How to drain & refill custom loop with no drain valve or fill port?

[Masohas]

Some time ago I bought a used PC with a custom loop cooling system, and now I’d like to change the coolant. Unfortunately, most tutorials on YouTube show how to do it when you have a drain valve and a top fill port.

As far as I can tell, I don’t have either of those — or maybe I’m just blind (or an idiot ). I’d really appreciate any advice on how to safely drain the old liquid and refill the system without damaging anything.

Custom loop Barrow

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[ShiBDiB]

If you're not gonna have your GPU on a custom loop you might as well just have an AIO or a decent air cooler.

 

[Ruru]

Personally I just take a bowl under the connector and open the connector of my GPU block, then I rotate the PC while trying to get all the water (I use distilled water as coolant myself) out of the loop, and when I've got most of the liquid out, then I can somewhat safely disassemble the loop. I know that you are running a CPU-only loop, but my point is the same.

ps. clean the dust as well

If you're not gonna have your GPU on a custom loop you might as well just have an AIO or a decent air cooler.

I somewhat agree, but aren't most of us TPUers PC hobbyists? Our solutions might not always be the wisest ones.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I would unmount the CPU block with the hoses connected. Then with the CPU block safely hanging out side of the system open the fill port and drain into a bucket. You might need to tilt your pc toward the front to help the rad drain. With the bock hanging below the reservoir you should be able to drain the system from both sides. You might need to disconnect the rad hose to the cpu block to help drain.

Before putting your loop back together minimally I would get 3 sets of quick disconnects and some extra tubing to make the loop easier to service. For example in diagram below insert two quick disconnect sets at points A and B into the loop. The third set of quick disconnects are connected with open tubes noted as C1, and C2 below. Then when you need to refill reconnect point A and elevate the tube C1 and fill which will fill the rad and reservoir most of the way. Then reconnect point B and power cycle the pump to circulate the fluid and you should have a hopefully small gap of air in the reservoir.

 

[ir_cow]

That loop needs more than a simple drain. take it all out and clean it.

 

[Ruru]

That loop needs more than a simple drain. take it all out and clean it.

Yeah, that res looks hella dirty. I'd flush the whole loop after draining it.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Yeah, that res looks hella dirty. I'd flush the whole loop after draining it.

It looks like old green antifreeze.

 

[Ruru]

It looks like old green antifreeze.

I'm a little scared what OP's block would look inside...

 

[Solaris17]

They assembled it without one. Take the block off as mentioned and drain and clean it. Then when your ready to re-install just add a valve and add/drain connections yourself.

 

[Jism]

Take the whole thing apart, and drain it like that, and not in the PC case.

 

[Ruru]

They assembled it without one. Take the block off as mentioned and drain and clean it. Then when your ready to re-install just add a valve and add/drain connections yourself.

A flushing would be a good idea as I mentioned above as well