Is it safe to short output of Psu?

[AAmingGaming]

I'm currently going through a warranty request for my Fractal Design PSU that has a broken component. The Rep has asked me to intensionaly shove metal into the 24pin output on the PSU. Tech-tubers are always saying how much charge the capacitors store in a PSU even after being left powered off, so is this request safe or am I risking a big shock by doing this? 

[mariushm]

There's not enough capacitance for you to be dangerous for you,  and the voltage (12v) is too low to be dangerous.

 

It would be dangerous to mess around with the high voltage capacitors INSIDE the power supply, but the voltages on the headers are safe.

Use some scissors to cut the plastic , or shove the sharp tip of a knife into the connector to cut the walls.

 

I agree that you should double check that it's actually a Fractal Design employee, as it's not common to hear such advice from a tech support person, you could void your warranty in fact by damaging products.

[Kilrah]

That sounds like a complete scam, make sure you're actually talking to the right people. It's the opposite, usually any trace of intentional or other aftermarket damage would void the warranty.

[Tetras]

3 minutes ago, AAmingGaming said:

The Rep has asked me to intentionally shove metal into the 24pin output on the PSU.

This seems like a dubious policy, most manufacturers will immediately invalidate any warranty if there is physical damage (by the user or otherwise) so you're just taking it on faith that they will honour it after you break it.

[OddOod]

While it's odd, it's not unheard of

I'd double check the email address and maybe google their customer service line and call that to triple check, but if everything checks out, do it

[Kilrah]

Indeed if that is to avoid shipping it back that would be valid, wasn't specified though.

[OhioYJ]

18 minutes ago, Tetras said:

This seems like a dubious policy, most manufacturers will immediately invalidate any warranty if there is physical damage (by the user or otherwise) so you're just taking it on faith that they will honour it after you break it.

This isn't all that uncommon of a policy actually. For many manufacturers, they aren't going to repair the item, they will just trash it. They don't want to spend money shipping it back and forth. They just don't want people turning in warranty claims to end up with multiples, so they want to make sure the "warrantied" product is in-deed trash.

 

I've had this happen to me with a few manufacturers over the years.

[Tetras]

1 minute ago, OhioYJ said:

This isn't all that uncommon of a policy actually. For many manufacturers, they aren't going to repair the item, they will just trash it. They don't want to spend money shipping it back and forth. They just don't want people turning in warranty claims to end up with multiples, so they want to make sure the "warrantied" product is in-deed trash.

 

I've had this happen to me with a few manufacturers over the years.

Wouldn't it be smart to at least inspect the dead item to know why it broke? They could have had some big engineering oversight that is causing 50% of their failures and they will never know if everyone smashes their PSU.

[Kilrah]

9 minutes ago, Tetras said:

They could have had some big engineering oversight that is causing 50% of their failures and they will never know if everyone smashes their PSU.

Usually unless the percentage of RMAs becomes unusually high for the product category it's simply not going to be worth even looking at it. 

[thrasher_565]

you can be shocked by a psu and the caps i no ive done it. how you drain the caps i dont no. but why would you need too... you should never be in your psu ever...

 

oh i get it they want to see a borken psu so they can send you another one so you dont sell this one claming is "broken" just dont brake it too much so then you can fix it and the sell it i kid...

Edited April 15 by thrasher_565

[AAmingGaming]

47 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Indeed if that is to avoid shipping it back that would be valid, wasn't specified though.

It was for that reason, but there were personal details in that part of email so cropped it out

[Godlygamer23]

Some RMA policies do require items to be damaged if they don't want them returned - although it is now your problem to have it recycled if they're not taking it back. I've worked with distributors that have had similar requests before sending new parts - damage it to the point of it being unusable, and certify that it is unusable, or at least get a photo of the item.

 

With that being said, make sure you're talking to the correct individuals(i.e. actual Fractal) before doing anything.

[OddOod]

18 hours ago, Tetras said:

Wouldn't it be smart to at least inspect the dead item to know why it broke? They could have had some big engineering oversight that is causing 50% of their failures and they will never know if everyone smashes their PSU.

Possibly, but it's cheaper to just nuke stuff and ship new ones. If there were a big spike in RMAs then yes, it would make sense to rip into them and do a full Root Cause Analysis. But you have to remember how much that costs.
Not only do they have to pay to get it shipped back, but then their logistics group has to recieve, track, and store all these units which is $$, then they have to dedicate engineers and machine time to investigating all the units which is $$$$$ + opportunity cost. Then that data has to get handed off to someone who is half decent at trend analysis which is $$$. And finally they have to dispose of the vast majority of the units which is further $$.

As it is, all they have to do is set a couple alerts (one email/physical address RMAing a lot, hash the image and make sure it's at least unique, compare RMAs to sales and ping when that ratio goes over a set threshold) and there is the bonus that customers don't even have to visit a shipping drop location.