpler time.