About a week after I received the e-mail stating that the unit
shipped, this bright blue and red bag shows up in my mailbox
with an attached customs sticker.
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Inside, wrapped in plenty of bubble wrap, is the Aquatube box
along with all the extras. In this case the extras include the
lighting kit, increasers, 1/2ID and 3/8ID barbs, and steel cover
plate.
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Inside the box is the aquatube itself, along with the acrylic
window, o-ring, hex screws, and the stainless steel plugs for
the extra holes that will not be used.
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And finally, let’s take a good look at the barbs and faceplate.
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The first thing that will strike anyone looking at the Aquatube
is the quality of the construction of the unit. The tube itself
is milled from a 1kg solid block of aluminum that is anodized
and comes in black, blue, or a sliver/white color. It is 79mm
in diameter, 70mm long, and holds 160 cubic cm of fluid. For
us here in the US, that means it is the size of a standard case
fan, about 3” long, and hold a little over 5oz of water.
The annodization process serves two purposes, it makes it look
good and will prevent any chemical reactions that could lead
to corrosion in your cooling system. There are five mounting
holes in both the top and bottom to allow for versatility in
mounting the unit, which can be done either vertically or horizontally.
The acrylic window is secured by 5 more high quality steel hex
screws and uses a replaceable O-ring to make a water tight seal.
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You will quickly see that there are 6 openings for you to
connect your inlet and outlet to, 3 along one side and 3 along
the bottom. This allows for a variety of configurations that
should suit anyone’s needs.
The
faceplate is optional, you can easily mount the Aquatube without
it, but it adds a very nice professional touch. You simply
screw it to the Aquatube using the included 5 screws and then
there are 4 screw holes to mount the entire unit.
Finally,
we have the light kit. Wizard Designs provides excellent instructions
on how to put this simple kit together. It consists of a molex
connector, 5mm led, a clear plastic plug, wire, heat shrink,
and a resistor. Some minor skill with a soldering iron is
needed, but not much. Once it is put together you screw the
plastic plug into one of the inlets on the Aquatube in place
of a steel one and the LED slides right into it. A dab of
hot glue will guarantee that is stays there. |
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