Ran D5 pump while dry, now case vibrates

allen5055

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 25, 2012
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I was rebuilding my loop and thought it was a bright idea to keep the D5 running while the reservoir was empty and dump water in. I have a dual D5 pump setup. Well, the case kept rattling after that, and I eventually realized it was all from one pump. It's a variable speed D5 pump, and when I have it at 5 (the highest speed) case rattles, but when I turn it to 3 or below, I don't feel rattling. After looking this up, my guess is that I damaged the impeller when it was running on dry and it's probably grinding a bit, at least at higher speeds.

Should I just replace this pump? Or, can I keep the one still good pump running at 5, and turn down the affected pump to 3 where I don't hear rattling?

This is my pump/reservoir.

https://www.frozencpu.com/products/...ies_Pumps_Installed.html?tl=g30c107s152#blank
 
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No but seriously you can run it like your asking just might wanna have a flow indicator on it for piece of mind.
 
Turn the dead pump off and order a replacement. It won't hurt your good pump to run it by itself. The non-turning pump will present a little bit of restriction, but not enough to matter.

The dead pump likely has a destroyed ceramic bearing. It would be good practice to clean out your loop with you replace it.
 
Turn the dead pump off and order a replacement. It won't hurt your good pump to run it by itself. The non-turning pump will present a little bit of restriction, but not enough to matter.

The dead pump likely has a destroyed ceramic bearing. It would be good practice to clean out your loop with you replace it.

It spins, it pumps, just at setting 5 my case vibrates. At 3, I can't feel the case vibrating.
 
It spins, it pumps, just at setting 5 my case vibrates. At 3, I can't feel the case vibrating.
it spins and pumps for now. If there's audible vibration happening at high settings, there's still going to be vibration at lower settings which will slowly damage the already-weakened bearings more.
You goofed and the thing is damaged now, it's okay it happens. Back in like 2003 I toasted my brand-new AthlonXP by briefly turning on the computer with no heatsink to check something during the build, thought it would be OK for a split second but the CPU got damaged and randomly crashed during games after that even though it mostly worked.

If you can't afford a replacement pump right now there's no shame in going along with partially-working components to get the build running but if you can, then just get a new one and have that peace of mind.
 
I actually have a spare D5 that I've had for a few years (warranty replacement, but while I was waiting I bought a new one). I'm just hoping not to rebuild my loop for a bit. Waiting for an EVGA 3080 hydrocool to become available, probably in 1-2 months. If the impeller is broken or gradually completely breaks, am I going to get debris in my loop from keeping this on?

Also, you'd figure I'd have damaged my other pump running it dry, but that one seems fine. Maybe that one is going too?
 
Pump is dead, lesson learned, dont take chances with it.

I have a second pump in there, the flow won't stop even if the damaged pump stops completely. That's one of the reasons I got a dual-pump design, so I know there's always one going if one suddenly dies. I'm just wondering if the damaged pump will make debris if the impeller scrapes against the side from what I'm assuming is a damaged ceramic bearing.
 
As long as you're not running the dead pump, chances of significant pieces of debris escaping into the loop are lower. You should be fine to run on one pump until you get your GPU block, but plan for a full teardown and hand-cleaning when you get it.

As for only one pump dying, that's not too unbelievable - dual series pump volutes like to form vapor locks. The luckier of your pumps probably had some fluid in the cavity to lubricate it, if not cool it.

If I were you, I'd just tear the sucker down now, but I don't have much tolerance for running in limp mode.
 
As long as you're not running the dead pump, chances of significant pieces of debris escaping into the loop are lower. You should be fine to run on one pump until you get your GPU block, but plan for a full teardown and hand-cleaning when you get it.

As for only one pump dying, that's not too unbelievable - dual series pump volutes like to form vapor locks. The luckier of your pumps probably had some fluid in the cavity to lubricate it, if not cool it.

If I were you, I'd just tear the sucker down now, but I don't have much tolerance for running in limp mode.

Alright you guys have convinced me, I'll probably just stop being lazy and take it down right now.

Also getting a 5900x Tuesday, could wait for that, but I think I can just pop the waterblock off the cpu, put the new one in without disconnecting the tubes.
 
Alright I disassembled the pump/radiator. The bad pump clearly had the impeller rubbing against the side. The good pump had the impeller rotating perfectly centered. I replaced the bad pump with my spare, made sure to put plenty of water in the system first, and now it's humming along quietly at max speed for both pumps.

I tried swapping impellers as a test, and the bad pump with a new impeller worked fine. This makes me think I can just get a replacement impeller on ebay to have a spare functional D5 sitting around.

I'm trying to find a replacement rotator/impeller for the D5 and it's not as easy/common as I thought. The closest I could find is this.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/328...MEcT6iihy6n67ZdwwWgaAtS5EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Anyone know where to get a new D5 rotator/impeller? What's it actually called?
 
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You need the ceramic bearing that the impeller rides on. Unfortunately i couldn't say where you might find a new one. You may be able to find a used one in the fs/t section.
 
You need the ceramic bearing that the impeller rides on. Unfortunately i couldn't say where you might find a new one. You may be able to find a used one in the fs/t section.

It's still there and when I put a new impeller on it spins fine. By new impeller I mean I swapped a good one over to try it out from one of my good D5 pumps. What was worn from my dry run was the impeller bearing itself.
 
If your sure the white ceramic bearing isnt damaged- no flat spots or cracks etc, that rotator looks like the proper replacement part. I would swap the potentially damaged pump out and use your back up in your res. That way you dont have to worry about any long term failures and you can test the new rotator at your leisure.
While you have it apart i would check the second pump as well.
 
If your sure the white ceramic bearing isnt damaged- no flat spots or cracks etc, that rotator looks like the proper replacement part. I would swap the potentially damaged pump out and use your back up in your res. That way you dont have to worry about any long term failures and you can test the new rotator at your leisure.
While you have it apart i would check the second pump as well.

Already did that. I have a new, never used replacement D5 in there to replace the damaged pump.

I'm simply thinking about how to make the damaged pump whole to have another backup on hand now. Would prefer to just buy a new rotor, but haven't been able to find anyone selling them besides aliexpress.
 
at ppcs you can get a mcp655 pwm for $69.99, with usps shipping itll come out to around $82-$83. with coupon xmas2020-10 itll drop down to $72 or $73 before tax. thats about as good as youll get. if you forget to use the xmas coupon theres a ocn55 coupon thatll save you 5.5% year round. if you shop around you may find something a little better here and there for just the head but not very often.
 
at ppcs you can get a mcp655 pwm for $69.99, with usps shipping itll come out to around $82-$83. with coupon xmas2020-10 itll drop down to $72 or $73 before tax. thats about as good as youll get. if you forget to use the xmas coupon theres a ocn55 coupon thatll save you 5.5% year round. if you shop around you may find something a little better here and there for just the head but not very often.

Thx. I think I'll hold off on buying a full backup pump, these things can last years. If one goes down I'll just limp along on my second one for a few days until a new one arrives. If I find just a cheap rotor though, that's a different story. Thx for your help.
 
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