The crystal structure of the title polymeric complex, [CuCl(2)(C(3)H(6)N(4)O)(2)](n), was obtained by the Rietveld refinement from laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data collected at room temperature. The unique Cu(II) ion lies on an inversion center and is in a slightly distorted octa-hedral coordination environment. In the hydroxy-ethyl group, all H atoms, the O atom and its attached C atom are disordered over two positions; the site occupancy factors are ca 0.6 and 0.4. The OH group is involved in an intra-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bond.