Is this an issue or just normal flux/gunk from manufacturing?

[btnMash]

Hi all! Just got the rads for my second ever water cooled build, 3x Hardware Labs Nemesis 420 GTXs, and was surprised to see a bunch of reddish/orange stuff down the ports.

 

I'm aware that all rads need to be flushed to remove flux and other manufacturing residue, but this seems a bit weird? It's been a few years since my last build, but I don't recall the rads I used then (EK CoolStream XE 360, Hardware Labs Nemesis 280GTS XFLOW) looking so dirty. The reddish/orange rust/corrosion looking stuff in particular is concerning to me. In each rad one of the ports (the more recessed one) looks a lot worse, with much more orange stuff. The other one has some orange, but mostly just silver drops that I assume are flux or some other manufacturing gunk.

 

I see a lot of posts elsewhere answering similar questions saying it's normal, but the reasoning fluctuates wildly. Most say it's just normal copper oxidation but then proceed to say that would be green where this looks more like iron rust (red/orange). I guess it starts reddish and changes to green over time?

 

I got all 3 rads brand new from the same vendor and they all look more or less the same. The boxes were pretty dusty like they've sat around a long time. One other strange thing was the specs on the back of the box had one line covered up with black tape. I took the tape off and saw the covered up line says "Custom Dark Matter™ high quality finish", which is what they list on the HWLabs site. The rads do not have the same textured finish shown on the HWLabs site. It's a very smooth, matte black. That's not really an issue for me, but I do find it odd and it makes me wonder if these are old inventory or something?

 

TL:DR;

Do these look like normal ports for brand new, unflushed rads?

 

PS: Sorry that the focus is completely off. Phone will not focus inside the port with enough distance to shine light in so you can actually make out what's in there.

 

[QuantumFire8]

this does look a bit excessive have you tried flushing all these ports? 

if you have if you have and these have not changed i would be careful.

i can't tell what it from the photos and i would do some tests as well to make sure it functions correctly.

you would not want to hook that up to you loop without cleaning it first.

hope i helped at all.

[btnMash]

Nope, just got them out of the box and wanted to see if I should even bother or just return them. I might just have to try flushing one to see how it goes but I'm a bit apprehensive about it. I know it's tough to get all the gunk out even when the rads are relatively clean and this looks like a mess.

[Sir Beregond]

Some rads are filthier than others out of the box, even within the same brand. I know they look like rust or corrosion, but its not. Keep in mind the end tanks of rads are often made of brass. 

 

It's kinda hard to tell with the pic attached if there is something actually wrong with it or not. The way I see it rendering, its kinda blurry inside the port.

[btnMash]

Yeah, sorry about the crappy pictures. I tried but couldn't get my phone to focus on the inside of the port.

 

I reached out to the vendor and they said it's normal. I also reached out to Hardware Labs and haven't heard back. I'll try to flush one and see how that goes.

[fonzz1e]

On 6/29/2023 at 12:46 PM, btnMash said:

these look like normal ports for brand new, unflushed rads?

Yup, all mine looks like these when they arrive

 

just flush the debris out of em