Gadgetory

hey what's going on everyone in this video we're gonna talk about galvanic corrosion and the why you see it in certain custom loops but why you don't see it usually in a iOS because if you tend to combine something like an aluminum radiator which we see quite a bit of from company like Thermaltake and then a copper or nickel plated copper CPU block then we've got a problem right but that's what a iOS do and somehow a iOS can get away with that and you don't hear too many horror stories about galvanic corrosion taking place at least in the short term with an AI oh like a course or h 100 i so why are the two different saying is that they're using the exact same metal combos what exactly is galvanic corrosion galvanic corrosion I must infer that word and then what can you do and custom loop to mitigate it should you be worried about kits that include aluminum rads and copper and nickel plated copper blocks because that was the topic that came up quite a bit in my previous video which you can check out right here so we're gonna answer all those questions in this one I'll try to keep it short and sweet not gonna get too scientific but in a nutshell here's what you need to know here's what you really need to know about the difference between copper and aluminum alumina is more reactive it's an active metal in the sense that it will behave like an anode when it's put into a loop with copper which is going to be the cathode and whenever have an anode cathode arrangement the anode will be stripped of its molecules during that galvanic corrosion process so aluminum will react if it's raw pure aluminum with air and it will form aluminum oxide now the same thing happens to copper I mean technically everything oxidizes but the process is much slower and that's why it's just a bit more stable in the long run now people will take this point and say well that's why I shouldn't use aluminum it's cheaper and oxidizes quicker it's just a less noble metal to be using in a custom loop and yeah it's definitely cheaper it's a lot lighter it has a different thermal properties than copper copper is a bit more conductive aluminum lets go of heat a bit more there's an argument there about which is better in the long run for a CPU or GPU cooler but that argument aside what I want you to take away from this is that yes aluminum is slightly more reactive but as its own standalone metal it's not bad to use in a loop what can cause problems is when you combine something like an aluminum radiator with a copper CPU block or I don't know whatever else would be copper in here to a copper graphics card block now a few of you pointed out in our thermal take water cooling kit video that they included an aluminum radiator which I've been using for a long time a lot of people don't like them because they use aluminum rads I'm not the biggest fan of them and for obvious reasons I think it's a cost-saving measure I also think that it does induce problems if you want to take that radiator and throw it into another loop that will use primarily copper or nickel plated copper you're gonna run into problems especially if you're using a coolant designed to mitigate the galvanic effects of using copper in a loop so I think it's just kind of a slippery slope and they're doing it ultimately to save money so yeah I'd like to see the aluminum rads gone for sure that's a one downside of going with a thermal take radiator or just a thermal take kit that will include a radiator like that but you guys went so far as to say well what are they doing here they just sold a kit that has an aluminum rad and then a copper or nickel plated copper CPU block doesn't that mean that their system is going to corrode very quickly right because you shouldn't mix both metals that's that's not how it works and there's an important distinction between having first off bare aluminum and bare copper and a loop right with a water let's say which will act as your electrolyte right that transfers that material from the anode to the cathode that is the process that takes place and it can happen very fast or very slow depending on the different chemical zeebad in the water and that's why the coolant is so important so see 1,000 clear designed by thermal take is supposed to mitigate the galvanic effects of running an aluminum rad with a nickel-plated copper block or a GPU that has a nickel plated copper block integrated inside of that so we're gonna run some tests with this ultimately but what I will say at this point is that yes using this coolant right here will significantly slow down the process of galvanic corrosion versus using let's say distilled water think of anodes and cathodes like pressure differentials right so if aluminum is an active metal and copper is relatively inactive then the aluminum has a higher pressure and the copper has a lower pressure so material is gonna flow from the higher pressure variant to the lower pressure variant that's that flow that's that galvanic corrosion the electrochemical properties of both metals are what are essentially driving that chemical process so and of course you need your medium which is water that electrolyte to transfer those those particles from one metal to the other I'm trying to do this without actually having a script because I want to make sure that I have all these points down and that's why the video is being kind of broken up a bit but in that situation would be fine because you've combined the same metal everywhere and you're using a medium that is not inherently you know reactive and that's water so that's good but if you decided to throw in an aluminum rat instead then you would have a pretty accelerated that form of galvanic corrosion taking place in your loop and you would notice that the aluminum would begin corroding quite a bit and it would probably begin to wear away the surface of the copper because you're stripping the aluminum of its molecules and basically being very abrasive right with that copper surface that the fluid comes into contact with on top of that the introduction of aluminum into the fluid itself can corrode literally corrode or oxidize the copper which is why copper sometimes turns green or in dark brown when it's been running in a loop for a long time untreated that is literally oxidation and corrosion taking place due to the fluid and the chemicals and the additives that shouldn't necessarily be in the water or whatever coolant is being used in the loop now what about a iOS how do all in one liquid coolers for CPUs or graphics cards get away with combining typically aluminum radiators with copper or nickel plated copper CPU blocks because if you think about it like let's look at a deep pool captain 240 X right that's a copper CPU block it might be nickel-plated on the inside it really doesn't matter because nickel and copper are pretty close to each other on the on the reactivity series and you will have a degree of Kelvin and corrosion there regardless of if nickel is reactive on its own or not to the introduction of two metals with an electrolyte is never a good thing so how do they get away with it and it comes back to the coolant again so a is actually use a special anti corrosive coolant it's not gonna be the same it's not gonna be uniform for every AO out there but most of them use like let's say a Sutekh pumps with a certain degree of aluminum and the radiator and the copper or nickel plated copper and the block are going to have a special coolant that prevents for a certain degree of time any substantial degree of galvanic corrosion typically what'll happen with a IO first is either the pump will fail or you'll have a leak in the system either near the radiator connection with the tubing or the CPU blocks connection with the tubing the block itself won't leak unless it's using some very cheap plastic housing and it just snaps under pressure and the radiator won't leak either in most cases because it's solid metal the manufacturers of these products know this and that's why the warranties usually extend to the point where they expect a d5 pump to fail it's around four or five years or so that's when you get a really good a IO and you have no other issues apart from that now galvanic corrosion might play a small role in allowing the pump to fail again you'd be certain you know circulating aluminum particles throughout the loop over and over and over again those channels get clogged up you have a lot of back pressure the pump could fail right but galvanic corrosion again it does not it does not happen anywhere near the degree you guys probably think it does in an IO because of those anti corrosive additives which are very effective in a small closed system so why they do manufacturers use nickel plating over copper cpu blocks let's say or graphics card blocks you know even if they aren't using aluminum rad that's how you know that it's not because of the anti corrosive properties of nickel because nickel and copper are actually very similar they will both act as cathode so when you introduce aluminum into a closed loop with an electrolyte like water this was something for the longest time I did not know I honestly believe that nickel plating prevented galvanic corrosion but in truth and nickel and copper very similar in terms of how they behave is cathodes when aluminum again is introduced in the loop so yeah interesting something I learned throughout this process and what it ultimately comes back to is the coolant use the coolant additives are supposed to mitigate the effects the long-term effects of galvanic corrosion now those additives might wear off over time and that might be the extent to which an AIO warranty let's say it lasts but what you really should be concerned about is a type of fluid that you're adding into a loop that might mix aluminum radiators with copper or nickel plated copper blocks we've seen horror stories of you know galvanic corrosion taking place in custom loops we all know what it looks like we don't want it and that's why a lot of people tend to be very weary of aluminum radiators I don't blame you look if that's the reason why you don't buy a thermal take kit I'm not trying to sell you on these and then so be it I understand why I've worked with both aluminum and copper rads and I understand that copper is definitely a better radiator type to use because most of the CPU and GPU blocks out there are nickel plated or bare copper blocks so in terms of compatibility yeah copper is better but in terms of the material used in general it's not aluminum's fault it's just the fact that companies tend to want to combine both because aluminum when it comes to a radiator is fairly cheap you know a aluminum radiator and compared to a copper radiator there's a huge difference in terms of how much each weighs and aluminum is much cheaper in general than copper so yeah it's a cost IV measure and I think that ultimately what it comes back to but you shouldn't just you know cry red flag when you see these two things combined especially in a kit look if Thermaltake knew that galvanic corrosion is going to take place in our rather accelerated scale they wouldn't bother combining these difference of tests this is why they recommend c1000 coolant and that's why it's included in the kit because it is supposed to mitigate to a very substantial extent to galvanic corrosion that would otherwise take place so you can take that with a grain of salt you can take it if a value I really don't care but just know that a iOS do it all the time they literally all the time and this isn't the exact same fluid the exact same coin that you'll find in a i/o but it's very similar it has similar properties and its ultimate goal is again to allow heat transfer right that's the purpose of getting heat from the CPU block to the radiators and water has in general very high heat capacity so it's a great fluid for that but it's also to mitigate those effects of galvanic corrosion that would otherwise take place if you just had a bare copper or nickel plated copper in a closed system with bare aluminum and water as an electrolyte so hope you guys enjoy this video I'm sorry that was a little scattered but this was something I was just reading about recently a lot of you brought up this issue and I felt like making a dedicated video regarding this topic because you see it all the time right you see with a iOS and if you've ever wondered how an AI Oh gets away with it it's the fluid it's the the anti corrosive properties in the fluid that prevent to galvanic corrosion from taking place on a long term scale and in general when you see a kit like thermal take like thermal takes em 360 plus it we reviewed combined and aluminum rad with a nickel plated copper CPU block be sure to use the fluid that they include in the kit there's a reason why it's there they tell you to only use this for their kits and the reason why is because if you don't if you use something from primo chill or Mayhem's or what have you then you are nine times out of ten maybe even nine point nine nine nine times out of ten gonna have issues with build up with gunk in your loop because of the two different metals being combined in the same closed system I me know what you think in the comments down below this video a thumbs up whew that was cool thumbs down for the opposite or if you hate everything about life click that red subscribe button if you haven't already you can sponsor if you want get more fancy with it get special badges and icons and chat boxes and comment sections down below join our local discord it's free to do it's kind of tag-teamed by brian at ikea city and us here at science studio and we'll see you in the next video this is science to do thanks for learning with us