***Before you buy EK nickel block !!!***

ortoklaz

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I know a lot of you like the looks/performance and the price range of EK waterblocks ...i know i do or that's what i thought,
so before you go and spend some hard earned money on this product ,i want to make sure you all aware of the current situation
NOTE; the only affected blocks are the NICKEL plated blocks
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/915966-please-read-before-purchasing-ek-nickel.html
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=270567
there will be (upcoming week) an" official statement from EK regarding this issues"
UPDATE 06/14/2011
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=86&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=17
"EK RMA upgrade for corrosion - 14/06/2011
RMA is upgraded on two points:

1. We are lifting the RMA limit on corrosion to full 24month from the end-user purchase date without limit.
2. EK will cover all shipping costs of the RMA block to reseller and shipping of the replacement block back to customer.

The procedure of RMA request stays the same; filling the RMA form."


UPDATE;
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/index [...] eturnid=17
"Halt on EK Nickel Plated blocks - 11/06/2011
Dear EK partner/user,

As EK is looking for lasting solution for nickel plating issue (concerning corrosion because of silver coils and copper sulphate additive) we decided to halt sales of nickel plated products till solution is found and tested. Our resellers were advised to halt sales too.

We cannot put users into position, that we replace products and corrosion starts again on new product. Hopefully we will find an answer and tested solution in short while.

We will update you as soon as we have any news.

However, If customer insists on buying EK nickel block, we offer a customer full 24 month warranty on material, manufacturing and corrosion.

Edvard König"
here is my block;


 

bejabbers

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Is this an issue with all EK blocks? Is it just the nickel plated ones? I've got a gold plated CPU block from EK, should I be worried about this as well?
 

ortoklaz

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I think you should be fine ,i have seen a lot of flaking EK block for the past month and they all nickel

BTW,just got my replacement :D
temps dropped 3~4C ;
 
I've had my EK Supreme HF Nickel/Plexi CPU block running for two months (with distilled water, corrosion blocker, and a silver killcoil) and haven't seen a problem yet. I just checked it when I saw this thread, and I'll be checking it frequently for a while just to make sure.
 

RealRedRaider

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A "Un-Official EK Nickel Waterblock" Test has been performed, you can follow the testing/results here...

http://www.realredraider.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47617


Our initial findings were so shocking, that a well respected vendor issued this statement yesterday, regarding pulling all EK nickel plated products off his store...

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/sidewindercomputers/Corporate06042011.pdf


I suggest that everyone read each post in the two links I posted, they are very insightful as to exactly what type of company EK has degraded to. They have no remorse or concern for their customers whatsoever.
 

d0gr0ck

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Official EK statement over on OCN.

I saw this before anyone replied. I'm scared to look back now, but here's a snip:
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.
2. Most of the threads on the forums have stated nickel-plating flaking off, while research have disclosed there was no flaking involved whatsoever.

Feel's like they are inferring that PTNuke and silver Killcoils are bad. That's not exactly holding up to my college level chem and mat-sci knowledge... but hey, whatever!
 

ortoklaz

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Official EK statement - Nickel Plating Issues
Dear user of EK products,

Original EK statement can be found also here.

EK Nickel plated products have been under lot of public interest recently due to reported flaking issues. This is a short statement to summarize the important points and conclusions from research done recently. In our statement there are also links to technical papers covering the issue in depth. We hope this will clarify the situation. EK promises that we will pursue this issue furthermore.

EK Water Blocks Company has been working on the Nickel Plating issue for over 3 months now. Let us say that any test with nickel is a long term project, if we want to be thorough.

We chose technical Institute Jozef Stefan which is well known worldwide to check our samples. Their test report can be found here.

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.
2. Most of the threads on the forums have stated nickel-plating flaking off, while research have disclosed there was no flaking involved whatsoever.

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.
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.

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.

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.


Edvard König
 

d0gr0ck

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Yes, a very bad joke. The way EK has handled this is pretty badly. It only takes applied 1st year college and some high school chem knowledge to know that his statement does not hold up.

EK is going to have one rough financial year. It will be quite a while till the consumer trust comes back. Never ever blame the customer, even in the few cases it is their fault (like in Audi's old unintended acceleration decades back), it just won't end well.
 

chavo12345

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Definately a joke. Can't believe they blamed it on distilled water pure silver and Copper Sulphate. Very sad, going to keep an eye on my cpu block from now on.
 

d0gr0ck

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I just read though the linked report from the Advanced Materials Department EK contracted to do the tests. Those Unexposed Nickle Surface pictures (2 of them) are really blurry. If I tried published a report with photos like that I'd get smacked by one of my profs.
 

ortoklaz

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can you please provide the test link ..thanks