News EK halts production of nickel-plated waterblocks

Problem is things haven't really changed since I posted about this on the forums here a week ago.
If you bought a block in good faith as I did in April then you either risk your system by using it or write it off as a loss.

It's frustrating having to wait and see if testing proves a product defect which would at least allow you to RMA the item and hopefully receive a replacement you could have confidence in.
Else it's an expensive write off unless you fancy your chances with the rest of your costly water loop.

Until then you either buy another brand or wait for some concrete independent testing results and then hopefully the aforementioned product recall.

 

good old GTX 295 solid copper block.

 

damn and I liked the looks of their full coverage gpu blocks in nickel... hmm guess I have to hold off for a bit or do my own plating lol.

 

you could always get an inline water filter, they are cheap and I recommend having a few anyways to catch anything that could shed off into the coolant.

 

the real news is that people still watercool?? I got out of that game awhile ago, with all the advances in aircooling and heat pipes, and simply put higher speed. I'd rather spend the $200 on watercooling kit and instead buy a faster graphics card or processor and forgo the overclock.

 

Damn it! I wish i had seen this before ordering a loop full of EK stuff. =(
It's a good thing i wont be building the system for a while (have to scratch build the case first so i can leave the bits in their boxes for a while and return them for replacements if they decide to recall.
If they don't i think i'll just spin the chamber, pull the trigger and hope my nickle doesn't flake off. =)

 

The three or four threads on RRTech made for some interesting reading, needless to say I will be staying away from EK blocks for the foreseeable future. On a side note, reading some of the posts on the RRTech forums reminded me why I like bit-tech so much.

 

The threads on RRtech do make interesting reading however I am concerned about the claim of no bias or independance. The threads are emotionally charged and to me there is a definite conflict of interest in claiming that the EK nickel plating is defective while also offering a custom plating business to re-plate your blocks and a point of sale for similar competitor products that may (or may not) offer a better margin for the seller. There is a great deal of misinformation and stupidity out there where watercooling is concerned, and it pays to read the instructions of manufacturer's products, not to mix pre-mixed coolants with anything else, not to assume that your water loop can remain so free of impurities so as not to create electrolytic reactions, and not to assume that somebody knows everything about it. From my experience, it doesn't pay to iggnore an expert's advice. However, it is always prudent to check out your expert's loyalties and economic interests. There is an old saying: Money doesn't stink.

 

2 full loops with with Ek blocks all round. Cpu, mosfet, chipset and 2 gtx 460 blocks all running great... wonder if i should take one or 2 of em apart do for an inspection now...

 

I would keep an eye on it, and if you notice any spots on the block where copper can be seen, shout out to EK and get an RMA. Sadle, they are handling this so bad that they only offer warenty until the 31´st beacuse "People should know by then" IIRC. Which, btw, is against a great deal of laws in a few country´s.

NO it would not. Acording to EK that is exactly what is "eating away our perfect nickel plating"...
Any block that is proper nickel plated will not be affected by a loop with destiled water + a kill coil. It have proven to be the best recepi for watercooling for a few years now, and unless you have an EK nickel block, it will still be.

The EK blocks will start to tear down no matter what fluid you use.

 

Remember, the issue only affects the nickel blocks

Even though there are ongoing rumors that EK is using cheap "non" 0.999 electrolyte copper. But tests are on the way to clarify that too.

 

Ok, cheers guys. When my PC is fixed after the unfortunate explosion (check my build log) I'll be keeping a very close eye on it...

 

No, this is not correct. Water, distilled or otherwise, is corrosive irrespective of the metals it is in contact with, be it nickel, copper, silver, zinc, or aluminium and the process is called OXIDATION. This process will happen no matter what you do unless you add a corrosion inhibitor. The combination of electrically connected metals in the presence of water will enhance its corrosive effect through a process called galvanic corrosion. Nickel is no exception. Unless you add a corrosion inhibitor and regularly flush your system and replace your coolant IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH BRAND OF WATER BLOCK YOU USE OR HOW THICK THE PLATING IS, they will all eventually OXIDISE. Using brass radiators (which contain Zinc and Copper), Silver coils and Nickel plated blocks is mixing metals and a galvanic effect will occur the moment you put water on it unless all of your components are electrically isolated, which in a PC water cooling loop they are not. Distilled water plus a silver kill coil is NOT a PROVEN method for preventing corrosion. Silver ions suspended in water act as an effective BIOCIDE, nothing else. As I have stated in a post above, there is a lot of misinformation around about water cooling and to run any loop without a corrosion inhibitor is plainly stupid, ignorant of basic chemistry knowledge, as well as bad advice whether you have an EK block or not.

 

The 'issue' will affect ANY block because water is corrosive to all metals, copper, nickel, silver, aluminium or otherwise. The process is called OXIDATION, and the purity of the metal is insignificant. In any PC water cooling there is the presence of a number of different metals, zinc and copper from your radiator, copper (or nickel or both) from your blocks, and silver in the case of kill coils. Add to this all the other impurities that can accidentally enter your system as well as the pigments in dyes (some of which are derived from various metals that give the dye its distinctive colour: cobalt, aluminium, barium, to name a few) and you have a chemical soup ready for some galvanic action. Unless a corrosion inhibitor is used and you clean your loop and replace coolant regularly, your blocks will eventually rust, probably your radiator too, irrespective of the brand of waterblock you use. You wouldn't run your car's cooling system without a rust-inhibitor, would you? Nothing different about a PC water cooling loop and noithing unique about an EK water block.

Whatever those 'tests on the way' you refer to are, they are a waste of time as the answers to this alleged 'issue' have already been written in the science of elementary chemistry.

 

So what would be the most effective corrosion inhibitor if your using deionized water and a silver kill coil? Or is the general rule of thumb at the moment to remove any kill coils and use biocides and a corrosion inhibitor?

 

Well I built myself a system about a year ago which included an EK-Supreme CPU block, 2 x 480gtx full blocks and a full board chipset block.

Luckily I had already decided to drain my system down this week in order to fit some new radiator fans. I'll definately give the blocks a good check over before I re-build it. I'm hoping that everything is ok, because I really like their blocks and they are always one of the first to get out blocks for non reference cards etc.

If I do have a problem, I'll just RMA them. As long as they sort the problem out, I'll be happy to carry on using them.

 

I use deionised and a kill coil in my loops including an older EK nickel plated graphics block. The internals on all the copper blocks have oxidised and it can easily be cleaned off but there's no point as it will likely form again and it won't deteriorate further. I believe the oxidation actually prevents further ion exchange. However the apparent corrosion of the nickel plating/copper on some of the EK blocks is not being replicated on other manufacturers blocks. If it is it's not being reported and there's enough people in other forums to shout if this were the case.

If galvanic corrosion was so common with nickel/brass/copper there'd be a lot of reports of blocks and rads being eaten away.

Many people run a corrosion inhibitor in their loop possibly without realising it as it's a additive in some fluids. The comments about always using a corrosion inhibitor seem to have only surfaced after the EK problem came to light and certainly wasn't the recommendation of watercoolers with many years experience (I don't count myself as one of those).

 

EK did not approach this good enough as they should just sweep first few cases under the rug with replacements as others do when they get reclamations. They waited to find the cause. Honorable, but wrong for global player.
[Thinking any other manufacturer has no quality issues is just out of picture.]

After talking to some major resellers, left knowing their block were far best sold on market, meaning many, many people use their blocks, e.g. higher number of reported cases.

For further reference, it is not first time RRR jumped on manufacturers back and tried to free ride him to hell and back. They already cursed Swiftech, Koolance and others are just waiting in line. Also comments people post there are biased (you have to pass crap test to join their kindergarten), hate breeding, purposeless... Been there, never found one single useful advice, or any decent build log or solution to hardware problem from people referring them selves as experts. Connecting tubes together and running liquid over them does not count for expertise.

The problem I see is; RRT is leading anti campaign to protect their own business interest.

FYI, I used to run EK blocks with coolant before [NOT A SINGLE PROBLEMS FOR A YEAR], then tried something fresh and went for major public conviction with distilled. Now I run Koolance nickel plated blocks only with silver and PT Nuke copper based water additive and am already starting to find MICRO shiny flakes on edges of reservoir, just where water level varies a bit.
When I find some time in future I will disassemble block to see what is going on. This came to my attention after seeing corroded CPU 370 with silver koil and distilled only.

I'm certain there is another side of this story. And bad news do spread like fire and are contagious.

Post scriptum : AFAIK, Koolance and Swiftech recommend corrosion-inhibitors since middle ages, we just ignore it.

 

I have nickel plated blocks for my HD4870 Toxic so I have to be aware of what type of coolant I use in the loop to prevent corrosion. I guess plating it must cost a small fortune