Legendary Bad Luck: Second EK 140 Revo D5

[jasonvp]

My bad luck is, indeed, legendary.  Back in February of this year, my +2 year old EK 140 Revo D5 pump/rez combo started making some very unpleasant noises.  A grinding sort of noise that basically just sounded like the pump was jammed up.  But it wasn't really clear why or how, or by what.  For reference, aside from the pump/rez combo, my loop has:

• EK's X299 Rampage VI Extreme monoblock
• Alphacool's 480mm x 60mm radiator
• clear, flexi-tubing
• Swiftech's awesome Quick-Disconnect connectors

 

And that's it.  Filled with: good ol' distilled water with EK's own clear biocide.  No kill coil or anything else of the like.

 

The pump just stopped pushing water, and instead made all those awful noises.  So I killed the PC's power, pulled the pump/rez, and ordered a new one.  It was past its warranty, and I wasn't too worried.  Just annoyed that my gaming rig was down for the count until the folks in Slovenia could get me a new one.

 

Four months later: the same, damned thing happened.  To the same pump.  This time the warranty is hopefully going to kick in for an RMA (ticket opened w/them).  I can't, for the life of me, figure out what could be happening here with so few things in the actual loop.  Hell, my second loop has two GPUs, and two Alphacool 60mm rads in it, and is powered by a second Revo.  That one has been running for over two years and is still kicking.

 

Now, why is my bad luck legendary?  I just purchased an RTX 3090, finally!  And I can't USE IT!  Grr!

[AnonymousGuy]

All D5 pumps are the same regardless of who sells them.   This is just bad luck.  I've had several D5 pumps running 24x7 for years (oldest one is maybe from 2016) and only killed them when I ran them dry.

[jasonvp]

9 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

All D5 pumps are the same regardless of who sells them.   This is just bad luck.  I've had several D5 pumps running 24x7 for years (oldest one is maybe from 2016) and only killed them when I ran them dry.

Apparently EK has updated the pump and line; the product in question has since been EOL'd so hopefully they send me one of the newer units.  And of course it's "just bad luck".  That was sort of my point.  I know how reliable D5s usually are, as I'd mentioned with the second loop.

 

 

[jasonvp]

I didn't have time to look at the loop when the pump died as I was working at the time.  However, after work, I dug in.  It's... not pretty.  At all.  In fact: in unmitigated disaster.  There's grease everywhere in the entire loop.  The lines, the CPU block, and the radiator.  An example:

 

 

That was a clear tube.  Not so much, any longer.

 

FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU....

[jasonvp]

Update:

As of this morning, 28 June, I still haven't heard back from EK's support folks.  I put the RMA ticket in on the 23rd and: nothing.  I'm quite shocked at this, to be honest.  Not even an "ACK, we got it, we're looking into it..." or anything.  Very unlike them.