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Koolance: The Busted Myth Makers of Lore
Posted on 03 May 2007 by hwlabs
(An Open Letter to Koolance Inc.)

HWLabs has always maintained its polite demeanor in dealing with adversities, and when faced with claims made by overtly opinionated and disinformed entities.

However, we shall take exception with one company who has chosen to take disinformation and present them as truth.

We are very disturbed by the rather uneducated assumptions and unsubstantiated assertions released by a company called Koolance, Inc. of 2840 West Valley Highway North Auburn, WA 98001 (USA), to discredit our products and general principles of metallurgy and physics.

They made several severely erroneous assumptions with their little ''information release'' posted here entitled ''The Copper Radiator Myth''.

The article makes 4 very outrageous and baseless assertions:

1) Copper and brass tube radiators are glued at the core.
2) Brass tubes degrades performance
3) Naturally occuring surface oxidation retards performance.
4) Aluminum radiators are superior in performance to copper/brass radiators.

To which we shall respond to all the major technical points in order of inaccuracy (the most ridiculous assertions first):

Erroneous assertion number 1: Glue is used to bind the fins to the tubes.

We quote: ''Therefore, this technique requires a third epoxy compound to join the two metals, which means the heat transfer efficiency is significantly reduced,'' unquote.

Now we are very certain that whomever wrote this article has a fundamental lack of understanding of radiator manufacturing processes and an even more severe impediment in validating his or her information. This not only shows the obvious lack of technical expertise within that company but it also reflects poorly of the due diligence employed by the company.

For copper and brass radiators, the tubes arrive with a cladding of solder. These are then stacked together with fins to form a core. The core is then fluxed, using a non-corrosive flux, to de-scale the surface of the fins and the tubes so they would have proper adhesion. De-scaling removes the microscopic oxide films on the surface of metals. The cores are then baked in an oven and the solder flows to adhere to the de-scaled surface of the fins.

Severe oxidation would simply be evident in poor tube to fin adhesion -period.

Erroneous assertion number 2: Brass tubes in copper radiators make for poor performance.

The brass tubes used in the Black Ice Radiators are made from high strength brass strips. This allows the core and water passages to be sufficiently rigid while being sufficiently thin with 0.12mm thick tube walls to allow efficient transfer of heat to the copper fins.

Erroneous assertion number 3: Copper is prone to oxidation and retards performance.

Copper is a more noble metal than aluminum. In fact oxidation on copper is not as dangerous as a pinhole cavity of oxides in aluminum as oxidation on a copper surface protects the material beneath it from further oxidation.

The performance of Black Ice Radiators are not affected by the naturally ocurring surface ''oxidation'' on typical brass surfaces. Even when they were purposely run without corrosion inhibitors for self-serving tests.

But if you cut up a radiator gleefully with a grinder as they have, we're quite sure you can generate oxidation on purpose.

Erroneous assertion number 4: Aluminum is always the best.

The ''aluminization'' of the Automotive industry was brought about by cost cutting regimes implemented by various automotive manufacturers. Aluminum is a very good alternative for this solution provided it is given sufficient frontal surface area and high airflow. Both parameters which are unfortunately luxuries that PC cooling do not have.

The automotive industry however have not used the round tube and fin design its shifted from for over 50 years now. Though if Koolance was referring to airconditiong condensers, the world will concede that their condenser cores will serve their function reasonably well.

Similarly, a copper radiator of the same thermal capacity would definitely be smaller compared to that of an equivalent aluminum unit.

That is because copper fins and tubes can be made to far lower profiles to allow more air to pass through without compromising its strength. Aluminum tube walls are easily 0.50 mm thick, as they need it for strength.

Aluminum fins, at its best form, would need to be 75 microns thick (0.075mm) thick as they likewise need to retain sufficient material for strength as they are thinned while brazing. This tube and fin thickness in effect blocks airflow signficantly and does not allow aluminum radiators to scale in limited dimensions.

Conventional copper-brass radiators use 45 micron fins. The Black Ice® GT radiators use custom 25 micron splitter fins.

The thermal resistance between a brass tube and copper fin totalling at 0.15mm thickness, even with solder is still lower than that of the 1.25mm total of the brazed aluminum tube and fin.

All this and the fact that copper does have a 77% thermal conductivity advantage over aluminum.

These are the reasons as to why applications that require industrial strength durability, and heat exchangers for use in smaller spaces are still the domain of copper. Industrial radiators, automotive heatercores and high performance PC radiators are key examples of the performance advantages that copper offers.

A rather convenient omission by Koolance's spindoctors and certainly an inconvenient point of ignorance we shouldn't let pass.

In fairness, aluminum is an excellent material for a radiator -only IF you plan to put it in front of a car and IF you have a lot of room to spare.

So this whole idea of Koolance condenser/radiators being able to dissipate more W/cm2 of radiator core is sheer marketing fantasy.

These matters were part of key technical considerations HWLabs have made as to why we've invested in technology around copper as a primary medium of heat exchange as opposed to aluminum.

Koolance on the other hand does not manufacture its own radiators. That, however, is not an excuse to dispense misinformation irresponsibly and engage in wholesale idiocy.

Essentially, we often wonder why such brazen attacks against our products and brands are launched by parties with obvious vested interests in the market. We've never done so with anyone and given that its Koolance amateurishly nipping at our heels this time -it simply isn't flattering anymore.

In summary, Koolance's article has practically no technical or factual basis, and possesses no real world engineering principles to support it. Such assertions are clearly riding on the shirt tales of ignorance and disinformation.

Tests on aluminum PC radiators on the web and in real world situations puts the onus of proving Koolance's assertions solely on Koolance itself.

Given that there is no substantive information, whether imagined or real, as to why Koolance's assertions should be maintained, the real motivation behind this article and presenting photos of our mutilated product and that of an imitator, is purely self-promotion for Koolance at our expense.

Thus, Hardware Labs Performance Systems, Inc., makers of the Black Ice® high performance PC radiators, is demanding that Koolance Inc., immediately remove all instances of that erroneous and malicious article with photos of our products and issue a public apology for its irresponsible acts against our company, brand and products.

Simply, the only time glue was possibly used in this process was in exacting inspiration for writing the Koolance article.

As they say in our favorite tech rag, the Inquirer, ''shurely shome mishtake''.