New Major development in the EK case

[KylSp]

Newsflash: EK blames users for running PT nuke and or silver kill coils.

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.

[Lpfan4ever]

It took that long to translate a couple lines of text? Weird.

The thing that I have to wonder is people have been using silver coils and PT nuke on EK nickel blocks for a while now, and it seems people don't have this issue with older blocks. What did EK change? Or am I just uniformed and old blocks are having this effect as well?

[KylSp]

It was just a part of it. I can't link to the EK page because it's not up there yet. Copy / pasted from XS.

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

[Dazmode]

EDIT. See the source. Thank you.

[Lpfan4ever]

Yup, no silver coils. Yet they're still saying don't use them?

Off the top of my head it was: distilled, EK coolant, Thermochill coolant, a UV additive, copper sulfate and copper sulfate pentahydrate.

*EDIT*

When did these "flaking" reports start coming in and getting spewed all over the internet? They've been testing since April 6th? I thought the accusing only started recently?

Geez I'm so lost.

[Dazmode]

Ok, guys. All who are affected:

Lets start to follow the process. Keep in mind that you have two replacement options:

1) Get exact the same or
2) Un-plated copper version of your block's replacement.

[Sagath]

Originally Posted by Lpfan4ever

Yup, no silver coils. Yet they're still saying don't use them?

Off the top of my head it was: distilled, EK coolant, Thermochill coolant, a UV additive, copper sulfate and copper sulfate pentahydrate.

*EDIT*

When did these "flaking" reports start coming in and getting spewed all over the internet? They've been testing since April 6th? I thought the accusing only started recently?

Geez I'm so lost.

I too was shocked when they said they've been testing since April. But I havnt been following this as closely as others since I use Acetal blocks and straight distilled water with no additives.

As to the 'flaking' issue. I think that is just the layman confusing corrosion with flaking, or more specifically a terminology error. Since nickel is missing someone not knowing metallurgy, chemical properties, electrolysis etc, could easily mistake the terminologies between corrosion (missing nickel due to structural changes/breakdowns) and 'flaking' of the nickel plating.

All of that aside;
MASSIVE props to EK for handling this the proper way and doing a straight up 1-1 exchange.

It'll be interesting to see if we get more reports now of other companies having issues with Nickel plating on their blocks.

[Lpfan4ever]

Yeah, I figured it wasn't flaking. I'm just gonna say "flaking" for the sake of that being the accusation so far. It's not bothering me enough to tear apart my loop and go for an RMA. If shit starts floating around my loop in the next month or so, then I probably will break down and go for a copper only block. Nickel looks nice and all, but I'm looking at my monitor 99% of the time.

[chrisk]

I think this is a fair compromise. By the looks though the customer will have to pay shipping both ways?

edit: Eddy says this over at XS:

Right now we can recommend only the coolants that we have tested, EC6 and AT Fluoprotect, more tests will follow. The distilled water is an option if you change it regularly but cant guarantee it as distilled water has different qualities across the world....

Official EK statement - Nickel Plating Issues - XtremeSystems Forums

Daz, Does this mean if we use say, distilled and Dazmode protector, we will still be covered for the replacement block?

[lowfat]

At least they are handling this right. There must be something they changed recently in their plating process as it it never use to happen before.