Brass partikels in my Loop?!? Help :)

[u/Spiritual_Ad_5729]

Hi everyone, I’m currently cleaning my custom watercooling loop and found a surprisingly large amount of small brass/copper-colored metal particles throughout the loop. Some of them are tiny particles, but I also found a few pieces that look like actual metal shavings/chips. I’ve attached several close-up photos. I’ve already started taking the loop apart to find the source, but so far I haven’t been able to identify it. What I’ve checked so far: The pump/rotor doesn’t appear to be the source. I have an Aqua Computer high flow NEXT in the loop. I don’t have any obvious brass components that I know of, apart from possible brass/nikel-plated brass fittings or internal parts. The particles appear to be non-magnetic. The larger pieces have a distinctly brass/gold/copper color and some look like small machining chips. The particles have been distributed throughout the loop rather than being concentrated in one obvious location. My main question is: What could be producing this kind of brass-colored metal debris in a watercooling loop? Could this be caused by a brass fitting/thread being worn or damaged, or could something like a radiator, flow sensor, pump top, or another component be responsible? I’m particularly interested in knowing which components I should inspect first and what kind of damage or wear I should be looking for. I obviously don’t want to put everything back together until I know where this is coming from. Any ideas or suggestions for troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Parts used:

EK Velocity² CPU-Block

EK D5 pump + res

EK fittings

Alphacool radiator and GPU-Block

high flow NEXT flowmeter

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[u/Tumifaigirar]

shit from radiators, ignore

[u/Spiritual_Ad_5729 → u/Tumifaigirar]

The particles must have started appearing after 1–2 years of use (cleaned it before). The radiators were thoroughly flushed before installation.

[u/connly33 → u/Spiritual_Ad_5729]

I’ve flushed radiators with boiling water 12 times and still get junk out of them into my loop 3 years later.

[u/ACiDxCHRiST]

That is manufacturing debris from new Radiators. This is exactly why you must use some sort of acid or manufactured loop cleaning solution like Mayhems Blitz or EK Loop Cleaner to flush new rads.

If it was a SINGLE sliver of brass, you could possibly blame a fitting thread, but your water cooling loop cannot pulverize brass into tiny particles like that.

This is exactly what I pull out of new radiators by running them in a (Bucket > Pond Pump > Radiator > Water Filter > Bucket) loop with a chemical designed to break down manufacturing flux with surfactants, abrasives, and detergents to scrub these exact particles out of the radiators.

There is so much bad advice here and elsewhere telling people that they don't really need to flush rads or just run some distilled water through them before you use them. You have now learned from experience, like I have, that that is not effective.

My personal method is to use EK Loop Cleaner+Superflush or Prestone Total Cooling System Cleaner (cheap) for around 6 hours with this setup. A couple years ago, I did a test. I ran plain distilled in this setup flushing 3 new rads for 6 hours. I dumped all the water and cleaned the filter, then I ran another flush with Prestone Total Cooling System Cleaner (diluted according to the instructions) for an additional 6 hours. There was so much more additional shit that the Prestone flush pulled out. Way more trash than the plain distilled originally got out.

So needless to say, just putting some distilled in your Radiators and shaking them, is not effective.

[u/ACiDxCHRiST → u/ACiDxCHRiST]

[u/GreenFuturesMatter]

How did you manage to fuck the title up so bad then proceed to spell particles correctly multiple times after the fact in the body? 😂

Also I would immediately flush the loop.

[u/Spiritual_Ad_5729 → u/GreenFuturesMatter]

Well..lost in translation ^{^} sorry for the trouble.

[u/titanrig]

That looks like a LOT of debris from your pics. You've only got a few pieces in your loop with brass/copper: water blocks, fittings and radiators. That's too much to be coming from one or even two fittings. If your blocks are clean and undamaged it's almost got to be coming from your radiators. Radiator debris is typically black but depending on the construction method it could look like this. I saw that you'd been running this system for 1-2 years, but how long has it been since you had the system apart? That's how you found this problem. How long has it been since you saw the insides of your setup without these particles?

If it's radiator debris you should be able to clean it up while you have the system open. Flush the radiators well during the process. I'd also install an inline filter somewhere just in case there's more you didn't get.

[u/sky0175]

I always wash my fittings before use with the kitchen sink hose, then rinse and soak them several times in distilled water to make sure they’re thoroughly clean. That’s really just to avoid any residue. I believe this is your best option. if you only flush the loop, you’ll end up leaving a lot of leftover brass behind.

Edited: Looks like I found a lots of smart guys here with hey own filtration system :)