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I have recently installed a flow NEXT sensor in my loop, and flushed and refilled with new Cryofuel Clear coolant. Initial reading was 125 us/cm. In the days after that, my readings have varied from 105us/cm to 180us/cm, but mostly staying around 125-130us/cm. What could be the cause for such a variance in the readings? Water temps stay between 21C and 34C.maybe a confusion with the units:EK officially advertises a conductivy of their Cryofuel coolants to be 1,04 ±10% mS/cm
1 mS/cm (millisiemens/centimeter) == 1000 µS/cm (mikrosiemens/cm) : this is the same like water in a river. Drinking water have a conductivity from 300 to 800 µS/cm
when they mean
1 mS/cm (microsiemens/cm) == 1 µS/cm i cant belive this, because a fresh bottle destilled water from the Supermarket has a conductivity from 2...5 µS/cm, when you add some corrosion protection the conductivity is rising.
1 µS/cm == 100 µS/m (centimeter to meter)
The problem is that if the conductivity of the cooling medium is too high, something corrodes at some point in the loop.
Due to inductive coupling and different metals in the loop, a voltage is created in the water loop. The higher the conductivity, the faster (because the current is greater) the corrosion will be.
The Next sensor can measure higher conductivys but the accurycy is lower.
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Technical data:
Color: Clear (transparent)
Content: 1000 mL
Electrical Conductivity (mS/cm): 1,04 ±10%
UV Reactive: No
Neutral pH: 6 - 8
Decomposition temperature: >65°C (>150°F)*
Recommended use temperature range: 5- to 60°C (40- to 140°F)
This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "Hopper64" (Feb 13th 2021, 1:29am)
Ask EK, 1000µS is the same water quality as a river or a lake. this is far away from any that you can use in a water cooling loop.Which I believe converts to 1.040,000 µS/cm ±10%.
Yet the high flow next reads 73,000 µS/cm.
Is my math fail?
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The average conductivity of EK-CryoFuel Clear Premix is 2.33 mS / cm2 or 2330 µS / cm2. Conductivity is measured during production and when charged with a certified and calibrated conductivity meter, at 20 ° C. The high conductivity is due to the corrosion inhibitor (confirmed by tests). The inhibitor is located in the liquid and upon contact with the reactive metal (copper, aluminum, iron) forms a protective layer and thus prevents corrosion, while being consumed. The more inhibitor is consumed, the lower the conductivity of the fluid.
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As far as I was able to deduce from the e-mail below (my e-mail), the Aqua Computer High Flow NEXT sensor is used to measure the conductivity of distilled water. As a result, it is calibrated to a lower value. On the website, the manufacturer (AquaComputer) states that the reading reads between 2 and 200 µS. Given that the EK-CroyFuel Clear Premix has a conductivity 11x higher than the maximum where the sensor is calibrated, the readings are certainly not correct. A sensor calibrated at least in the range of 1-5000 µS would be needed for proper measurement.
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The manufacturer's (AquaComputer) website also states: “If corrosion occurs or if the corrosion protection inhibitors are used up, the conductivity of the coolant increases significantly. In this case, the coolant should be replaced." This is not entirely true (for EK CryoFuel), because until the corrosion inhibitor starts to work, it is present in the liquid, hence the high conductivity. Over time, the inhibitor is consumed because it blocks corrosion and the conductivity of the fluid begins to decline. However, this statement holds true for distilled water; the greater the presence of corrosion in the system, the higher the water conductivity.
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The quality of the coolant (CryoFuel) based on conductivity can be assessed, but not with the said sensor (too small range, I don’t know if it has a calibration certificate). The conductivity of EK-CryuFuel Clear Premix ranges between 2200 and 2500 µS. Conditionally the liquid is OK up to 1500 µS, if of course, the other properties are OK - color, sediment. If the liquid is clear / slightly yellowish, with a characteristic odor-free odor, the liquid is OK.
I contacted EK about the CryoFuel conductivity and I got a response directly from their "QA and coolant providers". These are the most important parts:
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The average conductivity of EK-CryoFuel Clear Premix is 2.33 mS / cm2 or 2330 µS / cm2. Conductivity is measured during production and when charged with a certified and calibrated conductivity meter, at 20 ° C. The high conductivity is due to the corrosion inhibitor (confirmed by tests). The inhibitor is located in the liquid and upon contact with the reactive metal (copper, aluminum, iron) forms a protective layer and thus prevents corrosion, while being consumed. The more inhibitor is consumed, the lower the conductivity of the fluid.Quoted
As far as I was able to deduce from the e-mail below (my e-mail), the Aqua Computer High Flow NEXT sensor is used to measure the conductivity of distilled water. As a result, it is calibrated to a lower value. On the website, the manufacturer (AquaComputer) states that the reading reads between 2 and 200 µS. Given that the EK-CroyFuel Clear Premix has a conductivity 11x higher than the maximum where the sensor is calibrated, the readings are certainly not correct. A sensor calibrated at least in the range of 1-5000 µS would be needed for proper measurement.Quoted
The manufacturer's (AquaComputer) website also states: “If corrosion occurs or if the corrosion protection inhibitors are used up, the conductivity of the coolant increases significantly. In this case, the coolant should be replaced." This is not entirely true (for EK CryoFuel), because until the corrosion inhibitor starts to work, it is present in the liquid, hence the high conductivity. Over time, the inhibitor is consumed because it blocks corrosion and the conductivity of the fluid begins to decline. However, this statement holds true for distilled water; the greater the presence of corrosion in the system, the higher the water conductivity.Quoted
The quality of the coolant (CryoFuel) based on conductivity can be assessed, but not with the said sensor (too small range, I don’t know if it has a calibration certificate). The conductivity of EK-CryuFuel Clear Premix ranges between 2200 and 2500 µS. Conditionally the liquid is OK up to 1500 µS, if of course, the other properties are OK - color, sediment. If the liquid is clear / slightly yellowish, with a characteristic odor-free odor, the liquid is OK.
May I ask what the outcome of this was? I get that the High Flow Next apparently cannot be used to monitor conductivity of EK CryoFuel because it's conductivity is ~11X higher than what Aquacomputer considers the upper limit. OK so don't use EK coolant and expect a High Flow Next to be able to provide a meaningful measurement of its "quality". So that (sort of) explains the strange conductivity data reported. But what about the high pitched click and the ~5% deviation in flow rate values? I did find a thread HERE about a manufacturing defect in some High Flow Next /2 /LT sensors that resulted in noisy operation, so maybe yours had this problem? That leaves the ~5% variation in reported flow rate. According to the Aquacomputer marketing material, the High Flow Next is supposed to have "four times higher resolution compared to the other flow sensors of our high flow series". So does this mean their old flow sensors were 4X less accurate that what you observed, or maybe the manufacturing defect affected the flow rate accuracy of one or both of the sensors? I could not find a spec on the accuracy of the flow rate sensor, only that they are 4X more accurate than the old models. Is this ~5% deviation considered acceptable?I expected better results as well. My older aquacomputer flow sensors work well with no noise even with flow rates greater than 300l/hr. I was looking forward to having conductivity along with temp and flow rate as routine data for my loops, but this is disappointing. Hopefully it will be addressed quickly.
EK and AQ use differing methodoligies, EK adds an inhibitor to their fluid, wheres AQ minimizes additives in the fluid to reduce conductivity.
If the conductivity of Cryofuel is outside the design range of the Flow Next, it will be off scale.
The Flow NEXT is calibrated for DP Ultra and distilled water, with the conductivity value when new being designated as 100%. This 100% will only be true for identically brewed fluids, all others need calibration.
One cannot expect the greatest accuracy at the price point of the devices used in our hobby industry, but then accuracy is not as important as being able to detect change over time. This I believe to be true for both flow and conductivity.
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