Laing DDC310 making sounds, but not pushing any water

[Davedo99]

Hello dear watercooling experts ,

I have searched the internet for a while now however I wasn’t able to find anything useful. Help is greatly appreciated!

I‘ve had this problem for the past 2 years. I was always able to fix it by opening the pump and sometimes cleaning it. I‘am not completely sure, however I think there are small white floating „plastic-pieces“ inside the water. Which is weird, because I have dark blue softtubes.

Furthermore if the pump starts, it normally works without any problem and great flowing rates. However sometimes it just randomly stops pumping. Knocking on the pump or opening the AGB (Alphacool Heatkiller) temporarily resolves that issue.

Also when opening the AGB, there is often a lot of pressure inside it. Is that normal?

I ALWAYS have this problem when the pc is turned off for more than a few days, and sometimes for even less than 12 hours.

The Build is about 4-5 years old, and never was really deep-cleaned.
Do you think cleaning it with Chilit Bang green and orange is a good idea?

I have 2 pumps at home, both have the same issue.

PS: is there a way to upload Video to show you the sounds it produces?
In the beginning the water was changed way to less, the past 2 years though, very often.
Also the pc isn’t used very often. Does that matter?
If I clean the pump and it doesn’t even start pumping -> no way it clogs again, right? Can I rule out residues?
When I now start my Computer, I feel a vibration at the pump and also hear some noise. It sounds as if it tries pumping, but can’t.


If photos are needed, I will upload them later. (I’m currently on my phone and the image files are too large :/ )

Thanks in advance for your help and time!
David


If it helps: my hardware:
CPU: Intel i9 7960X 16-Core 2,8 GHZ Wassergekühlt
GPU: Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX Vega 64 Wassergekühlt
Netzteil: Enermax MaxTytan 80+ 800 Watt
Mainboard: Asus WS X299 PRO/SE
Speicher: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 128 GB (8x16 GB) DDR4 3000 MHZ
SSD: Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1 TB NVMe M.2
Lüfter: 3x Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM Lüfter
Gehäuse: Bequiet Dark Base Pro 900 Big Tower

Watercooling:
Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU-Kühler
Alphacool NexXxos Ready ST30 Full Cooper 240 mm Radiator
Alphacool NexXxos XT 45 Full Copper 280 mm Radiator
Heatkiller Tube 200 DDC Ausgleichsbehälter + Alphacool Laing DDC 310 Pumpe
Alphacool NexXxos GPX - AMD RX Vega M05 Backplate

 

[Davedo99]

I uploaded a short video on YouTube for you as a reference how it looks and sounds. here‘s the link:

 

[EarthDog]

Yikes. Starting it dry is baaad.... not again.

Try a different power source and confirm the header it's connected to is running at 100%...or get a new pump.

Also, what is an AGB??

 

[Davedo99]

Yikes. Starting it dry is baaad.... not again.

Try a different power source and confirm the header it's connected to is running at 100%...or get a new pump.

Also, what is an AGB??

Thanks for your reply!

By AGB I mean the container, where I refill my cooling-system. (Alphacool Heatkiller Tube 200 DDC.)

I will try plugging it in somewhere else and will soon tell you my results

Thank you for the help,
David

 

[EarthDog]

We call that a reservoir. Never heard the term AGB.

But yeah, confirm whatever header is giving out enough power and try it on different plugs.... otherwise I'd Loon for a new pump if both are exhibiting the same behavior.

 

[Davedo99]

We call that a reservoir. Never heard the term AGB.

But yeah, confirm whatever header is giving out enough power and try it on different plugs.... otherwise I'd Loon for a new pump if both are exhibiting the same behavior.

Do you think the „Laing DDC-1T with PWM“ would be a good alternative?

Would it suit my Heatkiller and can I use it without the pump housing?

Thank you I’m advance for your help!

 

[Zerileous]

Strange that both are failing at the same time. Makes me think something else is happening. Are you running them both in the system at once or have you swapped back and forth? Have you run both of them dry? I agree with ED that replacing is a safe bet, but I'm curious as to how/why they failed.

You mentioned pressure in the reservoir/AGB. This seems strange to me, I have soft tubes and have never experienced a sense of pressure in the loop during maintenance. I could see a minor hiss with hard tubes if barometric pressure was different, but the soft tubes should easily compensate.

Any chance you can get pictures of the "white pieces of plastic?

Also what coolant and anti-microbial are you using?

 

[Davedo99]

Strange that both are failing at the same time. Makes me think something else is happening. Are you running them both in the system at once or have you swapped back and forth? Have you run both of them dry? I agree with ED that replacing is a safe bet, but I'm curious as to how/why they failed.

You mentioned pressure in the reservoir/AGB. This seems strange to me, I have soft tubes and have never experienced a sense of pressure in the loop during maintenance. I could see a minor hiss with hard tubes if barometric pressure was different, but the soft tubes should easily compensate.

Any chance you can get pictures of the "white pieces of plastic?

Also what coolant and anti-microbial are you using?

Hello Zerileos,

My system runs with decently new soft tubes. (Changed them 1 year ago.)

The pressure also seemed weird to me. Sometimes I saw the glowing speed decreasing, than I opened the reservoir. It definitely felt like negative pressure when I lifted the reservoir‘s lit.

It’s very hard to get a picture of the white pieces, since they are so small. Also I currently don’t have any water in my system.

I am using 100% pure destilled water as coolant.

Also I am going to completely clean my system tomorrow. Afterwards I will use a new pump. (Laing DDC 1T.)

I will let you updated, thanks for your help!
David


PS: they don’t run in parallel, I have swapped them when the old one started failing.

 

[maxfly]

Unfortunately what your pumps are doing is what I've come to call, ddc slow death. I've had 3 or 4 show the very same symptoms and sadly, there is no cure that I know of. Once they begin the start/stop jerking it's time to replace them. The only explanation I have been able to come up with is that something on the pumps motherboard is slowly dieing. It causes a voltage fluctuation or lack of voltage, resulting in the starting and stopping. At first, banging on them will usually get them going again but as time passes and the voltage droop gets worse, nothing revives them. Replacement is the only option.

Like the other guys have said, never ever run your pumps dry. That is a guaranteed way of killing them off early.

GL with your new pump and nice clean loop! Hopefully she will last for years to come!

 

[Davedo99]

Thanks for your great reply!

 

[Zerileous]

I was watching a Jayztwocents video while I drink coffe and he mentioned pressure increasing with temperature. Is the loop hot when you're experiencing this pressure in the reservoir? I never thought of that because under normal use the coolant neber gets that hot, but with poor flow it could.

DDC pumps can get kinda hot (I've read). Some have little heatsinks on them. Since Maxfly mentioned the problem sounds like PCB.

So I had a pre-coffee light bulb moment where heat of the PCB, high water temperature (from poor flow) feed into each other causing a cycle of increasing pump damage.

So I just wanted to suggest keeping an eye on the temperature of your new pump.