If your using a Swiftech MCP300 pump read this !

[Major]

Reworked my cooling today, changed up a few things. In the process I discoverd that one of my MCP300 pumps WAS NOT WORKING !! I had it in a loop with a Eheim 1250 so I never noticed that it had failed and no damage was done. When I took it apart the impeller/magnet assymbly was completely chewed up. I took apart the other one that was still working and exactly the same thing has happend to it as well, its on the verge of failing. :( My Ehiem is fine, nothing wrong with it.

I have never run the pumps dry or operated them in anyway that could cause this damage. I run my system 24/7 and feel that the MCP300 is just a poorly built pump. I have read other posts about the housing cracking and leaking on them but don't recall anyone posting anything like this happening. I noticed discolorization of the water a couple of weeks ago but thought it was baterial growth. Come to find out it was fragments from the magnets.

One of the MCP300 is about 6months old and the other is only seen a couple of months of use, just thought I'd give a heads up to anyone using this pump so that a potentially damaging situation could be avoided.

[Ruantic]

mines a month old and didn't completely fail but developed an intermittent noise, sounds kind of like an 80mm fan on its last legs. my impeller looks fine, but flow seems lesas than it should be. thankfully the 2 year warranty covers mine. Hopefully yours will bew covered. I did quite a bit of searching and research on the pump before i bought it, only thing bad i've seen other then your situation is shutdown due to cavitation and thermal protection, but that seems mostly from air in the loop... let us know how Swiftech handles this for you.

BTW: I have a 1250 that will be replacing my swifty, not sure if i'll sell it or try again in another system....

[antipop]

Originally posted by Ruantic
mines a month old and didn't completely fail but developed an intermittent noise, sounds kind of like an 80mm fan on its last legs. my impeller looks fine, but flow seems lesas than it should be. Beware, my eheim 1048 was noisy so i called eheim and they told me to check the joint at the bottom and at the top of the pump, they get wider and then the impeller is out of control and can led to kill you pump. In my case it was nothing serious, just a restriction in the intake

[Ruantic]

Beware, my eheim 1048 was noisy so i called eheim


Thanks for the warning, I've already removed, replaced with the eheim, and RMA'd it, hopefully the new one will last a bit longer.:rolleyes:

[antipop]

Originally posted by Ruantic
Thanks for the warning, I've already removed, replaced with the eheim, and RMA'd it, hopefully the new one will last a bit longer.:rolleyes: Eheim have very good product, i'm really happy of my pump and the support (at least in france) is great. The guy was ready to come at my house to have it fixed!

[Ruantic]

Eheim have very good product, i'm really happy of my pump and the support (at least in france) is great. The guy was ready to come at my house to have it fixed!


I really can't complain about Swiftech, I'm not sure what is up with Major's pumps, but while searching various forums regarding problems with the Swifty 300 I didn't see any failures at all, mostly issues with improperly bled lines, etc. Gabe over at Swiftech was great, other then the fact any RMA process is a pain in the A$%, Gabe simply told me the pump has a 2 year warranty, if it fails, send it back and it would be replaced.

The real problem is that now that I have had problems, and seen Major Slaughter's problem, its a trust issue.

[antipop]

I've never heard a complain about swiftech customer support, i think they've a very good one

[charlie]

I recently e-mailed them about getting replacement MCW5000PT
mobo gaskets and never received any feedback :(
C

[Ruantic]

Originally posted by charlie
I recently e-mailed them about getting replacement MCW5000PT
mobo gaskets and never received any feedback :(
C


No idea, maybe it slipped through, I usually call them. But if you need parts for something just go to there webstore, I believe what you need is listed on it with price and all....

[scottk]

I'm running three systems with MCP300 pumps. One pump died last week. I had my NF7-S 2.0 set to shut down at 60c in BIOS and it did :) .

Swiftech did a cross-ship return on it, had a new pump at my door the next day. They do great support and you can usually talk directly with Gabe.

These pumps don't appear too durable. All three of them were very quiet for about a week or two, then they started getting noisy. I think pump #2 is close to dying also, it's starting to make the same noises the first one did before it went down.

The systems they're in are bled-well. The pump that died also had a reservoir in its loop.

I just picked up a Eheim 1250, maybe I'll have better luck with that.

[Major]

Yea I have a 1250 thats been running for a while with no problems. I just picked up a 1260 today to replace the MCP300's. I haven't tryed to contact Swiftech yet, sent an email to the place I bought them but no response yet.

I bought the 1250 and 1260 at a local aquarium shop. The guy there looked at the impeller/magnet assymbly for the MCP300 that had be trashed and said that was real common with that type of impeller. its only suspended by magnets and the shaft is not supported in front. I compared it to the 1260 impeller and WOW what a difference. It has a ceramic shaft thats suspened on both ends and the magnet is incapuslated in a protective plastic cover to prevent the damage that occured to the MCP300.

I'll give Gabe a call tomorrow and see what he says. I understand they have a new pump out the MCP500 its not on their web site but maybe they will rma it with the new pumps.

[Major]

I RMAed the two Swiftechs MCP300 today, called Gabe and he was very helpful, he said the only issues he knew of where when the pumps were used mounted sideways. I personally don't see how that would be an issue but he said they where designed to be used upright. I have used both of them mounted in a drive bay on their side at one point or another so that could have been the culprit.

[scottk]

Originally posted by Major Slaughter
I RMAed the two Swiftechs MCP300 today, called Gabe and he was very helpful, he said the only issues he knew of where when the pumps were used mounted sideways. I personally don't see how that would be an issue but he said they where designed to be used upright. I have used both of them mounted in a drive bay on their side at one point or another so that could have been the culprit.

If that's the case, they'll probably need to redesign the bay-mount in their kits

http://www.swiftnets.com/assets/images/products/H20H/H20H80-COMPLETE%20KITX350.jpg

I did notice the pumps were noisier and took forever to bleed when using the bay-mounts, so I took them out and ran them upright on the bottom of my cases.

[Major]

Thats what I was using too, your right if there is a know issue then why are they still selling the pumps mounted like that ?;)