All not well in QDC land....[Koolance QDC manufacturing problem?!?]

[z3d.]

I have the same problem than you, I though it was something normal due to the fact that when you disconnect two QDCs for a fraction of second you leave a little space from one to the other and littles drops of water go out, then you have your two QDC's perfectly disconnected and they don't leak anymore cause they are sealed again.

Looking in your thread made me change my mind and then yes, I have the same problem than you with VL3N model male and female bought on February 2011, black o-rings; how works rma with koolance? You have to mail them or the online shop where you bought the QDCs?

[Vicey]

How long ago were they purchased?

I bought 2xMale and 2xFemale in March 2011. Both males and one of those females are still in my loop since march to present. I replaced one of the females which was a straight piece with a 90 degree female as I simply needed it to make my loop neater. I bought that 90 Degree female connector at the end of May 2011.

I've disconnected / reconnected them about 6 times total since I've had them and no drips yet. The female fittings I have are the VL3N-F10S (x2) and VL3N-F10L (x1).

[Stewie007]

You know, the problem with these style fittings in low pressure applications such as this is that the spring carries more tension. In a pneumatic system, the air pressure helps keep the system sealed. Without that high pressure, the spring is carrying the full load.

Thus disconnecting and reconnecting multiple times will wear the mechanism, and without high pressure to assist the mechanism, it drips. This should have been incorporated into the mechanism design to account for the small pressure load.

[miahallen]

You know, the problem with these style fittings in low pressure applications such as this is that the spring carries more tension. In a pneumatic system, the air pressure helps keep the system sealed. Without that high pressure, the spring is carrying the full load.

Thus disconnecting and reconnecting multiple times will wear the mechanism, and without high pressure to assist the mechanism, it drips. This should have been incorporated into the mechanism design to account for the small pressure load.

Even my connections which are in a box not connected to anything right now and doing the same thing.

[Stewie007]

Interesting. How many people have gone to koolance about this? And are they responding?

If people are answering that they have and Koolance is not responding then it would seem that they aren't deserving of business.....

[QuadSLI]

Lubricate it helps ?? i have 3 pair im going to use...

[Utnorris]

Koolance will let you RMA them all day long, but as I stated before, $5 for shipping each time you have to ship something to them adds up and adds to the cost of ownership. I let them pile up and do one RMA to cut down on shipping, however in the meantime I am not using an item I paid for.

[Sparky]

Lubricate it helps ?? i have 3 pair im going to use...

With what? You don't want grease, oil, etc in your loop.

[UNTAMED]

With what? You don't want grease, oil, etc in your loop.

I have 1 VL4N-F13 [female] of 2 , that will cut the male o ring in half if you do not wet\lube with water the male before inserting\locking , not worth sending it back I only use them to disconnect my exterior loop and drain.
-I treat them with respect , not like a headphone jack or a electrical plug, slowly align them softly push them together if they don't go in ,I try again. if you force it it will cut the o ring.

[miahallen]

I've had o-ring problems in the past....but that's a different discussion

[Utnorris]

I have 1 VL4N-F13 [female] of 2 , that will cut the male o ring in half if you do not wet\lube with water the male before inserting\locking , not worth sending it back I only use them to disconnect my exterior loop and drain.
-I treat them with respect , not like a headphone jack or a electrical plug, slowly align them softly push them together if they don't go in ,I try again. if you force it it will cut the o ring.

Yeah, I usually will wet them before inserting them since I use to have that issue with the old QD's, but this is the metal inner ring that is sticking and it is already wet from the water leaking out.

[CedricFP]

How long ago were they purchased?

Within a year. Ditto on cutting the oring.

If the springs are losing tension when left in an unused state, would it be better to leave them coupled? </noob question but I'm not certain>

[miahallen]

Within a year. Ditto on cutting the oring.

If the springs are losing tension when left in an unused state, would it be better to leave them coupled? </noob question but I'm not certain>

No, I simply meant that ones not connected in a loop show the same behavior....that is not to say that they have not been used.....all of my fittings have had heavy use, I use them on my benching rig and they will often be connected/disconnected several times a day. I pretest all my benching HW on water because of the crazy price of LN2 here

[lowfat]

Koolance will let you RMA them all day long, but as I stated before, $5 for shipping each time you have to ship something to them adds up and adds to the cost of ownership. I let them pile up and do one RMA to cut down on shipping, however in the meantime I am not using an item I paid for.

RMA'ing something like a fitting should be done just w/ pictures. Having to pay shipping to RMA such a small and cheap product like a fitting is kind of silly.

[Utnorris]

RMA'ing something like a fitting should be done just w/ pictures. Having to pay shipping to RMA such a small and cheap product like a fitting is kind of silly.

You would think that, but each time I have had to send the fittings back for replacements. I don't mind doing it once in awhile, but I have already done two RMA's with Koolance this year, no it's not a lot, but more than any other manufacture of water cooling that I have owned in all the time I have had water cooling. Now I get to do it again and will probably have to do it a couple more times as I discover issues. Now throw in the time I spend taking my loop down since I cannot just remove the fitting and it really starts to add up. Anyways, this is more of a rant than anything. I get Koolance and Swiftech stuff because they are based in the U.S. and have good tech and RMA service. If I had to ship a fitting back to Europe or Asia it would just get thrown in the trash and that would be one less manufacture that I would buy from.

[Stewie007]

I have 1 VL4N-F13 [female] of 2 , that will cut the male o ring in half if you do not wet\lube with water the male before inserting\locking , not worth sending it back I only use them to disconnect my exterior loop and drain.
-I treat them with respect , not like a headphone jack or a electrical plug, slowly align them softly push them together if they don't go in ,I try again. if you force it it will cut the o ring.

Quick Disconnects are supposed to be designed for ease of use; taking care is always good, but having to baby them to get em to work seems a bit ridiculous for a ~15 dollar a piece fitting.

[miahallen]

My issue is not the price of the fittings, but the price of all the HW the fittings are expected not to leak on

[Koolance]

Hi Miahallen,

Can you PM me your RMA number for the fittings? Our RMA tech today did not remember receiving the pictures you posted.

Thanks,
Tim

[Stewie007]

My issue is not the price of the fittings, but the price of all the HW the fittings are expected not to leak on

Of course. I was just referring to the individual product. It carries a premium next to other fittings.

[Section8]

Man I finally decided to get myself several sets of the VL4N's and now I see this !!! I hope they get the issue fixed. Mine have not arrived yet but I will for sure keep a close eye on them and post back my finding after several disconnects.

[dejanh]

Man I finally decided to get myself several sets of the VL4N's and now I see this !!! I hope they get the issue fixed. Mine have not arrived yet but I will for sure keep a close eye on them and post back my finding after several disconnects.

Same exact situation here! I was pondering for a year to take the plunge into QDCs and now that I did I find this! Bah! Mine arrive in the next day or two so I wonder what the situation will be. I better not have to RMA them. Damn it!

I'm getting mine so that I can swap CPU blocks out easily for testing and also to be able to switch back and forth between watercooling and phase with minor effort so I cannot say that these will be seeing very "minor" use.

[zads]

Question for all those who had sticking problems:
Did you guys ever run any 'cooling fluid', additives or dyes in your loops?

I figure maybe some invisible residue from the additive/dye,
could be drying/sticking to the o-rings or contact areas when disconnecting and reconnecting many times,
which causes the moving surfaces to get 'sticky' and stick open..

I haven't had any problems with my 2 sets of VL3N fittings sticking open.
Cycled them about 10 times over the past 2 years.
Running only on pure distilled + silver kill coil.

[mlwood37]

well since nearly all premixed liquids has stuff in them to lubricate the pump some how i don't think if they did it would make a difference. I don't see any lubrication in just water ..... 0_o (btw when i say nearly all it doesn't mean all of them).

[santiagodraco]

After seeing a couple posts at OCN and Koolance own forums about Koolance Quick Disconnect leaking problems...I knew my experience was not isolated.
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...?highlight=qdc
http://forums.koolance.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1724 (post #3)

I now have 10 males and 8 female QDC VL3N series quick disconnections used in various applications. The first set I bought about two years ago, the females are still working fine today. However, I recently bought a bunch of new sets, and the new female connectors have all failed. To be clear....the new connectors worked fine for the first few months over dozens of connect/disconnect operations. But now, the spring loaded mechanism meant close the valve in the female end no longer closes completely, allowing the connection to drip when disconnected (see the images below).

edit - I have verified the problem is not related to low loop pressure.

I suspect a minor change in manufacturing that is causing the long term failure of these parts. Tim [Koolance] eluded to a change in manufacturing tolerances last year (post #8).

If I am correct, Koolance should issue a recall on these parts. In the mean time, be sure to check your connections within the 1 year warranty period and get RMA replacements if yours connectors are showing similar problems. If you are already outside the warranty period, please be careful with your connectors when breaking your systems down to prevent leaking on your HW

Here is a shot of my older QDC, both female fittings have been serving me well for about two years now.



Here is a shot of the newer QDC failing to seal properly....all of my newer female QDC fitting do this consistently now.



Also, I need your comments please, let us know if you have older/newer QDC fittings, and whether or not you've seen similar issues.

I'm having the exact same problem with the new ones I just purchased... purchased because the old ones started leaking. Now these leak when disconnected in exactly the same spot. The female side inner plug doesn't seat at all.

[CedricFP]

^ How many disconnects total?