DDC TOP poll: what TOP do you use with your Blue impeller DDC

[leo_bsb]

Please mark which top do you use or used with your blue impeller Laing DDC.

Let's compare it to the Death Poll.

[Martinm210]

I've swapped around a little on mine. I have had one XSPC regular top, one XSPC res top, and one SWC top. They have all ran probably for about a year + on a DDC3.2, no problems with any of them. Also have a D5 with an EK top, no problems.
Knocking on wood..

[Jokester_wild]

I think we should see allot of XSPC tops, which would in-turn make sense of seeing so many die with the top on. I have two XSPC tops/pumps both are good although one is a bit noisier... I havent figured out why.

[rge]

EK dual top on 2 ddc 3.2s for last ~ 8 months. Before that had 2 xspc tops for over a year. Had to search old posts to see when using XSPC vs EK. Do I choose 1 or 2 EK and 2 XSPC? so far just 1 EK..doesnt look like I can choose again.

[millertime359]

Got 2 DDC3.2s on an EK dual top. Been running for about 4 months now IIRC. There is direct airflow over the pumps too.

[Alexandr0s]

I think we should see allot of XSPC tops, which would in-turn make sense of seeing so many die with the top on. I have two XSPC tops/pumps both are good although one is a bit noisier... I havent figured out why.

I actually expect EK and XSPC to tie, or at least a neck-to-neck race.

[Jokester_wild]

I actually expect EK and XSPC to tie, or at least a neck-to-neck race.

could be, I think allot of people have switched to the EK in the last year or so.

[lowfat]

1 Stock, 1 Koolance.

[Metric]

2 DDC-3.2s on EK Dual DDC V2 (+5 months) - one is over 3 years old, which ran on a Petra's Top until this year and the other bought here on XS (unknown age).

[Church]

Hmm, i wonder why stock top wasn't included in vote. And shouldn't XSPC top be united with restop? I'm guessing that internals wise it should be similar?
Interesting to see EK almost as popular as XSPC. So maybe there is some ground in claims of higher failure rate with XSPC tops :/

[Sparky]

I'm 90% sure there is grounds for the XSPC top pump failures. It just seems to make sense, given that nearly every "my DDC died!" thread is with an XSPC top.

FWIW, I've been running a Petra DDCT-01s top for like 3 years.

[Alexandr0s]

I'm 90% sure there is grounds for the XSPC top pump failures. It just seems to make sense, given that nearly every "my DDC died!" thread is with an XSPC top.

FWIW, I've been running a Petra DDCT-01s top for like 3 years.

Though the data is probably far from accurate at this point in time, even now the difference in failure ratio becomes painfully obvious if we look at the 2 big ones:

9 EK tops, 2 failing

11 XSPC tops, 15 failing

Though we'll need to wait a while to get more data, but I think we can already see a trend emerging.

[Jokester_wild]

Im worried my one pump is dieing, its loud. makes a noise like a fan bearing going or something. not healthy sounding at any rate. Unless its just because theres a 90 after it right away....

[zanzabar]

i have a 3.2 with the blue impeller and an ek v1 g3/8 and its running strong for over 2 years now

[new-b]

Swifty 355 and XSPC top (running fine for 2 years)

[mstrmold]

Had one of my two MCP355's bite it in less than a year running an XSPC res/top. The second one just started making a feint noise the other day. So whats the under/over that the top is to blame?

[dengyong]

I've got a 355 blue impeller with an EK v2 that's starting to make noise.

[Sadhana]

2 Koolance PMP400 (a.k.a.Laing DDC 3.25) with 2 EK Xtop V.2 on each pump, replacing the old good tough Swiftech MCP655 Vario with EK Top. DDC 3.25 not yet running, I've been overhauled the entire rig, moving from Q9550 to Bloomfield.

[CedricFP]

1 x DDC3.2 w/ XSPC Res Top for 1 year.

---Changed to XSPC V3 top for 1 year.

1 x DDC3.2 w/ XSPC Res Top for 2 years.



This for the loop in my sig. Was dual loop now series.

EDIT: forgot to mention, no problems yet, though one pump slightly louder than other (one with more miles).

[ryan92084]

still sitting on my petra top

[Alexandr0s]

Had one of my two MCP355's bite it in less than a year running an XSPC res/top. The second one just started making a feint noise the other day. So whats the under/over that the top is to blame?

The theory is something like this:

When running low restriction loops, the pump runs over-time, spinning at a much higher rate. This high RPM causes the impeller to lift up a bit. Now the reasoning is that the XSPC tops are designed a bit differently than most normal tops, creating friction on the impeller, which is pretty bad for the hardware inside the pump.

I'm probably off on some points, so if someone can give a better explanation, please do so .

[G4h4o8s6T]

I've only had my blue impeller DDC running for 6 months with XSPC res\top, but so far so good.

My red impeller DDC2 has been going over 3 years, mostly with Petras top & the last 6 months with XSPC res\top.

[millertime359]

Well, so far it seems that XSPC doesn't out number the other tops, like everyone has been claiming.

Looking at about 30 XSPC tops vs about 30 other tops and most of those are EKs. So there might be something to the XSPC tops having issues.

[SoulsCollective]

Current thinking is that DDCs using XSPC tops are reaching higher RPMs than those running EK/Petra/etc, causing higher power draw and early pump death. Those running higher restriction loops are safe, as the pump has more resistance to work against and therefore cannot reach such high impeller speeds and therefore cannot draw as much power. Non-XSPC tops are (it's thought) designed with a little more tolerance around the impeller, which results in slightly lower performance but slightly safer operation.

[Church]

Let's wait for more results. Pitty that one cannot write down ammount in voting (eg. for those that use dual tops or have several builds).