here in poland not that much, dunno about US or other parts of world, but im sure that in US it should be fairly cheap to redo the nickle plating.
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This sucks :(
I just installed a new 6990 with the EK FC nickel block and now I'm worried whether or not I'm going to run into problems. I didn't bother breaking the seal and look at the internals because at the time I thought the seal meant your block warranty would be void, and not just the "seal" warranty. Either way, I'm running distilled water with a biocide in my loop. No killcoil and no other additives, with Primochill LRT tubing. *knocks on wood* here's hoping I don't run into any major problems!
There was this one guy on the forum who was trying to setup a plasma spray.
Man i wish that went though, because he said with it, you could plate anything, including plastic.
I have a lot of things i wanted plated ... and i believe he wouldnt of charged and arm and a leg for. :P
The problem is something is corroding in the loop, and you have no anticorrosive.
Its only a matter of time b4 the nickle fails, if it fails, or a impurity in the nickle area where it fails, once again, if it fails, and nothing but an anticorrosive will save you.
Ok I am really confused here. Yes I am a water cooling noob but thinking about doing a setup soon. Everyone I have asked has said to me use only distilled water, a kill coil and PT nuke, no dyes or other additives for the long life of a 24/7 running water system.
So now we drop the kill coil and use store purchased coolants <shrug>
guys, why you will not go totaly wicked and - chrome - your blocks XD most of you are in US, chopper and hot rod motherland :D
1. Why have no other manufactures had issues with users using these additives?
2. Why have some blocks shown issues before the blocks were ever run in a loop? Notably whats going on in the picture that Gary used in his statement.
3. How will users with blocks that have Acetal tops check there blocks without voiding there warranty? I broke the seal on my X58 Classified FC block to check it, so is the warranty void forever on it?
Sorry if any of these questions have been asked before, I haven't gone through this thread yet, but will soon.
I'm pretty 50/50 on this solution. On one hand, users will be able to get their blocks replaced through their vendors\EK directly, which is great. On the other hand, I feel that EK did have (or still has) a plating issue. I do hope that if this is the case, that they have secretly fixed it. I use to hold EK in higher regards then what I feel they now deserve in response to this. Depending on what happens in the next few weeks\months, this could easily change for the good\worse. Either way, I do hope EK has made some changed to the plating process, rather or not they will admit to it, because from all of the evidence I have seen, this issue seems isolated to EK blocks only.
Everyone recommends those solutions because they have been proved totally safe...until now as per EK's statement.
So, my logic says that if that stuff has been ok for a ton of time (and they are still with all other vendors except EK) then it still is: and thus there is something else going on here with EK platting.
NO because that opens a totally new can of worms, for the termite problem you have.
I call it termite because something is eatting something.
Best solution right now, is get rid of the eattable source.. ie... eK Nickle, and replace it with another vendor's nickle.. ie.. Swiftech, Koolance, DD, AquaCom, Bitspower.... someone who has a more and better refined plating process, and problem is solved.
OR...
Take your blocks to a local plater... have him do a batch job on all the blocks you wanted plated... go out on vacation with GF for the weekend... come back with done and completed blocks... and then your back in happy happy land.
And this is what is pissing me off... because eK is saying no its not the nickle, everyone is thinking all vendors' nickle is bad.
NO, EK HAS A BAD NICKLE SOLEY, NO OTHER VENDOR HAS THIS TYPE OF ISSUE.
all anwseres are few pages back. but well.
problem is only with EK nickle blocks, and no other. ek copper or all other brands dont have any kind of corrosion issue (atleast if you will not mix them with aluminium blocks or radiators XD)
mostlikely its the nickle plating process problem, not coolants.
seal is for leaking warranty. if you will broke the seal, and block will start to leak, you will not be helped. all other issues will be covered by warranty.
Eddy, are you still going to blame the coolants?
I'm going to go see if we have any vendors over at OCN who can do a plating process and have them get back to me. Unfortunately my yelp search in the Los Angeles area turned nothing but one review and I don't trust one reviews lol, why am I even looking? I haven't even purchased my EK blocks yet...I subconsciously want to spend money on this addiction....
Great, now I have 5 nickel paper weights!
i will say this one more time. why you will not go crazy and chrome your blocks? :) it could be way easier to find someone who can do that.
Waterlogged are you ever going to answer my simple question. Why would you need to plate a copper block with copper? To me that statement is showing your true knowledge of the subject.
ur best tearing your system down... seriously...
Taking all your blocks to a plater...
Then asking eK for replacement Orings - instead of RMA.
Have your blocks replated... if u do all of them, it shouldnt be more then 100 dollars for everything..
And then reinstall using new orings..
Stay away from premix! :down:
Its opening another can of super fail... trust me on this.
RE: the return procedure – maybe the main retailers around the world could maybe consider accepting the returns on behalf of the end user and holding them all at their particular locations then return them in one large shipment rather than having the individual end user ship them direct to EK.
Then EK could have all returns sent out direct to the end user at his expense which would eliminate quite a bit of valuable vendor time and would at least show a bit of good will on EK’s behalf.
In fact other than scrap value, i honesty don’t see what good these returns will do for EK so why not bite the bullet and accept pictorial evidence to eliminate the costly returns procedure to the end user and ship them new blocks as most are having to pull systems apart in their own time and expense which fundamentally isn’t their problem to begin with.
Either way, no doubt this is going to cost EK a fair price so why don’t you do the right thing by the very people that got the EK brand to where it is today (well a couple of months ago) and offer new blocks at your own expense.
Seriously Eddy, you need an English speaking PR to stop this becoming one of, if not the most disastrous PR disasters i’ve seen in my 10+ years of watercooling and at this point, i’m honestly not sure you are aware of how bad this actually looks for the EK brand whether it be from a long time user, or potential new one.
So the stickers that say 'Warranty Void if Removed' and run across the Acetal\Copper line can be cut across that line to remove the top? Im not trying to sound sarcastic, I'm not familiar with EK's RMA policy, and I would find that odd.
I find it funny that some people think that nickel plated EK blocks are useless. An acid bath would remove the nickel plating, and you could keep it like that, or have some other place nickel plate it for you. You shouldn't have to do this, but the block's are most definitely not paper weights. Hell, you could sell them for copper scrap :ROTF:
My, aren't we a bit impatient? :shakes::rolleyes:
It's simple, the copper plating process fills in small imperfections that the polishing process doesn't get rid of.
...and as for chrome plated parts, you still need to copper plate and nickel plate the parts before adding the chrome layer. ;)
EK LTx + Pre-Mix did not work out too well for me :shakes:
Let's keep our manners in mind, guys. ;)
No "you fail" or anything like that, please.
Or eK should play a reputable retailer.. ie.. sidewinders, to take all the RMA's and have have them replate it stateside and mail them back out.
I figure cross shipping and expense wise, that is probably the cheapest solution, because as it stands, i dont think anyone will trust eK nickle until they did a big time fix on there nickle plating process.
AT ships everything in EU from what i understood.
That is why we US people have to pay a premium unless we meet a $80 min. which then turns to $6 shipping.
Oh im sure AT could offer some plating jobs as well, and could fix this mess for you guys in the EU.
Just point them to this thread.. and im positive, they will be on it.
Why would you plate a copper block with a separate layer of copper, pre-nickle?? Or is that copper coat on top of the existing copper block done to hide a much lower purity of copper in the base plate? Otherwise that doesn't make any sense.
Actually on paper that doesn't look like a bad idea...
Not getting into arguing whether EK's plater is this or isn't that, is just from a logistics point of view.
Getting the blocks re-plated "locally" surely is more cost/time efficient than shipping the blocks to Slovenia from all around the world?
As you point out I'm sure resellers know where to get this done within their "caption area"?
By the way Eddy, nice [snip] -Vapor
That could be an issue (the exclusive agreement I mean), but if I were the plater, regardless of the findings on the official report I'd be right now reviewing my process and looking into ways to improve the results, for the sake of my future business, and very open to alternative ways to deal with the existing issues that might not necessarily be "my way".
On the second part I couldn't possibly comment (no sarcasm on this), but I'd like to believe EK would like to do right for their customers. In my personal experience they've always been nothing but helpful to me.
Yeah, it would be a total shame to ditch the blocks just because of the plating.
Personally I'd love to see some flexibility on the avenues of resolution of this matter... Doing right for the customer (and one doesn't need to put the trousers down for this) quickly takes the bitter edge away...
This is what I suggested in the other thread. But with EK allowing end users to RMA with the reseller, this is less of an issue because the resellers can just wait until the RMA deadline is up, and ship out all "defective" blocks back at once. Then EK can replate them, and resell them. I just didn't want EK demanding that the end user ship there blocks to Slovenia on their own dime to get them replated\replaced.
I do agree though, I think EK might be better off paying someone who lives in the States to replate stateside blocks. I suggested Swiftech earlier, but any company that can do nickel plating would do. Its up to Eddy though, I just hope that resellers aren't being punished by EK during the RMA process.
We were thinking the same way by the RMA point #4:
4. We will then inform you where to ship the damaged block(s)
We will try to arrange that every customer will ship the products to it's closest EK reseller and should get the replacement product from them. This way we can lower the shipping costs to the minimum.
oh yeah.. have your blocks sent to a retailer.. to have them sent to cali, then back to retailer.. vs having the retailer plate the blocks locally at a plater he trusts... and then mailing it out..
ummm..
sorry, im with toad on this one... and knowing gabe, he wouldnt touch those blocks soley on the reason of if the plating should somehow fail, it would be flipped onto swiftech.
And gabe is a solid businessman, and he doesnt like digging his own graves.
Eddy as it runs, once again sorry if i sound rude...
There is a problem...
Now to fix a problem, it costs money.
But if you can fix the problem with money it wont be a problem.
So someone needs to pay...
If you tell your customers they need to pay, well, thats the last problem they will see from you.
If your going to need to pay for this problem to go away, then do it the way people will be happy.
As it stands... even with your expensive testing, no one trusts your plating, and they wont until you've done a through investigation on your plating process.
So pay someone else to replate these blocks locally at the retailer.
As i said, gary does custom plating. Im sure Hank @ PPC will know a couple others as well.
Have them take the RMA's and front the plating bill to you.
Then i think the customers might not feel so bad when you make them pay for the shipping end.
If the plating fails again, you can blame the retailer... you didnt touch the plating... you go free without responsibility...
As i said, you paid for the problem to go away, and this is the best way to make it go away.
Eddy,
Thank you for your posts, this must be a difficult time for you. Being a business owner, I understand your pain. Mistakes-problems handled correctly, can help grow your business.
I do have one question; Since all of my blocks, 5 to be exact, are new and unused, what is your suggestion or policy?
Thank you and good luck!
Rocky
Ok I read the institute report, on page 12 they mention
Ni.....98.98%
Cu....1.02 % ( 10200 ppm )
On this page about problems with copper impurities in nickel bath, they mention that 100 ppm of Cu is to much, so what about 100 time more (10,200) I don't know what is the purity of nickel other manufacturers use. if this 1.02 is more high than usual it will fit with my theory of copper impurities in the nickel bath, those copper impurities coming form the cathode and a to high voltage.
http://www.finishing.com/569/98.shtml
I hope this link is ok as it's not related to PC industry at all
OK Eddy, thanks for the clarification on how and where to ship returns but you simply addressed one issue and not one hint of an apology for the inconvenience these guys are going to have to undergo due to your inept plating issue.
Apart from the cost of shipping to and from the retailer i guess most people will have a few other questions you may want to address such as these seven below but no doubt i could double that with ease and many others will have more.
Is it too much to ask for clarification on the following to at least put some queries to rest as all these loyal customers want is a few simple answers....
1/ So i uninstall my block and find it has problems – how long after sending the 3 photos and the RMA form to support@ekwaterblocks.com do i expect to wait before i get the go ahead to then return the block/s to the retailer???
2/ I uninstall my block and find no visible defect but i don’t feel comfortable to carrying on using it or the EK brand – am i able to RMA???
3/ If i fitted my brand new block in the last few days, do you expect me to pull the block at my own time and expense and return the block before July 31st???
4/ Once the block/s are returned, again how long should i expect my system to be unusable due to the return block being shipped???
5/ Are the replacement blocks going to be of better quality to that i am sending back???
6/ What if the replacement block fails???
7/ Why is this whole experience costing me time and money when all i did was buy from a so called reputable dealer???
And...
8/ What happens if the replacement block goes bad when using the "allowed" fluids, especially after the cutoff date?
lol my solution appears to be the brightest one at this moment...
4 5 6 7 8 is taken care of.
Dump the responsibility on another source while you fix your source.
Instead of giving out bad replacements, or possible bad replacements, and trying to fix your source concurrently.
I guy PM'd me once telling me he paid a guy to mod his case and he made a real mess of it and would i put it right.........i think we both know the answer to that so 4 5 6 7 8 isn’t taken care of in my book.
Its Eddy's problem and he needs to sort it rather than rely on others to fix his mistakes otherwise he will always be the guy that took our money and ran.
He needs to come up with a plausible plan to put his wrong doing right, and fast.
Would the water change every two months solve the issue?
Eddy,
An individual on hardwareluxx was using feser blue premix only, which is "non-conductive distilled", 4 corrosion inhibitors specifically for nickel/copper, etc, and ethylene glycol, yet that individual has large portions of exposed copper on his EK nickel plated blocks. See post 1227 for pics and post 1229 he stated his coolant only feser blue. Others had made similar claims, but cant find with quick search other pics. Just goes to show corrosion inhibitors may slow corrosion from nickel/copper contact from porous nickel plating, but not stop it.
By only examining corroded blocks, faulty plating seems excluded by design. Seems strange when large companies that specialize in nickel plating state the largest reason for nickel plating corroding is from pores/defects in nickel plating allowing dissimilar metals direct contact with fluid. Also surprising they use nickel plating to protect valves in seawater pumps at 3.5% saltwater that is a) very conductive and b) exposed to metal ions, yet even after years, the nickel coating looked pristine.
I think most people realize you know what the problem is.
What I think you fail to realize, yet, is the negative effect of in essence, calling everyone on several different forums all idiots by your conclusions.
no it would slow it down, but the result is the same without an inhibitor.
The fact is, you shouldn't have to use an inhibitor period.
And if we did have to use inhibitors, why is it ONLY on EK blocks?
If it was exactly like EK describes, then we should see it on Koolance, Swiftech, AquaComputers... but people have reported they see it on there gpu blocks, yet there koolance 360/370 is still brand spanking new.
So it points to faulty plating. And what CM is asking for is an appology from EK saying its faulty plating and a workable fix to the faulty plating, instead of telling us we cant run distilled in what would normally run OK in any other company nickle blocks, and only use premix while offloading the blame on our coolant.
:down:
Does anyone else have any other comments from resellers besides Sidewindercomputers about this matter?
Daz Mode in Canada make a statement ( starting at 1;50 ) but it's hard to understand what he said
http://www.youtube.com/user/DazMode
At the risk of somebody saying RTFA or the like, is EK using electro or electroless plating?
Yes, that's right. But repeating it in a mantra way won't help a thing. Personally, I now need a solution to the current situation with the waterblocks, and then I will never buy from Ek again. That's just as simple as that.
From the other hand, everybody makes mistakes, and that's life afterall...;)
Eddy;
I need confirmation before I make a gpu block purchase:
Will this glycol-based additive + distilled water be fully covered by your warranty, and not corrode or flake:
http://www.dazmode.com/store/index.p...roducts_id=394
Hey Guys,
There is a lot of EK bashing going on here, some of it by people with no experience with EK nickel products.
The failure rate is higher than normal but still statistically low.
Please also dont bash all pre-mix. They are not all the same.
I have been using Thermaltake green premix for the last year with 3 nickel EK GPU blocks, a full UD9 MB nickle block mixed with an Apogee XT CPU block and now a Koolance CPU370 block. I had some bitspower fittings that did however exibit some form of discolouration and corrosion on the threads. These are all replaced now for several months by Koolance fittings and quick disconnects and I recently did a rebuild and saw no sign of any corrosion or discolouration on any threads.
My EK blocks are in pristine condition and I have no so called sludge or jelly from the premix thermaltake fluid.
Its very easy to be a keyboard critic and have an opinion about anything, but please lets keep it real. EK is after all, a manufacturer of great products that has done the right thing by its customers and enables us to do the stuff we love doing.
They cant possibly test for all scenarios users are going to use their blocks in but they are doing further research for their customers just the same.
Stop the bashing, especially if your not personally experiencing the problem that has been identified. Having 1000's of posts to your name doesnt make you an absolute authority on everything, and some of you should be ashamed of your behaviour.
Share your opinions in a constructive manner, but just remember they are opinions not fact, and just like everyone has an Ahole, everyone is entitled to one. :yepp:
Love, Peace and Mung beans to you all ;)
I'm glad your EK blocks are in great shape.. mine on the other hand arent.
Now I have to tear apart my rig and take the blocks off.. then ship the blocks to god knows where to get another block that MIGHT not flake nickel.. this is only if I use one of Eddys approved premixes...
Also how do you not test the two most industry standards in watercooling? Which is distilled/coil and distilled/pt nuke.. If Eddy told me when I purchased these blocks that I would have to use his approved mixes just for my Nickel to stay ON my blocks I would have laughed all the way to the bank.
The whole thing is a joke.
Dang I also purchased a new EK supreme HK full nickle 2 weeks ago from FrozenCPU. what do you guys recommend I do? What would be the next best cpu block? This is my 1st WC project.
edit: Qiko - please check you PMs. (shazza)
Umm, how? Where? I must have missed Eddy saying that there is something wrong with their plating and they are going to plate in some better way from now on.
There is no statement, he is just talking about the issue.
OT: also, where is he from? The accent doesn't appear to be Canadian...
so, if i wanna check my cpu and gpu block i have to unmount them and open them ? or is there another way ?
I found way to fix the problem :))
Plastic container made out of water pipe, sulphuric acid, as used in car batteries, lead blocks to attract the free nickle, car battery for power supply. Neg on part, pos on lead.
U doing it on your own risk. This will take nickel from block. So you save money on shipping :))))
im gona tear appart my nickel plated hk3.0 this week.. cant wait to see the carnage from running this distilled+kilcoil acid combo breaker.
im amazed that there is still a block there.
Hi,
On reading EK's statement, there's a reason EK cannot admit to any fault in their plating process. Coming from a legal angle, admitting = liability which in turns opens a can of worms for potential class action lawsuits (in the most extreme cases) which will put a big dent on the bottom line. The statement was most likely done on advice by their lawyers.
So EK has opted for the best option to limit damage to the company while trying to placate customers. Deadline on RMA also guarantees them a limited hit.
Smart thing for EK to do now would be take the RMAed blocks and replate them with a better nickel process to salvage their reputation.
Wes
While some posts may seem like "bashing", I see it more as............
"Hey Eddy, look man we're trying to help you out here by making you realize the entire truth, to maybe put you in a better position to make good on current and future customers"
No one has said it wasn't, the problem is how the current situation is being handled, no matter how big or small.
Even if there was scientific data stating it was 100% not faulty plating, when the people, current and possible future customers, are worried about the quality of the plating, shouldn't there maybe be at least a "We will look into our plating process, and ensure thorough QC"?
Again, most of the "bashing" is there to help EK stay up top as a respectable manufacturer in the community, cause unfortunately at this point, whether the fluid we used is the sole cause as EK stated or not, there is a lot of doubt in the quality of their products.
Ok, so I have been away all day and I came home to this, yippeee!
Let's look at the facts:
EK nickel plated blocks have an issue, cause is up for debate at this point as I do not see anything other than a report commissioned by EK that states otherwise, nor did the test include another vendor to ensure that it was the additive and not the plating, so let's move away from that for now. I read through this thread, a lot of repeated info and some interesting posts, obviously, there are folks on both sides of this debate and on what should be done. So this is how I see it, like it or not I really do not care.
EK's Statement from page one.
We have also made internal tests of 5 different coolants in an identical hardware setup.
What we found in summary is that:
1. Certain chemical additives based on pure silver and Copper Sulphate that were added to the loops all of these cases have made distilled water electrolytic and with its properties they caused corrosion of nickel plating.
I called it early on. Somehow EK would put this on the user regardless of the simple fact that it is only happening to EK, not Koolance, not Aquacomputer, not Heatkiller, not even Thermaltake is having this issue, just EK and yet it't the additives that the consumer used that caused the problem. Starts with a "B", has 8 letters and ends in a "T".
2. Most of the threads on the forums have stated nickel-plating flaking off, while research have disclosed there was no flaking involved whatsoever.
What do you call when the nickel plating comes off? Naturally occurring? Seriously? Starts with a "B", has 8 letters and ends in a "T".
Effects of these additives were not commonly known. EK is sure that users are using them in good faith. Due to only until recently confirmed effects of these additives to nickel plated blocks, EK have decided to fully replace products with damage nickel plating in order to support customers of EK products.
If it isn't your fault, nor the fault of the plater, why would you go about replacing these blocks at SUCH a high cost to EK? Could it be that in reality this whole report and everything around it is Starts with a "B", has 8 letters and ends in a "T".
You will get a specific EK RMA form from your reseller which can be also downloaded here.
To get the RMA product replacement you will need to follow these steps:
1. Fill in RMA form
2. Make pictures of the block (front, back and corrosion close-up)
3. Send RMA form, scan of original invoice and 3 pictures for each block to support@ekwaterblocks.com e-mail.
4. We will then inform you where to ship the damaged block(s).
5. EK support will inform you from where your replacement block will be shipped to you (in most cases it will be shipped from the location where you bought it)
6. Customer will pay shipping costs for the replacement block and can discuss with the reseller what shipping method to use
7. Customer will get the block replaced and cannot ask for a credit note nor replacement for another product. Only thing that we allow is that customer can chose to replace the product for non-Nickel-Plated block – copper version.
So, I already paid for the block, paid to have said block shipped to me that was sold to me as a quality product and it turns out that it was not the quality product that I was promised. Now I have to pay to have said block shipped back to someone, so that it can be replaced by a new "High Quality" block all the while my system is down or running on air, forget about my time or the other costs. I like Naekuh's idea about using a local plater, it's either that or EK allows for an advance RMA like what Asus does where they ship the product to you first and include the shipping label back to whoever they feel like sending it too.
Therefore until further notice EK Water Blocks Company recommends, not to use distilled water with silver in the loop in combination with nickel-plated blocks, nor additives based on Copper Sulphate.
No other companies have this issue, I mean not a single company, nada, zip. Can we say Starts with a "B", has 8 letters and ends in a "T".
EK recommends only coolants with anticorrosion additive, although our internal test systems of pure distilled water have been found without any problem in 2 months test period. EK Team would like to ask you to kindly spread this information as we would like our users to continue having excellent experiences with EK products.
The replacement form can be filled in until July 31st, and starting with August 1st EK will no longer replace products with such damage as the reason of the damage will be widely known and customers still using these additives will do it under their own risk. The replacement request can also be possible only for the purchases with invoices dated up to June 12th 2011.
It's already been stated you cannot change the terms of the warranty without offering a full refund as said warranty is a contract and both parties have to agree to the changes.
Seriously everyone? I said they would put it on the user and they did. It's friggin twice now that EK has done this and people are for the most part "ok" with this, really? They do not make a product that no one else makes, seriously, you can find an alternative to virtually every single product they make. You can not get a company to change it's ways unless you hit them in the wallet, because that is all they care about. There is no way EK is doing this out of the kindness of their heart, they know it's an issue with their plating and while they fix it, they throw this out there as a smoke and mirror game to keep people distracted. I am sorry, but you are friggin stupid if you buy another EK product while this crap goes on.
I'm sure that someone may have already pointed this part out, but this statement could cause a whole lot of legal troubles for you Eddy.Quote:
The replacement form can be filled in until July 31st, and starting with August 1st EK will no longer replace products with such damage as the reason of the damage will be widely known and customers still using these additives will do it under their own risk.
-
I know that since I purchased said product from an Australian store, that I can return it to them within the required 12 month warranty period and they have to honour it. That is even if it's past the beloved date above.