Laing DDC310 making sounds, but not pushing any water

Hello dear watercooling experts ,

I have searched the internet for a while now however I wasn’t able to find anything useful. Help is greatly appreciated!

I‘ve had this problem for the past 2 years. I was always able to fix it by opening the pump and sometimes cleaning it. I‘am not completely sure, however I think there are small white floating „plastic-pieces“ inside the water. Which is weird, because I have dark blue softtubes.

Furthermore if the pump starts, it normally works without any problem and great flowing rates. However sometimes it just randomly stops pumping. Knocking on the pump or opening the AGB (Alphacool Heatkiller) temporarily resolves that issue.

Also when opening the AGB, there is often a lot of pressure inside it. Is that normal?

I ALWAYS have this problem when the pc is turned off for more than a few days, and sometimes for even less than 12 hours.

The Build is about 4-5 years old, and never was really deep-cleaned.
Do you think cleaning it with Chilit Bang green and orange is a good idea?

I have 2 pumps at home, both have the same issue.

PS: is there a way to upload Video to show you the sounds it produces?
In the beginning the water was changed way to less, the past 2 years though, very often.
Also the pc isn’t used very often. Does that matter?
If I clean the pump and it doesn’t even start pumping -> no way it clogs again, right? Can I rule out residues?
When I now start my Computer, I feel a vibration at the pump and also hear some noise. It sounds as if it tries pumping, but can’t.


If photos are needed, I will upload them later. (I’m currently on my phone and the image files are too large :/ )

Thanks in advance for your help and time!
David


If it helps: my hardware:
CPU: Intel i9 7960X 16-Core 2,8 GHZ Wassergekühlt
GPU: Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX Vega 64 Wassergekühlt
Netzteil: Enermax MaxTytan 80+ 800 Watt
Mainboard: Asus WS X299 PRO/SE
Speicher: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 128 GB (8x16 GB) DDR4 3000 MHZ
SSD: Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1 TB NVMe M.2
Lüfter: 3x Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM Lüfter
Gehäuse: Bequiet Dark Base Pro 900 Big Tower

Watercooling:
Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU-Kühler
Alphacool NexXxos Ready ST30 Full Cooper 240 mm Radiator
Alphacool NexXxos XT 45 Full Copper 280 mm Radiator
Heatkiller Tube 200 DDC Ausgleichsbehälter + Alphacool Laing DDC 310 Pumpe
Alphacool NexXxos GPX - AMD RX Vega M05 Backplate

 

It's possible the pump bearing is worn, hence the vibration and noise. When you've opened the pump have you removed the impeller to check the bearing. The white plastic might be from inside the impeller.

 

Thanks for your quick answer! I will definitely try that out. However, I have 2 ddc310 pumps at home. Both with the same issue.

I have uploaded a little video here, to show you how it looks and sounds (outside of the system).
https://youtube.com/shorts/fbzpmaHh4wA?si=JdV6_mloXaxSF7hN

do you think I should buy a 3rd pump to test it out with a new one?

 

Are you running that off of a motherboard fan connector?

 

You're not supposed to run the pumps dry. The impeller sits on top of a bearing that requires water for lubrication. It'll be noisy due to the bearing being dry. Not sure why it doesn't start unless the bearing has completely gone.

 

It sounds exactly the same when I try it within my system.

What do you mean by bearing, do I have to remove any screws to seeing that?

 

The impeller sits directly on top of the bearing so if you remove the impeller (it's magnetic) the bearing is on the 'prong' underneath. If the bearing has worn badly or even gone then you'll get the noise when it's in the system. The DDCs don't always have a long life especially when run at full speed. I've managed to get 12 years out of some of mine but they run 95% of the time at 20% speed.

It could be airlocks in the system that's caused the pump to run dry. As mentioned by Cheapskate above you are running it off a Molex or SATA adapter rather than a fan connection?

 

No, it‘s running directly of the PSU (Enermax MaxTytan80+ 800W)

The connectors don’t seem to match.

 

Do you mean there's only 2 wires? For power the pump only needs a 12V and Ground wire.

One thing I forgot to add in my post above when you refit the impeller be careful not to let the magnet 'drop' it back onto the bearing when you replace it.

 

Alright, I will

Okay, however this is already my 3rd pump in 5 years. This isn’t normal, is it?

Also I Never switched any pumping-speed, so I guess it is on „normal“. However I‘m quite sure it always slowed down after a few seconds.

 

Thanks for the advice!
The pump has 3 cables, 2 (bundled) plugged into the PSU. 1 connected to the „PUMP“ at the Mainboard.

Should I try starting it again, with different ports on the PSU?

 

I will deepclean the water cooling on Tuesday-Wednesday using this guide:
https://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/threads/wasserkuehlung-reinigen.139944/
In order to remove any residential pieces from the radiators etc.
It has never been deepcleaned before.
is this a good idea?

 

3 pumps in five years? Is your pump at a high point in your loop?

 

THANKS!!!

Is this pump compatible with my Alphacool Heatkiller and the rest of my system? Do I need the pump housing?

 

No, it’s at the very bottom and directly behind my 240mm radiator

 

Also isn’t there an easy way to just power adjust the ddc310 series? (When googling I couldn’t find anything useful for the 310).

Do you think the „Laing DDC-1T plus PWM“ would survive longer?

 

Hello,

The new pump finally arrived and the cooling system is cleaned!

I‘m a little bit confused right now, how do I adjust the power usage (frequency) of the pump? I have bought the Laing DDC 1T with pwm.

Thank you for your great help!
David

Edit: do I need to adjust it inside the bios? Do I need to connect them any different than the ddc310?