To get the best longevity from your Hydro X series custom liquid loop, it is important to perform periodic maintenance as you upgrade the components. We have a video to help teach you how to maintain your custom liquid loop.

NOTE: If you end up spilling coolant onto other parts of your PC while it is not powered on, do not panic. Clean up the coolant as best you can with a paper towel, then leave your PC in a dry place for a couple of days before powering it on.

Step 1: Drain the loop

When performing maintenance, the first thing to do is drain the custom loop of coolant. Before doing so, make sure you have:

• Paper towels that you can use to prevent coolant from dripping onto other parts of your PC.
• A container to contain the drained coolant

You can drain the loop by attaching a piece of tubing, ideally with a valve at the end, to a stop gap in the reservoir. If you still have some coolant in the loop, here are some ways to drain them:

• Loosen the top stop plug when draining. This will make it easier to drain the reservoir.
  • Remember to replace the stop plug if you plan on tilting the system or using compressed air to drain the reservoir.
• Tilt your system to help drain remaining coolant. Sometimes tilting your system will get more coolant into the reservoir during draining.
• Disconnect one of the tubes from the fittings. Make sure to have your paper towels ready to catch any dripping coolant and to position the tubes so that coolant does not drip onto other parts of your PC.
• Use a small electronic air compressor to flush out the coolant. Make sure that you plug all ports except the one going into your container to avoid making a mess.

Step 2: Remove components for maintenance

Once you have drained the custom loop, it is time to remove the components for maintenance. Keep the following tips in mind when removing components:

• Put paper towels beneath any tubes or fittings being removed. Sometimes these parts will have some coolant inside, so you should use paper towels to prevent coolant from dripping onto other parts of your PC.
• Disconnect all power wires and RGB wires from the DPU block before removing it. You also want to check if there is any coolant still in the DPU block and dump it into your container.

Step 3:  Install new tubing and hardware

After you have removed all of the older components from your PC, install any new components such as tubing and fittings.

Step 4: Flush out old coolant

If you have previously used a colored coolant and your new coolant is of a different color, you want to flush out the old color before putting in your new coolant. If you previously used a clear coolant, you can skip this step and proceed to filling the loop with your new coolant.

Make sure you put paper towels beneath the tubes and fittings of the cooler just in case there are drips.

To flush out the old color:

1. Fill the loop with distilled water.
2. Run the pump with a 24-pin ATX jumper.
3. Drain the distilled water out of the loop.

You may need to repeat the steps above a couple times to completely flush out the old color. It helps to have an electronic air compressor to drain the loop.

Step 5: Fill in the new coolant

Once you are satisfied that you have flushed out enough of the old coolant, fill the loop with your new coolant. Run the pump to allow the coolant to spread throughout the cooler.

If you have air pockets in your cooler, you can tilt the entire system from side to side while the pump is running to get rid of them. Make sure all openings in your cooler are closed, whether by fittings or stop plugs, to avoid spilling coolant into your PC.

NOTE: You can disconnect the pump’s PVM header during the fill process to make the cooler run at 100% speed. This should make it easier to remove air pockets.