What’s the Best Soft Tubing for Water Cooling?
The PrimoFlex soft tubing for water cooling loops is probably the best soft tube available today and is a favorite pick amongst many custom build enthusiasts. At least when it comes to clear and white tubing, if you are looking for soft black tubing, EK-Tube ZMT is the best tube on the market.
Soft tubing is much easier to use as compared to hard tubing when it comes to water cooling, but you need to know which tubing to use.
You can have plenty of other problems as well, like leaking, which is obviously unacceptable. Here we are going to look at some of the most reliable soft tubings that you can get right now.
Without further ado, let’s look are our absolute top picks when it comes to tubing for water cooling systems.
Our Clear Tubing Pick
- Clear Tubing
- Glass-like Transparency
- Easy To Work With
Our White Tubing Pick
- White Colored Tubing
- Pre-Treatment Cooling Loop
- Glass-like transparency
1. PrimoFlex Crystal – Best Clear Soft Tubing for Colored Coolant
PrimoChill is known for making some great soft tubings. There are plenty of colors to choose from but if you are interested in clear tubing then you should go with PrimoFlex Crystal Clear. You can pick different color coolants with clear tubing and see it move around in your system.
Clear tubing is great if you are going to use colored coolant, as the liquid will be shown while going thru the tubes.
Our Clear Tube Pick
The pack includes 10 feet of tubing which should be more than enough for your water cooling needs. The inner diameter is 3/8 inch and the outer diameter is 5/8 inch. There are no logos or any other kind of printing on the tubes. You also get Liquid Utopia and SysPrep–Cooling Loop Pre-Treatment included in the box.
Read also: Top Intel i7 7700K Coolers
2. PrimoFlex Elegant White – Our Favorite White-colored Tubing
Here we have another kind of tubing from PrimoChill but this one is white rather than transparent. The inner diameter is 3/8 inch and the outer diameter is 5/8 inch. There are no logos or any other kind of printing on the tubes.
Our White Tube Pick
You also get Liquid Utopia and SysPrep–Cooling Loop Pre-Treatment included in the box. The pack includes 10 feet of tubing which should be more than enough for your water cooling needs.
3. EK-Tube ZMT – Top Rated Soft Tube
EK is known for making some of the best water cooling products on the market and here we have the ZMT tubing. These tubes come in Black. The inner diameter is 1/2 inch and the outer diameter is 3/4 inch.
Our Black Tube Pick
The tubing works fine between -30C-110C. The tubing is made of industrial-grade EPDM rubber and does not require any maintenance.
4. Mayhems Ultra Clear
Mayhems Ultra Clear is another transparent tubing that you can look into. You can see through the tubing and call use different colors of coolant for your loop.
Our Great Clear Pick
The inner diameter is 3/8 inch and the outer diameter is 5/8 inch. The pack includes 5 meters of tubing but you can also get the 3-meter pack as well.
5. EK-DuraClear Soft Tubing
If you want to stick with EK but do not want black tubing then this is an option for you. These tubes are clear and you can fill them with colorful coolants. The inner diameter is 3/8 inch and the outer diameter is 1/2 inch.
The tubing is transparent like glass and there are no logos or any other kind of printing on it. The temperature rating is -20C-80C. These are ideal if you are new to water cooling.
What Soft Tubing For Water Cooling Should You Pick
Does The Diameter Of Soft Tubing Matter?
People have been asking this question and it is a valid one. The simple answer is that this was a factor back in the day but since the last decade or so, it no longer matters. You can pick any diameter of the tubing and it will not affect the cooling performance of your build. You can try using different diameters of tubing and you will get similar cooling performance.
Soft Tubing Vs Hard Tubing
The following are the differences between soft tubing and hard tubing that you should know about:
Ease Of Use
Soft tubing is much easier to use. You can cut the tubes according to the sizes that you need and fit them into place. Hard tubing is much more complicated and you need proper tools to bend the tubing. Hard tubing is much more complicated and time consuming compared to soft tubing. That is why soft tubing is recommended for beginners.
Cost
Soft tubing is much cheaper when compared to hard tubing. Water cooling parts can be very expensive and hard tubing adds to that cost.
Aesthetics
This is a subjective thing but generally, hard tubing looks much better as compared to soft tubing. In some cases, kinks can form in soft tubing. That is not the case with hard tubing.
Clouding
PVC pipes can cloud over time. This is something common with soft tubing but you will not face the same issues with hard tubing.
Breaking
While hard tubing does not get kinks, It can break. That is something that you should keep in mind when deciding between the two.
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