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Danger
Den Fittings Review
Introduction
Welcome to my review of some Danger Den high flow water
cooling fittings. I'll be adding more fitting to this page in the
future, but currently looking at the new Danger Den barbs, expect to
see them very soon!
New High Flow G 1/4 (BSPP) Barbs
Barbs
are such an important part of water cooling. If barbs are installed
incorrectly or the tubing is poorly installed, this is the area where
the
dreaded leak can occur. Water cooling barbs in general are
slightly oversized with an emphasis to mimize error and the chance for
leaks, but current fittings all tend to look fairly similar and only a
few have additional features specific to a water coolers needs.
These new Danger Den fittings brings several new features that address
prior concerns.
These are
the key qualities I see in this new fitting:
- O-ring retainer - This retainer prevents the o-ring from
displacing which can cause a leak in standard barbs when
over-tightened, this allows you to install these with a fair amount of
force and now worries about a leaking o-ring. D-Tek barbs also
incorporate this very desireable feature.
- Substantial Oversized Inlet - A standard High Flow G1/4
fitting is typially about 9.9 to 10.1 mm inside diameter which is about
the maximum you can remove and still have adequate brass strength for
the G1/4 threading. Danger Den has taken an additional 1
millimeter (Total 11.0mm) at the inlet side and provided a very gradual
transition before reaching the threads. This will minimize the
step down entrance loss from the inside diameter of tubing to the barb.
- Finish - These barbs have a much finer quality of finish
than standard barbs. The machining marks are almost non-existent
and the finish appears to be more of a chrome plating than the standard nickel as can be seen in the photos below,
leaving a much brighter and mirror like quality.
- Clamping width - Using worm drive clamps can be frustrating
on existing barbs, because the width on many of those clamps just
barely fits existing fittings which can be as little as 9.9mm.
These new barbs provide about 10.8mm of clamping width.
Here are several photos with these new Danger Den High Flow barbs next to a D-Tek and the current Danger Den barb.
Where to buy
Danger Den had informed me they will be switching over to these barbs
for their water blocks in a few weeks, so expect to see these very
soon. That should be February some time. I think I'll be
replacing all of my existing barbs with these..:)
Danger Den's Website
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