Aquatuning drops EK water blocks.

[Aquatuning]

EK Water Blocks and Aquatuning go separate ways.

With effect from 17.05.2013, the management of Aquatuning has decided to drop all EKWB products from the webshop. In 2007 and following years Aquatuning developed many products for EK Water Blocks under license and technology agreements among other products the EK Supreme CPU block, which immediately became the new No. 1 CPU water block. After many years of successful collaboration, EK Water Blocks surprisingly decided to stop the payment of the licenses to Aquatuning.

Due to the ultimatum from EK Water Blocks to either accept the breach of contract or stop buying products from EK Water Blocks, the Aquatuning management saw no other way then to inform the public about the background of the unprecedented incident never seen before in the 10-year history of Aquatuning.

We regret the end of the collaboration with EK Water Blocks very much, especially because in recent years many good and successful products have emerged from it. The products we licensed to EK Water Block will now be given to other manufacturers so that we can continue to bring revolutionary cooling products to market.

[Aberration]

That is unfortunate. With the plating issues and how they have dealt with it, I wasn't going to be buying more of their products anyways. This only concretes that decision.

Best of luck in the future.

[Panther_Seraphi]

Just saw it on my Facebook feed. Good luck with going separate ways. With the way EK have been handling things recently I can see them going up against E.A in a prolific award soon

[tiborrr]

Yes, there is indeed a bully in this ordeal, it will be up to you to decide who the real bully is. Remember the Aquatuning copyright story? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...trademark-grab

We will soon issue an official statement.

DISCLAIMER: This post is my own opinion and it does not necessarily reflect company's (EKWB) policy and/or opinion.

[Aquatuning]

Bully? If EKWB had paid their bills months ago like we asked you then this would not have happened. You have had months to resolve this.

[barjoysee]

Public bickering like this will only harm peoples opinion of both you the manufacturer and retailer. (Both of whom I use and respect fully).
There is a real problem with supply and demand in the EU more so in the UK than over say in the states. Shop's here have little to no stock and it makes a customer drop the idea of trying to get parts in the first place.
I looked over every shop in the UK to get a EK EN-alcatel block for me Asus Maximus 5 gene not one in stock anywhere not even from EK direct. so its upsetting to see the manufacturers and retailers fighting in a public forum..

Peace out

B

[Kenjiwing]

You all should really try to work this out on a private basis instead of bashing each other on public forums. Makes both of you look very unprofessional in the publics eyes. Although being unprofessional is nothing new for EK these days.

[Aquatuning]

We can assure you this is the last step we wanted to take. But months down the line this was our only option and EK had every chance to stop it. It is also better to be upfront about our actions as there would be many question if we just deleted the entire EK range without explanation.

And to make this perfectly clear we do still want to work with EK as it has been a successful relationship but to do this we need our agreements honored.

[m_jones_]

You should throw some EK bits up nice and cheap for us then.

On a more serious sad to see this happen in such a niche market.

[Makymaco]

Public bickering like this will only harm peoples opinion of both you the manufacturer and retailer. (Both of whom I use and respect fully).
its upsetting to see the manufacturers and retailers fighting in a public forum..

I agree with this part.

Doing this in public is not essential and is forfeiting EK reputation (is it a try to discredit EK so the customers will buy products
from other manufacturers you support ?)

I buy from aquatuning and i buy ek products without any problems

Sorry for my english.

[Evantaur]

i don't know what happened but i hope you guys eventually get your stuff sorted out

[Sparky]

Public bickering like this will only harm peoples opinion of both you the manufacturer and retailer.

This x1000

Every time I see one company post junk about another on a public forum I want to facepalm. Going so far as to make a cute little graphic? Come on...

Even if the stuff is true it should be handled outside the forums. If someone asks "why don't you carry X item brand anymore" it would be fine to say we've had some issue, but should just leave it at that IMO.

[zeroibis]

Will be interesting to see what the official statement from EK is though. Strange to see this in public already. Normally when someone breaks a contract for reasons not allowed by the contract they are thus in violation of the agreement and open for legal action. One would think that if it was as simple as EK just not wanting to honor the agreement they would be getting sued for breach of contract and a court would be settling this matter and not public opinion on internet forums...

[rehpyc]

That is unfortunate. With the plating issues and how they have dealt with it, I wasn't going to be buying more of their products anyways. This only concretes that decision.

Best of luck in the future.

This

You all should really try to work this out on a private basis instead of bashing each other on public forums. Makes both of you look very unprofessional in the publics eyes. Although being unprofessional is nothing new for EK these days.

And this

[Makymaco]

I wonder why aquatuning make publicity directly for alphacool products, for example :
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ool-NVXP-Titan

And i think phobya is directly linked to aquatuning (the contact info for phobya web site is an aquatuning mail address).

Perhaps now that phobya and alpahaool has a complete range of products they don't need EK anymore.

Ek is now a disturbing concurrent for them

[Nickel020]

Phobya and Alphacool are owned in large parts, or maybe even completely, by the owners of Aquatuning. Phobya was started by/with Aquatuning while Alphacool was (at least partly) bought by Aquatuning a while back.


I just saw that EK has also released a statement today:

http://www.ekwb.com/news/345/19/EKWB...g-Cooperation/

[El Mano]

Will be interesting to see what the official statement from EK is though. Strange to see this in public already. Normally when someone breaks a contract for reasons not allowed by the contract they are thus in violation of the agreement and open for legal action. One would think that if it was as simple as EK just not wanting to honor the agreement they would be getting sued for breach of contract and a court would be settling this matter and not public opinion on internet forums...

In fact AT's post looks like a preemptive strike.
Given AT's past reputation I'll wait to hear EK's explanation.

Guys we need good hardware manufacturers, big shops are convenient but not necessary...

[CedricFP]

Listen, as a consumer, I really don't give two craps about inter-firm politics. All I ask is that your focus remains unchanged: To continue to release quality products at appropriate prices. Anything after that is secondary to me.

Good luck to the both of you, hopefully a partnership can be reforged in the future. After all, the watercooling market is small as it is; why build walls when we can build blocks?

[Prozium]

Wow, thank you Aquatuning for posting this. The EKWB statement makes since, yours is vague at best and coincides with EKWB's...
I was going to order an Alphacool pump top soon, but now I know 2 names and a retailer I will not be buying from any time soon.

[paulbagz]

Harms both parties in the end.

If all else fails there is always Performance PCs + Aquacomputer

-PB

[cx-ray]

http://www.ekwb.com/news/345/19/EKWB...g-Cooperation/

[StAndrew]

Sounds to me like Aquatunning is just getting greedy. They have a history of unfair business ethics and this just adds to my disgust. It looks like this time they used EK to get where they are and are ready to move on with their own products.

Business is a dog eat dog world I guess. Y'all should at least have had more and not address this in a public forum though...

[Sparky]

http://www.ekwb.com/news/345/19/EKWB...g-Cooperation/

Hm, given Aquatuning's history, then posting this thread, and now EK's side of this story... I smell a rat

[StAndrew]

I smell a rat

x2 fo sho.

[Aquatuning]

Actually the reason we posted this information was to be totally transparent to show we have nothing to hide. If we didn't post this on the forum then someone else would.

There are a lot mentions to our "bad history" but maybe you should take a step back and think what is the true history of Aquatuning? The truth is Aquatuning is a company dedicated to evolving the world of watercooling, bringing you the latest and greatest products so you can enjoy your hobby. You now know that we have inspired some truly great products, some you are aware of and some you won't be and will continue to do so for many manufacturers.

In this case it is simple, EK wanted help with a CPU design. We helped them and agreed a fee. Everything was fine until they stopped paying the agreed fee.

To clear the air on some other sub topics Phobya is our in house brand. Alphacool how ever is a separate company, the reason that we seem to be quite close to them is that we are one of the larger distributors and it is in our interest to help market their products so we sell more.