H220 X2 leaked

[Prairiemedic]

Good morning 

 

I apologize if my questions are answered in other threads, I did manage to find from a few threads that apparently cleaning the wet PCB's with the purest rubbing alcohol I can find may help, so I did use the search function before posting.

 

Short Version, Brand new Swiftech H220 X2 reservoir cracked and leaked all over my motherboard, both R9 290x's and my PSU and sound card, want to know if the coolant will permanently damage the aforementioned components or will I be ok?

 

Longer version

 

Bought a Swiftech H220 x2 two weeks ago from newegg.ca, Got here Friday and I hooked it up but left it outside the system for a night to run and make sure it had no leaks overnight. Saturday morning there was not a drop on the paper towels I had under it and I thought victory was mine and it would be safe to install into my PC. 

 

I followed directions and carefully installed the new cooler lovingly and everything seemed fine from Saturday afternoon until today, Thursday at 1030am. I got off night shift late and was hoping to play some Star Citizen when I noticed to my horror the desk had a pool of liquid under my PC. I immediately powered off the system, glancing up at the cooler before I turned it off and noticed to my horror, the pump was cavitating, and the reservoir had a very noticeable and apparent crack that was not there the day before. About half of the coolant in the loop had leaked out over my motherboard, video cards, sound card, PSU, and cables. I removed the cooler, cards, and anything wet and placed it all on paper towels to dry. 

 

I have read in these forums that rubbing alcohol should help with the coolant on PCBs, but I am wondering... Is it likely that the components are salvageable? Has anyone had experience dealing with a swiftech RMA and will they cover damaged components if it was a manufacturing defect? I took pictures of the cooler when it arrived and when I installed it. There was no visible crack or damage, or at least nothing obvious to the naked eye when I installed it. There was no dropping or bumping of the cooler when it was installed. I cant figure out why it cracked like this. My PC was not bumped or moved or knocked over. And I did not excessively tighten the screws on the fans when mounting so I do not think I would of warped or bent the radiator adding pressure to the reservoir.  

 

Worth mentioning, did not add any dye or fiddle with the pump, reservoir or anything at all, Except I changed the fans from Push to Pull, using the H220x2 to exhaust air up and out of the case.  it was a vanilla install. I intended to add an additional 120mm radiator in a push/pull eventually. (I have an FX-9590, please, no space heater jokes... I wish I had stuck with my 8350...) 

[ARikozuM]

Get some isopropyl alcohol and soak the components with gentle dips and let air-dry. Do not reassemble for a day or two while you wait for a new cooler to arrive.

[ARikozuM]

And make sure to call Swiftech for warranty service if you still have it. Even if you don't, they may offer to fix the product for a few dollars.

 

And yes, your components should be fine.

[VinsinityKT]

This is another example of why I'm afraid of water cooling my system lol.

[ARikozuM]

19 minutes ago, VinsinityKT said:

This is another example of why I'm afraid of water cooling my system lol.

Don't be. Every product has a few lemons.

[Enderman]

I'm going to guess that the huge increase in water temperature caused by the 9590 caused the loop pressure to increase and crack the reservoir.

The non-X2 Swiftech AIOs had a known issue of the reservoir cracking but this is the first time I have seen it happen to the X2.

So this is almost certainly due to the 9590 and not because of a defective cooler, you did very well testing it before use.

 

Right now, if the PC was on when it started leaking, the parts like motherboard and GPU are almost certainly dead, and you should contact swiftech and tell them what happened.

Hopefully they offer to pay for a new PC for you, a watercooling system that is well built should handle high pressures without cracking, so this can partially be blamed on them.

Other people have had their corsair or NZXT aio leak and the company paid for replacement PC parts for them, hopefully Swiftech is just as generous.

 

Take all the parts out (after taking pictures and videos for evidence) and try drying them out for a few days in bags of rice or something like that.

Test each component individually in a working PC to find out what is dead and what is ok.

[gamerking]

1 hour ago, Prairiemedic said:

Good morning 

 

I apologize if my questions are answered in other threads, I did manage to find from a few threads that apparently cleaning the wet PCB's with the purest rubbing alcohol I can find may help, so I did use the search function before posting.

 

Short Version, Brand new Swiftech H220 X2 reservoir cracked and leaked all over my motherboard, both R9 290x's and my PSU and sound card, want to know if the coolant will permanently damage the aforementioned components or will I be ok?

 

Longer version

 

Bought a Swiftech H220 x2 two weeks ago from newegg.ca, Got here Friday and I hooked it up but left it outside the system for a night to run and make sure it had no leaks overnight. Saturday morning there was not a drop on the paper towels I had under it and I thought victory was mine and it would be safe to install into my PC. 

 

I followed directions and carefully installed the new cooler lovingly and everything seemed fine from Saturday afternoon until today, Thursday at 1030am. I got off night shift late and was hoping to play some Star Citizen when I noticed to my horror the desk had a pool of liquid under my PC. I immediately powered off the system, glancing up at the cooler before I turned it off and noticed to my horror, the pump was cavitating, and the reservoir had a very noticeable and apparent crack that was not there the day before. About half of the coolant in the loop had leaked out over my motherboard, video cards, sound card, PSU, and cables. I removed the cooler, cards, and anything wet and placed it all on paper towels to dry. 

 

I have read in these forums that rubbing alcohol should help with the coolant on PCBs, but I am wondering... Is it likely that the components are salvageable? Has anyone had experience dealing with a swiftech RMA and will they cover damaged components if it was a manufacturing defect? I took pictures of the cooler when it arrived and when I installed it. There was no visible crack or damage, or at least nothing obvious to the naked eye when I installed it. There was no dropping or bumping of the cooler when it was installed. I cant figure out why it cracked like this. My PC was not bumped or moved or knocked over. And I did not excessively tighten the screws on the fans when mounting so I do not think I would of warped or bent the radiator adding pressure to the reservoir.  

 

Worth mentioning, did not add any dye or fiddle with the pump, reservoir or anything at all, Except I changed the fans from Push to Pull, using the H220x2 to exhaust air up and out of the case.  it was a vanilla install. I intended to add an additional 120mm radiator in a push/pull eventually. (I have an FX-9590, please, no space heater jokes... I wish I had stuck with my 8350...) 

was the pc running ?. if it was in sleep you have some hope . if it was off  your very lucky . dry everything and you have two options use 99% iso on all parts that were driped/got wet or letting them all air dry for a long time . 2+ weeks with rotating the ways they dry . mb with the cpu socket on table top ,revised of that same with gpu and sound card and psu . same for all . if they have water spots you have to clean the effected stuff then with isopropy alcohol .

 

it happens you get a dud i had a h100i leak much worse then your pc was running full speed . had a sprinkler effect in my case . i went custom loop after that much less chance if you get a leak you didnt air test .

 

contact swiftech they should make it right send them the photos including if you have any before it leaked in your case .

 

[Prairiemedic]

Greetings.

 

Thanks for the replies. I did contact Swiftech, first by email, and got a less than helpful response. So I called and actually got a human to talk to, and the response was much better.

 

 

In answer to some of teh above questions, Yes it was very much powered on while it was leaking. I hardly ever turn it off. The last time I saw it dry was at 1848hrs on Wednesday when I went to work, and it was leaking and wet when I got home at 1028hrs Thurdsay. So over 15 and a half hours it was running without me there to notice a leak. The card was still outputting a display so I am hopeful its not totally ruined. 

 

 

 

Mac at swiftech suggested I wipe with isopropyl alcohol, and use the bake method on wet components. 350 degrees in the oven for a few min

 

That makes me very nervous. Any thoughts?

 

Post edited since my outlook on swiftech has improved since I called them.

[ARikozuM]

I've had better luck submerging some components in a bit of alcohol (basically pour alcohol over the components) and leaving to dry.