Wraith prism leaking, where to go from here?

[Jack0f5pades]

I bought a wraith prism RGB cooler off ebay back near the beginning of summer. I've recently noticed small drops of liquid on the inside edge of the shroud around the fan. Searched for others having this same issue, and saw that there are lots of other people who have had this same issue of fluid leaking out and pooling on the shroud and causing noise within the bearing. I really like the wraith prism, and I would like to just get it replaced, but I don't think that's going to happen because I bought it on ebay. I really love the way it looks and the effects that are possible with it, but if they all have this leaking issue then I don't know what to do. I would buy another cooler, but I have yet to find one that is as aesthetically appealing as the prism. 

 

On the off chance that I could get it replaced, where would I need to go to do so? and are there any other coolers that you think might satisfy my eye for aesthetics? Thanks

[narrdarr]

Ebay has buyer protection. You should be able to get it replaced or return it.

 

As for other cooler.

What cpu are you wanting to cool?

What case are you using?

What's your budget?

[Jack0f5pades]

15 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

What cpu are you wanting to cool?

What case are you using?

What's your budget?

Currently a 3600, but will be upgrading to whatever the Ryzen 5000 8 core 16 thread coming out soon is (presumably the Ryzen 7 5700x, if they keep their naming scheme)

Case is a Meshify C

As for budget, I'm just gonna factor it into a $2k upgrade I'm doing later this year (hence the CPU upgrade)

[narrdarr]

your case has 170mm clearance. So anything under 170mm will fit. 

 

Common High ender 

D15 

Dark rock pro/ pro 4

Silver arrow ib extreme

Macho rev b

 

Upper mid range

Frost spirit 140

Dark rock tf

 

Mid range

Fuma 2

mugen 5

 

Low end

Arctic freezer esports 34 /duo

Hyper 212 evo black

 

 

If you want to go with an aio

Arctic liquid freezer 240/280/360

Ek-aio 240/280/360

 

Both are really good 

 

 

All of these are great choices 

 

 

[Bombastinator]

concur on the eBay buyer protection.  The described cause strikes me as unlikely though. 
 

The only fluid is low pressure water in the heat pipe. The pipe is a piece of copper tube lined with sintered metal beads. And closed with a great big solder glob. While I suppose this is possible to screw up it’s just not that likely.  Maybe cooler fins being jammed in too tight and cutting the copper?!  Aluminum is softer than copper though. They shouldn’t be able to even scratch the tube in a significant way.  Are the cooler fins steel by any chance?

If the pipe gets a hole the first thing that would happen is air would get in repressurizing the water.  This would cause such severe cooling problems it’s not something that would go unnoticed.  Instant big heat problems.  Higher probability fan bearing is leaking lubricant, or really humid air is condensing water on the surface of the cooler.  The weakest part of the prism coolers are their forshit single bearing fans.  I really don’t get that one.  Why did they put those things on there? I’ve been expecting a third party fan to come out because those things can’t last. Might have already.  I haven’t been looking.

[Jack0f5pades]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

concur on the eBay buyer protection.  The described cause strikes me as unlikely though. 
 

Higher probability fan bearing is leaking lubricant, or really humid air is condensing water on the surface of the cooler.

Definitely lubricant leak. I would notice any of the other issues you mentioned. As for ebay buyer protection, I purchased this cooler in may and I'm not sure at all if I would be covered in any significant way.

[narrdarr]

1 hour ago, Jack0f5pades said:

Definitely lubricant leak. I would notice any of the other issues you mentioned. As for ebay buyer protection, I purchased this cooler in may and I'm not sure at all if I would be covered in any significant way.

i just clean it up and use then.

 

[Bombastinator]

There isn’t a lot of lubricant to leak.  A few drops total.  Even one or two would mean there’s almost no lubricant left in the fan bearing. It would die relatively quickly.  Months.  There is often a sticker used to hold in fan lubricant.  Is there a loose sticker? 

[Jack0f5pades]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

There isn’t a lot of lubricant to leak.  A few drops total.  Even one or two would mean there’s almost no lubricant left in the fan bearing. It would die relatively quickly.  Months.  There is often a sticker used to hold in fan lubricant.  Is there a loose sticker? 

No idea about the sticker, but so far it doesn't seem to be making any additional noise or vibration like you would expect after a bearing loses its lubrication. I just have to make sure it lasts to december, and if it doesn't, I happen to be a collector of AMD stock coolers, so I have several wraith spires I could replace it with. 

[Jack0f5pades]

And anyone else who happens to read this: as for a replacement, I'm just gonna buy another wraith prism straight from the AMD Amazon store, and that way it'll come with a warranty and full buyer protection for just an extra ten bucks in case this happens again.