Inwin Polaris Fans, FIRE HAZARD, Final Update, Saturn Review

[Eveshade]

Update, from In Win

 

" Thank you for your patience, after internal investigation, this is the only case reported in our RMA records. We have no stocks now , however, if consumers have concerns of their Polaris RGB fans, they can provide the invoice and contact: shop@in-win.com. (we have different platforms to receive consumer's feedback, and we will respond). We apologize for your bad experience."

 

They have also contacted me so they can send me some of the saturn fans.  I gotta  say, many companies could learn a lot on customer service from In Win.

 

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Original Post

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In Win Polaris Fans pose a fire risk, and should be replaced.  The wires in the frame of the fan can touch the screws and short.  This has happened to me.

 

Yesterday I went to boot my PC. On boot i got a CPU Fan Error.  I was using these fans on my AIO.  I look over and indeed they are not spinning. I remove the radiator  from the case boot the PC and the fans spin.  So with the PC still running i start to remount the rad.  As i do I see a spark from the screw to the case.  So I shut down the PC, screw down the rad, reboot, and no fan spin.  Then it occurs to me.  The fan mounting screws run by the 8pin wiring for the daisy chain wires inside the frame of the fan.  I must have a short.  So i remove the screws near the wires, and with the rad mounted boot again.  I have fan spin.  The wires had shorted through the fan mounting screw, through the rad, and rad screw to the case.  Thankfully my cases and PSU grounding worked as designed(Thank you Lian Li[O11 Dynamic] and Corsair[RM850x]) and i have no other failures.  So i have replaced the fans with ones that do not use this system. 

 

Today I disassembled the Polaris Fans and found that 1 fan had a wire that was cut trough, and another showed some chaffing on some of the insulation.  As you can see in the photos the wires can obstruct the screw holes. The vibrations of the fan running caused the insulation to chaff and short.  5 of the 8 wires show damage in this fan. I also found some signs of chaffing on another wire in a second fan.

 

Based on my sample size of three fans inspected 1 had outright failed, and a second signs of damage.  This has me concerned that this may be a more widespread issue.  That other PC owners may have these fans with the same fire risk.  I am also concerned that this design flaw may not be limited to the Polaris, but may exist in all In Win fans with the 8 Pin Daisy Chain such as the In Win Saturn(IW-FN-ASN120-3PK) that looks to use the same system.  I do not have one to disposable so I cannot be sure of this. (In Win has provided photos of the internals of the Saturn fan, and I do not believe these pose a risk.)

 

I hope that word of this gets back to In Win and they investigate.  Do the right thing and work with regulators to recall the defective design.

 

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Update:

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So I have heard back from In Win.

 

"First of all, we are sorry to hear what happened, but we are glad to know everything is fine on your side. For Saturn (IW-FN-ASN120-3PK), we can assure you that we are using a new 6-pin design for this model, so no worry for the wire issue. As for Polaris, please allow us some time for investigating internally, then we will report here again. Thank you for your patience."   https://forum.in-win.com/forum/general-discussion/hardware/12068-polaris-fans-fire-hazard

 

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Final Update

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So I received the Saturn Fans and have them installed.  I have to say I'm happy with them.  Knowing that they do not have the same design flaw as the Polaris fans give me peace of mind.  I have to give credit to In Win they  have been excellent and meet my gold standard for customer care. Not many companies do this. Thanks you In Win

 

So here are my thoughts on the Saturn fans(ASN120).

 

Packaging:

 

The fans ship in a simple box(what more does it need to be.)  There is no manual in the box, but a QR code on the side to find one online.  +less packaging -If you cannot scan it you are kinda left to figure it out.  The fans ship in a protective plastic sleeve the to me felt smooth and soft.  It kinda felt premium.

 

Installation:

 

Installing them wasn't to hard.  It took some time, but that more had to do with me removing previous fans, with all their cables, and redoing a bunch of cable management i had going on.  Once all the clutter was dealt with  The Saturn fans were easy enough.  The way they set up their daisy chained cables made things easy.  Each set of three comes with a controller you have to use. I didn't like the idea until I started using, but once I did I realized how much this made things easier. Each controller can take up to 6 fans, since i have 9 I had to use 2 controllers.  You can daisy chain the controllers together as each has a 5v ARGB out.  Another neat feature is that if you do not have an ARGB header on your motherboard you can ad a switch to the controller so you can change the effects remotely, for example you could plug the reset switch of you case in the the controller and change the lighting effects that way.  With each controller taking SATA power I'm not worried about plugging all 9 fans into one fan header and all the fans into one ARGB header.  I could only see an issue here if you do not have SATA power plugs to spare.  With the magnetic backing on the controller mounting it was a breeze.  The only real downside to the design is with the controller design is it is 16mm thick.  I could see this being an issue on cheaper or older cases that don't have much room behind the back panel.

 

The fan:

 

The fans are an airflow focused PWM Fan.  With both higher airflow and static pressure then a Noctua NF-F12 They perform well.  To do this they are a little noisy at full speed at 35dB(A).  After playing around with my fan curves I have found a happy medium, and are keeping my 5900x at 42C under light load with only a minor hum, and even under load, the noise level is acceptable.  Running the Horizon Zero Dawn Benchmark my CPU never exceeded 70C wail maintaining 4.5GHZ all core, and i my fans set to ramp up high after 75C.  In other words, they have a lot of potential performance that the average user wont need and can safely be set to 50% or so for most average use cases.  Heaven help you though if you plug them into a DC fan header.

 

The Lighting:

 

Each fan has 8 LEDs and the do a fine job.  There are hot spots, but this isn't unusual. The clear fan frame with it's texture catches the light better then the Polaris ever did and in my opinion looks nice.  Also with the clear frame they throw a lot of light illuminating my case better then my previous fans ever did.

 

Final thoughts:

 

Over all I am quiet happy with the Saturn fans.  Most importantly the do their main function very well, and they do it in style.  The noise can be controlled if you have some sort of fan controller wail still dong a good job of cooling your PC.  The looks are subjective, but I like them.  They do a good job of adding some bling to my case.  With their approach to wiring it was a lot simpler to manage then other ARGB fans i have used and the controller adds some useful functions.  The truly impressive detail is the price.  At time of writing this i and get a 3 pack of the Saturn fan for the same price as 1 Noctua NF-F12 of $34.99CND(the Saturns are on sale, normal price is 44.99).  Comparing it to the Cooler Master MF120 Halo for 99.99 CND(witch has lower air flow and static pressure)  these are a bargain.  Regardless of what your budget these are good fans.  The only reason not to go with them is if you don't like the look of the clear frame, or can only run your fans are 100%.

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Eveshade
Updated to reflect new information.

[PineyCreek]

Maybe something for Steve @ Gamers Nexus to look at?

[Eveshade]

I have tweeted at him already, among others.  I am also waiting for my account on the Inwin forums to be approved so i can post there.

[Eveshade]

So A brief update.  I have now submitted a report to Health Canada.

[flibberdipper]

That is an interesting oversight for a company like InWin to make. Actually rather surprised such a fucky wucky made it through to production.

[NattyKathy]

yikes, there's a LOT to dislike about the choices InWin made there. I get what they were going for putting the marshalling board & connector there, but that exact design should not have made it to production. Thanks for the heads-up, OP

[Eveshade]

A Simple redesign of the plastic cover on the frame to prevent the wires from being exposed to the screws would solve the issue.

[Eveshade]

So i have looked at photos of the Saturn fan and i feel confident that these fans do not share the issue I found with the Polaris fans.  In fact i like the design, and think that I may get some of these fans.

[NattyKathy]

1 hour ago, Eveshade said:

So i have looked at photos of the Saturn fan and i feel confident that these fans do not share the issue I found with the Polaris fans.  In fact i like the design, and think that I may get some of these fans.

that looks like much more well thought-out design

[Eveshade]

9 hours ago, Natty Ice said:

that looks like much more well thought-out design

It does.  I will be getting some soon and am looking forward to see how they work out.

[Eveshade]

I forgot to mention, In Win also sent me an In Win key chain.  Just that little extra.  Totally unexpected, but also very nice of them.