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Edit: if this is not the right sub-forum to post this please recommend or move it- it seemed to kind of be in a grey area but as it relates to aftermarket cooling I figured I would try here for people with the most knowledge/familiarity.
Has anyone had any experience getting warranty support from Alphacool/Aquatuning.us?
I have been using an Alphacool Eiswolf GPX-Pro 2080ti AIO cooler for just over a year. Performance has been great, no complaints except over the past month or two my AIO pump is giving indications of dying. The symptom is the pretty common case where the pump unit is making rattling noises, at first sporadically but lately more and more consistently and more loudly. A couple days ago it also seemed to cross some tipping point where now it will occassionally make a *very* loud whining noise and with this loud noise AIO pump RPM drops from ~2200-2300 to ~300rpm. At first I did suspect that the noises were caused by long-term fluid loss (what is the term, bleed-through?) and air gurgling through the system but I opened the fill port on the top of the radiatior and even after vigorous shaking of the tubing/rad/etc I saw no air bubbles rise to the top and I was not able to add any meaningful amount of fluid as the rad/system seemed to already be full.
The manual for my cooler states that warranty period is 2 years however when I emailed them yesterday ([email protected]) they replied rather unhelpfully that they "are pretty sure warranty period is only one year" for those products and "you can try to fix it yourself by buying this replacement pump, shpiping will be expensive", and "you might also be able to convert your Eiswolf system to a custom loop". I replied with a photo of my warranty documentation clearly showing the warranty period is 2 years, will see what they say about it.
I have always heard very good things about Alphacool products- that the products are high quality and that the company was legit- and as mentioned above the performance has been great, so I was honestly a little surprised that the person I contacted at Aquatuning does not seem to clearly know the warranty coverage of their products and that I am getting pushback. I just want to get my unit replaced under warranty if possible. Unfortunately I recognize that I am in a bit of a tough spot here since there are very few aftermarket GPU AIOs (I am really only aware of the Alphacool and one from NZXT which I did not like) and the way my system is set up, I really prefer to keep using AIO for my GPU.
I do have 2 questions:
1) Has anyone ever gotten warranty support for alphacool and did you have a good/smooth experience? Do you typically need to send back your defective item before getting a replacement or do they ship you replacement parts in advance?
2) Are Alphacool and Aquatuning the same company? I purchased my AIO through aquatuning.us, which seems to be the US version of aquatuning, and it seems Alphacool sells primarily through that avenue. The Alphacool website/store also looks exactly like aquatuning.us except prices are in euros. The reply I got was from Aquatuning GMBH (German company). Are they just an online vendor like newegg who happen to sell Alphacool products or is there a closer relationship between Alphacool and Aquatuning? If Alphacool is a separate company, is there a way I can contact Alphacool and see if I can get warranty support through them directly?
2a) Since Alphacool/Aquatuning seems to be based in Germany, should I expect to have to ship my broken AIO to Europe either before or after getting a replacement? (I live in the US) This would be a bummer both in terms of time and of shipping cost (likely making it not worth it if I have to pay for the shipping)
Thanks
Ruahrc
Has anyone had any experience getting warranty support from Alphacool/Aquatuning.us?
I have been using an Alphacool Eiswolf GPX-Pro 2080ti AIO cooler for just over a year. Performance has been great, no complaints except over the past month or two my AIO pump is giving indications of dying. The symptom is the pretty common case where the pump unit is making rattling noises, at first sporadically but lately more and more consistently and more loudly. A couple days ago it also seemed to cross some tipping point where now it will occassionally make a *very* loud whining noise and with this loud noise AIO pump RPM drops from ~2200-2300 to ~300rpm. At first I did suspect that the noises were caused by long-term fluid loss (what is the term, bleed-through?) and air gurgling through the system but I opened the fill port on the top of the radiatior and even after vigorous shaking of the tubing/rad/etc I saw no air bubbles rise to the top and I was not able to add any meaningful amount of fluid as the rad/system seemed to already be full.
The manual for my cooler states that warranty period is 2 years however when I emailed them yesterday ([email protected]) they replied rather unhelpfully that they "are pretty sure warranty period is only one year" for those products and "you can try to fix it yourself by buying this replacement pump, shpiping will be expensive", and "you might also be able to convert your Eiswolf system to a custom loop". I replied with a photo of my warranty documentation clearly showing the warranty period is 2 years, will see what they say about it.
I have always heard very good things about Alphacool products- that the products are high quality and that the company was legit- and as mentioned above the performance has been great, so I was honestly a little surprised that the person I contacted at Aquatuning does not seem to clearly know the warranty coverage of their products and that I am getting pushback. I just want to get my unit replaced under warranty if possible. Unfortunately I recognize that I am in a bit of a tough spot here since there are very few aftermarket GPU AIOs (I am really only aware of the Alphacool and one from NZXT which I did not like) and the way my system is set up, I really prefer to keep using AIO for my GPU.
I do have 2 questions:
1) Has anyone ever gotten warranty support for alphacool and did you have a good/smooth experience? Do you typically need to send back your defective item before getting a replacement or do they ship you replacement parts in advance?
2) Are Alphacool and Aquatuning the same company? I purchased my AIO through aquatuning.us, which seems to be the US version of aquatuning, and it seems Alphacool sells primarily through that avenue. The Alphacool website/store also looks exactly like aquatuning.us except prices are in euros. The reply I got was from Aquatuning GMBH (German company). Are they just an online vendor like newegg who happen to sell Alphacool products or is there a closer relationship between Alphacool and Aquatuning? If Alphacool is a separate company, is there a way I can contact Alphacool and see if I can get warranty support through them directly?
2a) Since Alphacool/Aquatuning seems to be based in Germany, should I expect to have to ship my broken AIO to Europe either before or after getting a replacement? (I live in the US) This would be a bummer both in terms of time and of shipping cost (likely making it not worth it if I have to pay for the shipping)
Thanks
Ruahrc
