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Do factory sealed water coolers leak

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bruceGH4

bruceGH4

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I put a Captain 240ex by Deepcool in my new build 2 months ago. I am totally happy with it and my i7-6800k chip runs at 40c while rendering video (oc at 4200mhz).
But when I went to put in a good review I saw a lot of bad leak reviews. I do a lot of house plumbing and I can't imagine that a factory build/sealed unit would just start leaking after a couple of weeks. Is this common? Are these leakers twisting their hoses in some crazy direction? I certainly wouldn't want to risk coolant running over my gpu.
Also, is there a way you can put in a leak alarm to get early warning, like a moisture sensor where the hoses go into the block?
Any experiences with factory cooling leaking will be much appreciated.:shock:
 
Normal? No. At least it's not supposed to be an often-occurring event.

My Corsair AIO is at least 3 years old and I've had no problems thus far.

Easiest way to detect a leak is to place some sort of litmus paper below the connections, and cooling block, so that any leaked water which lands on it changes the color of the litmus paper. You'd probably want to put the litmus paper on top of some sort of absorbent material so that a leak doesn't fall onto the back of your video card and short it out.
 
Thanks for the idea. I could devise some kind of "leak sheild" under the connection where the hoses come out of the block, if I was really worked about my card. As is, I haven't bought my new card yet and the old one is expendable. The elegant solution would be a moisture detector, wired in to give a warning in post. Like a thermistor except for moisture. Ever heard of that?
 
I just turned the tower off (not sleep, off) when I wasn't using it... Inspect it every once and a while, and if the blue smoke is coming out of the blue smoke container while I am using it, I probably have a leak [emoji14]

Or go custom loop and keep an eye on water levels in the res.

 
Some AIO companies have a well written warranty on this. I know Corsair usually takes care of you if their AIO's leaked by accident, during their warranty of course and if the policy hasn't been changed.

Again, these are rare cases with reputed companies but it doesn't hurt to check their policies to relieve some anxiety.
 
It's always a good idea to first run power to the loop outside of the case before installing it to check for leaks. Easiest to do if you have a spare PSU laying around and/or an old junk motherboard.
 
DO they inherently leak? No. CAN they leak? Absolutely. I've seen a Deepcool 120mm unit (the same one, three times, different computers/batches) leak and kill off other components. It was an older style unit and I haven't heard anything since that unit was revised but I've seen it happen. I actually stopped using my own 240mm deepcool unit as a result and went back to air due to being scared it'd happen to me. XD. I have a Corsair H60 and H90 though that have had no problems at all. That said I've seen one Corsair AIO leak in my old work/workshop. Yet to see an NZXT leak or Cooler Master. Though CM pumps have failed more than the others.
 
If it's any consolation I have a ThermalTake Ext 2.0 in my daily driver . Been running since late 2012
 
The only problems that I have had with AIO coolers were that that ran dry :) I had one of the first batches of the H-50 and a CoolIt ALC. They only came with a 1 year warranty and I got 1 1/2 out of them. I was mad because each one cost over $100 and now was junk (I cut the lines and made my own custom loop). The H-100i that I have running now, has a 5 year warranty.
I purchased a XPSC Dual Bay Res with a single MCP-655 pump (from Frozen CPU) and had it leak after 3months. This was a CPU cooling kit from XPSC, I sent it back just to get another one. It broke in 3 months also. I have stayed away from XPSC since.
 
MaddMutt said:
The only problems that I have had with AIO coolers were that that ran dry :) I had one of the first batches of the H-50 and a CoolIt ALC. They only came with a 1 year warranty and I got 1 1/2 out of them. I was mad because each one cost over $100 and now was junk (I cut the lines and made my own custom loop). The H-100i that I have running now, has a 5 year warranty.
I purchased a XPSC Dual Bay Res with a single MCP-655 pump (from Frozen CPU) and had it leak after 3months. This was a CPU cooling kit from XPSC, I sent it back just to get another one. It broke in 3 months also. I have stayed away from XPSC since.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you had the first few gens. of XSPC's problematic reservoir. Since than, they've gone through some revisions and have fixed the issue on the res.

I would try and get a hold of XSPC and see if they can replace your res/pump combo with the improved V2.
 
Nothing is 100% reliable and there will be a possibility of problems in some cases.

I have been wondering myself, if one of these should have slow liquid loss over time such that it stops functioning, how hard would it be to refill it or even update it? For example, I've had mounting problems with my Corsair unit due to the thick tubing thy use, and I wonder how hard it would be to replace the tubing with something nicer...
 
Difficult. Its not like its slowly dripping through a hose or something... its evaporation. I mean you can take a hose off and do that, but... then its not really a closed loop anymore, lol!
 
If only all sensitive hardware became waterproof, we wouldn't have to worry as much. Hopefully that will come on all component platforms as the industry is moving towards liquid cooling.

 
I contacted DEEPCOOL in Beijing (after Chinese new year was over) and they said that they haven't had leak problems with the "new" coolers. I guess he means 240 ex vs. just 240.
Also it looks like they have OK product warranty support according to some of the reviews I have read, so I am less concerned.
Also, I have a moisture detector that I thought I could mount under my cooling block in a small sponge, with the gage up against the window to show any drips easily.
 
GTXJackBauer said:
If only all sensitive hardware became waterproof, we wouldn't have to worry as much. Hopefully that will come on all component platforms as the industry is moving towards liquid cooling.

Click to expand...

Asrock ended up discontinuing the use of that coating
I remember reading it was problematic when it came to repairing boards that got sent into rma
 
I think in general you are safer when it comes to no leaks with a AIO, but unfortunately while they are not suppose to leak that doesn't mean that bad units that will develop a leak aren't sent out. So your chances are much lower than say a custom loop, but are not 100% unfortunately.
 
Tgrable said:
I think in general you are safer when it comes to no leaks with a AIO, but unfortunately while they are not suppose to leak that doesn't mean that bad units that will develop a leak aren't sent out. So your chances are much lower than say a custom loop, but are not 100% unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. As a handyman/plumber I can imagine a lot of ways that a custom loop could start leaking. Sounds like a challenge. So far, I have won the closed loop factory CPU water cooler lottery, as I am not leaking. However, I may be running a bit too hot in my overclock (up to 90 c).
 
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