Danner 700 Leakage

[Rav]

I had posted earlier about my watercoling system losing water, well, I found the problem. I checked again in the morning and found some really soggy foam under my Danner pump and a small puddle at the bottom of the case. Luckily there were no electronics under it. Apparently I'm not the first person to have this problem either. I do want to warn anyone using this pump or who will be using it of this problem. The leaks occur around the front cover (with the in and out pipes). Tightening the screws made it worse. The molding seam on ours also turned into a crack and leaked. We took it apart and are going to seal it up with some good sealant. I'll post an update of how it worked. We are doing it similar to an article on Procooling.com.

-Rav

 

[HaM]

Thank you, Rav
Im sure that will be very helpful to many OCers out there. It's great how we can all benefit from eachother.

HaM

 

[Flash]

I just posted a similar problem a day or two ago. While I didn't have much actual leakage, air was getting in and causing the pump to run hot and loud. I've sealed it according to the procooling article and lately the noise has quieted down--but not completely. If I had it to do again (and I may yet) I'd go with an Eheim pump instead. There's no excuse for building a pump that leaks out of the box, proving once again that we Americans suck at manufacturing.

 

[Richard]

Same here. Several months ago I had purchased a Danner mag drive pump only to realize the thing ran hot and leaked. Not exactly the kind of thing to build confidence in a fledgling water cooler.

After that experience I decided to take the submersible route. Temps may be a whole 2 degrees higher, but the peace of mind of having a leak proof design and extending the life of the pump just make me feel its worth it. YMMV

Flash (Jul 25, 2001 04:40 p.m.):
I just posted a similar problem a day or two ago. While I didn't have much actual leakage, air was getting in and causing the pump to run hot and loud. I've sealed it according to the procooling article and lately the noise has quieted down--but not completely. If I had it to do again (and I may yet) I'd go with an Eheim pump instead. There's no excuse for building a pump that leaks out of the box, proving once again that we Americans suck at manufacturing.

 

[Colin]

Light silicone grease on the O ring will seal the pump. Since I don't have to worry about taking it apart to remove debries as with an aquarium, I prefer to seal the pump with Dow Silicone Household Glue.

I have seen impeller housings cracked along a change in pigment line in the plastic. I have also cracked them myself by overtightening screws and overtightening the bushing threaded into the inlet. A hose clamp, possibly reinforced with epoxy, around the inlet will help prevent cracking. You can always buy a new impeller housing for about $7.

 

[Flash]

UPDATE

Apparently the form-a-gasket trick did not work in my case. I was on my computer (thankfully) when I noticed the noise from the pump getting louder. It was sort of gradual, so it took awhile for it to draw my attention. When I took a gander I found that the pump had leaked nearly all of the fluid from my system, and what fluid was left was so aerated that it looked like green milk. Fourtunately I had the pump and reservoir outside the case. Also, thankfully, I had the thermal shutdown in my 8K7A's bios set to 60C, because it kicked in and shut down the computer before I could reach the PS switch myself (due to the heat the system had locked up and wouldn't respond to the front-mounted power button).

While there's no doubt that these pumps produce great flow at a decent price, the downside is just *way* too high, IMO: what crappy build quality. I'm going for the Eheim, with its *sealed, metal* impeller housing.