Question The crappiest case ever!

[Endre]

Hello!
This is my 5th PC, and I built it in 2019.
After having my old case for a decade, I went to buy a new “shiny” one for the 5th build.
So I chose the Zalman Z3 Plus (Black)

https://www.zalman.com/US/Product/S...gory3=-99&searchKey=&searchWord=Z3+plus+black

One month after buying the new PC, I had to open the case to introduce a new SSD in it, and to my surprise, the case inside was all rusty!
I’ve never had such an experience with a case before!

My case was replaced with another one from a different brand, but the question remained:
How can they sell cases built with such crappy materials?

 

[LordVile]

Hello!
This is my 5th PC, and I built it in 2019.
After having my old case for a decade, I went to buy a new “shiny” one for the 5th build.
So I chose the Zalman Z3 Plus (Black)

https://www.zalman.com/US/Product/S...gory3=-99&searchKey=&searchWord=Z3+plus+black

One month after buying the new PC, I had to open the case to introduce a new SSD in it, and to my surprise, the case inside was all rusty!
I’ve never had such an experience with a case before!

My case was replaced with another one from a different brand, but the question remained:
How can they sell cases built with such crappy materials?

If the case was rusty that means water was inside the case therefore the pc should be dead. Any actual pictures?

 

[Endre]

If the case was rusty that means water was inside the case therefore the pc should be dead. Any actual pictures?

No. Everything hapenned in 2019.

So, I went back to the store from where I bought the case.
They initially said that I’ve put the case in a wet room.
But that wasn’t true.

So, the people from the store had some PCs with the same model of case as mine.
They opened their cases, and their’s were rusty too!
So, they imediately gave my money back, and I bought another case.

 

[LordVile]

No. Everything hapenned in 2019.

So, I went back to the store from where I bought the case.
They initially said that I’ve put the case in a wet room.
But that wasn’t true.

So, the people from the store had some PCs with the same model of case as mine.
They opened their cases, and their’s were rusty too!
So, they imediately gave my money back, and I bought another case.

Metal doesn’t rust unless the room is VERY humid, as in humid enough to kill components or it’s exposed to water.

 

[Endre]

Metal doesn’t rust unless the room is VERY humid, as in humid enough to kill components or it’s exposed to water.

No way!
I’m in the same room.
No problems with the new case.
No problems (for a decade) with the old case!

It was un-treated metal probably.

 

[LordVile]

No way!
I’m in the same room.
No problems with the new case.
No problems (for a decade) with the old case!

It was un-treated metal probably.

Dude rust doesn’t occur without water. Pics or didn’t happen.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i had seen many reviews of this case from ~2014-2018 and none of them mentioned issues with case material degradation.
Zalman claims it's a steel body and in their images it appears to be painted either black and\or white.

 

[Phaaze88]

This has to be a retailer problem, yeah?
Yikes...

 

[Endre]

Dude rust doesn’t occur without water. Pics or didn’t happen.

Sorry. No pics.
It did happen.

 

[LordVile]

Sorry. No pics.
It did happen.

Then it didn’t happen

 

[Endre]

Then it didn’t happen

It didn’t cross my mind until now, but maybe they used metal that was already rusty, and painted it.
That rust comes out to the surface.

 

[TheJoker2020]

Dude rust doesn’t occur without water. Pics or didn’t happen.

It certainly can as anyone can attest to when they go into their dry outbuilding (with tiled roof and brick walls and concrete floor) and open a cupboard and get out some tools and they have rust on them.!

Atmospheric water is enough over a period of time (several months minimum) to rust Iron/Steel that does not have (9%+ Chromium), is not galvanised, painted or treated in some other fashion. Rust also "creeps" over a period of time and this is why dealing with any rust early on is important.

The "seeds" of the rust could have been set if the case has untreated/unpainted <Mod Edit> steel and was left in a really damp warehouse for a while and then shipped to customers where it would have continued to get worse without treating it.

Otherwise, the OP could be selling us a tall story, or perhaps he lives on a boat, or un an unheated room/building (like the outhouse mentioned above), so whilst this seems unlikely, it is in the realms of possibility.

 

[LordVile]

It certainly can as anyone can attest to when they go into their dry outbuilding (with tiled roof and brick walls and concrete floor) and open a cupboard and get out some tools and they have rust on them.!

Atmospheric water is enough over a period of time (several months minimum) to rust Iron/Steel that does not have (9%+ Chromium), is not galvanised, painted or treated in some other fashion. Rust also "creeps" over a period of time and this is why dealing with any rust early on is important.

The "seeds" of the rust could have been set if the case has untreated/unpainted <Mod Edit> steel and was left in a really damp warehouse for a while and then shipped to customers where it would have continued to get worse without treating it.

Otherwise, the OP could be selling us a tall story, or perhaps he lives on a boat, or un an unheated room/building (like the outhouse mentioned above), so whilst this seems unlikely, it is in the realms of possibility.

That’s over a period of years and in places that are outside or not temperature controlled. Not after one month in a house. That case is also painted and rust would have been seen when it was built it doesn’t spontaneously appear. Get a new iron nail and leave it on your desk for a month, bet it doesn’t rust.

 

[TheJoker2020]

That’s over a period of years and in places that are outside or not temperature controlled. Not after one month in a house. That case is also painted and rust would have been seen when it was built it doesn’t spontaneously appear.

Exactly, I was simply pointing out that is "can" happen in an unheated environment that is "dry" but would take several months minimum and the steel would have not not have been treated.!

We are certainly on the same page.

I have seen cases where people have spilled a drink on the top of the case and some has run into the cleavage between the top and the side, the unpainted bare steel has rusted due to "coffee".

I have also seen a few crappy old PC's that were put into storage, the place had a leak and half of the cases (not all), had rust on the inside even though the water came under the door and never touched any of the PC's (as they were on racking a couple of feet off of the floor), but the atmosphere was very damp for extended periods of time and the cases were there for at least a year, that is to be expected. This was also well before any cases at all were painted on the inside and it is worth noting that the really cheap, flimsy, 💩 cases all had rust on them, whilst the solid Antec cases didn't.

The OP's story seems to have some holes in it.!

 

[Endre]

Exactly, I was simply pointing out that is "can" happen in an unheated environment that is "dry" but would take several months minimum and the steel would have not not have been treated.!

We are certainly on the same page.

I have seen cases where people have spilled a drink on the top of the case and some has run into the cleavage between the top and the side, the unpainted bare steel has rusted due to "coffee".

I have also seen a few old crappy PC's that were put into storage, the place had a leak and half of the cases (not all) had rust on the inside even though the water came under the door and never touched any of the PC's (as they were on racking a couple of feet off of the floor), but the atmosphere was very damp for extended periods of time and the cases were there for at least a year, that is to be expected. This was also well before any cases at all were painted on the inside and it is worth noting that the really cheap, flimsy, <Mod Edit> cases all had rust on them, whilst the solid Antec cases didnt.

The OP's story seems to have some holes in it.!

The idea is this:
I bought most of my parts from one store: motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, PSU, & optical drive.
The people from the store also set it up for me.
I didn’t see if the case was rusty as I bought it, maybe it already was.

1 month later I opened up the case to introduce an SSD in it, and the case was rusty inside, in several places.

Please stop talking about “holes in the story” as if I’m a liar!
First of all I’ve got nothing to gain out of lying!

Secondly, people from the store opened up 2 of THEIR Zalman cases (same model as mine) and they were also rusty!
So, no coffee dropped by me on the PC!

 

[madmatt30]

That's a retailer/storage problem imo not a manufacture problem.

The z3 plus has been around for an age and was always a recommendation from me for people who wanted a good airflow/good value case on a tight budget.

I've never seen a rust issue as I bet 99.9% of people who own them haven't.

The issue is with the cases from the store you're buying from or from the distribution warehouse they're getting stock from.

I don't even think that case has been manufactured for 3 or 4 years so they've been sat in storage a loooong time.

 

[TheJoker2020]

Please stop talking about “holes in the story” as if I’m a liar!
First of all I’ve got nothing to gain out of lying!

You just filled in the biggest "hole", now that we now know you never built the PC or looked inside it changes the entire story.

 

[carocuore]

seen rust on cases before so it's not like science fiction, usually cheap, old cases with no paint inside. high humidity levels do that to cases and pretty much anything from metal to wood and clothes if you don't have a dehumidifier in the room, I have one and set it to 40% but the main cons are that it's noisy and the windows must remain closed at all times

 

[Windows22]

Dude rust doesn’t occur without water. Pics or didn’t happen.

He's right, the rust is from the room temp.

 

[randomizer]

It is certainly possible to get rust in your case without having rust everywhere else. The fan grills on my CM690 are all rusted, but this developed after many years (the case is now about 12 years old).