Avoid Corsair Hydro coolers for now - bad batches.

S

Spare-Flair

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 4, 2003
Messages
7,471
I've recently purchased an H80 and it has been nothing but disappointment. From not being able to tighten the screws due to them removing screwdriver slots when the screws are right beside motherboard heatsinks to the largest and most widespread issue which are defective pumps, I would stay away from the H80/H100 series right now based on what I have seen on the Corsair support forums.

This is another lesson to not buy a product before checking out the manufacturer support forum because you can go back pages and pages and there are dozens and dozens of threads with people all complaining about the same issues with the H80/H100 and perhaps the other models as well.

Mine (like all the others) exhibits a grinding noise from the pump. The Corsair reps claim this is due to trapped air bubbles and you should flicking tubing, lay the case flat, or tap on the block. Well, to get rid of the sound I had to knock on the block rather forcefully and it came back within seconds. There are multiple threads and dozens of users with this issue and yet no official resolution from Corsair. I would recommend staying away from their water cooling products until an official confirmation of a fix comes or their forum users indicate their RMAs are coming back fixed.

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97733

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101260

For myself the most helpful thread has been this one:

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101677

Seems to indicate it's the latest batches so if you are looking for a Hydro cooler, try to find an older batch or wait until a confirmation of fix. If you have one that is silent, great! You are very lucky and I wish I was you as well as many other Hydro users judging by the many posts and threads there that pop up daily. I'm just recommending you be careful in selecting a cooler. For the H80, it appears to be batches with serial number 11399402 on the box. H100's have a fan controller issue with batch 11359403. Other numbers may be included but not yet documented by users so be careful when you are buying.

-edit

There is one more issue I forgot to mention. The molex connector is extremely cheap and definitely needs to be addressed - not the plastic housing, but the pins. The metal is extremely soft on the legs that keep the pins in the housing and they bend and snap easily. I haven't seen such a cheap molex pin in over 15 years and was another big factor in returning it because otherwise I would have needed to strip the connector and reclamp a replacement pin head. On my Corsair TX850M, the female molex end had extremely tight sockets and everytime I tried to insert the molex connector from the H80, no matter how carefully I did it, the legs would bend in and nearly snap off due to metal fatigue. The only solution was to remove the pins from the receptacle and force them into the female molex sockets by hand (which still took some strength because of the size tolerances of both parts from the Corsair TX 850M and the Corsair H80 were not good) and electrical tape it up.
 
Last edited:
I bought an H100 about a month ago for a new build and it works quite well. In fact, this is one of the best investments I have made. My S/N is 11359483, so appears to be made after the bad batch mentioned.
 
Yeah Corsair has started to fall in quality from what I have been seeing. They are just expanding into too many areas too quickly.
 
BurntToast said:
Yeah Corsair has started to fall in quality from what I have been seeing. They are just expanding into too many areas too quickly.
Click to expand...

All they do is rebrand other products. Usually, it's not so much a expansion into other areas so much as maximizing profit by strong arming the suppliers into giving them discounted products in exchange for a larger market share. Then the suppliers use cheaper components to make up the cost difference. Everyone has to eat.
 
My H100s and H60s have flat thumbscrews, so I assume the newer batch? Anyway, my H100 is silent. The two H60s make some noise when the computer is moved around while on, but under normal operation they are silent. One of them in particular seem to be a bit good of noise when there is significant movement, but the other not so much. I'd definitely be annoyed and RMAing if it was a constant thing, because I know what that sound is and it is loud.

H60s SN : 11329401
H100 SN : 11359483
 
Shame to hear about people having problems but I've had nothing but great experiences with Corsair coolers.

I do not use the fans that came with them, but my H70 and H80 coolers are damned near silent and do a great job cooling my 2500k and 2600k systems
 
I'm most likely going to be returning mine and going for a Kuhler because Corsair support won't be back until after the New Year.

Corsair does have the 5 year warranty though which is nice. Does Antec's compare?

The funny thing is that Antec's Kuhler line is designed by the company that used to make Corsair's old Hydros - Asetek. They also make the official Intel watercooling solutions. Corsair switched to CoolIT (which is why you don't see CoolIT branded products anymore for their engineering and design).
 
I haven't had any issues with my H50 but it was made by Asetek as mentioned above. ;)
 
weird, i turned off all my fans and the pump isnt as loud as i remember it being when i first installed it
 
No noise from mine so far and its a couple months old. I freakin love it. I have no idea why the thumbscrews are flat now but I used a pair of needle nose pliers to make sure it was snug. Sux so many are having issues.
 
fwrigley said:
Is your rad mounted above or below the pump?
Click to expand...

The rad is mounted in the normal configuration for an H80.

velocityaurora.jpg


When I lay the case down flat, the pump is totally silent. If I had horizontally oriented HTPC or something, this would be perfectly fine but my case has to stand up. It's really quite bizarre and hilarious because I can slowly tilt the case and once it gets past a certain angle the sound will immediately appear or go away.
 
My H100 which I bought 3 weeks ago is running great. They most liley removed the slots to keep people from over-tightening, blaming Corsair for it not being easy to tighten on YOUR motherboard is really cheese.
 
darkstarcow said:
My H100 which I bought 3 weeks ago is running great. They most liley removed the slots to keep people from over-tightening, blaming Corsair for it not being easy to tighten on YOUR motherboard is really cheese.
Click to expand...

No, it's poor and lazy engineering because they retained the same design of short thumbscrews yet removed the slots. They could easily make the thumbscrews taller to clear the heatsinks on most motherboards. Judging from the post your rig pictures on [H]ardforum, my board is also one of the most common.

Can you fit your fingers around the left side thumbscrews? If so, let me borrow your hand.

h80qo.jpg


I have managed to tighten my bolts after some effort. It was an inconvenience but not a deal-breaker. The deal breaker is the grinding pump and there are dozens if not hundreds of people with that issue on the Corsair support forums. It sounds like an old mechanical harddrive doing constant read/writes. This is going back if I can manage to undo the thumbscrews and I am getting an Antec Kuhler if I cannot find an older batch of H80s with a different serial number. That is because of the defective pump and not the thumbscrews.
 
I got the H100 as soon as they came out, mounted with the rad on the top of the case (Corsair Graphite 600T) and I've never had an issue. Like posted by other, I actually love the thing. It's quiet and allows me to have a pretty good overclock without worry.
 
darkstarcow said:
My H100 which I bought 3 weeks ago is running great. They most liley removed the slots to keep people from over-tightening, blaming Corsair for it not being easy to tighten on YOUR motherboard is really cheese.
Click to expand...

Or they should just design it properly so even when someone screws it in all the way, it would not break anything. It is very easy for them to just limit how far the screw threads can go on a setup like this. Not have screw slots is ridiculous, I have helped people setup H50 cooled systems where tightening the screws would have been impossible without the slots.
 
Last edited:
If the pump only makes noise in a single position, I'm sure it is air.....but in my experience with watercooling pumps, it would have to be a bunch of air. That or really low fluid volumes.

But since this is a closed loop you can't bleed it or fill it.......but you can RMA it.

As for the screws......needle nose pliers with rubber tubing on the tips.....will work nicely to tighten the screws, but not having screwdriver slots is dumb.:eek:
 
It's amazing how often someone will start throwing out phrases like "hundreds of posts" when they have a problem with something. Every time someone says this, I go look and every time there is nothing close to what is being described.

It really does boil down to it not being Corsairs fault that some motherboard's dont have as much space around the socket as other motherboards. It also is not "lazy engineering" to remove the slots considering how easy it is to over-tighten the screws. Some people having to put more effort into installation > people breaking something due to over-tightening.
 
darkstarcow said:
It's amazing how often someone will start throwing out phrases like "hundreds of posts" when they have a problem with something. Every time someone says this, I go look and every time there is nothing close to what is being described.

It really does boil down to it not being Corsairs fault that some motherboard's dont have as much space around the socket as other motherboards. It also is not "lazy engineering" to remove the slots considering how easy it is to over-tighten the screws. Some people having to put more effort into installation > people breaking something due to over-tightening.
Click to expand...

You may want to get your eyes checked. There's a post on that forum where a guy identifies and writes down the names of almost 40 posters in only two threads who have this issue with defective pumps before he got tired of counting. There are many more threads than two.

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?p=548291#post548291

Regarding the thumbscrews, removing a feature without planning for the consequences or offering an alternative solution is lazy engineering. If you take away the ability to use tools and force people to use their hands, you have to simply make the screws longer so that people with normal human hands can actually mount your equipment.

This is absurd, you try to warn people about making purchases that they would regret because of a bad batch of products with defects or unadvertised changes that you won't find in the release reviews (while noting that previous batches were perfectly fine) and you get attacked. This is the internet of course, what do you expect?
 
Last edited:
Spare-Flair said:
You may want to get your eyes checked. There's a post on that forum where a guy identifies and writes down the names of almost 40 posters in only two threads who have this issue with defective pumps before he got tired of counting. There are many more threads than two.

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?p=548291#post548291

Regarding the thumbscrews, removing a feature without planning for the consequences or offering an alternative solution is lazy engineering. If you take away the ability to use tools and force people to use their hands, you have to simply make the screws longer so that people with normal human hands can actually mount your equipment.

This is absurd, you try to warn people about making purchases that they would regret because of a bad batch of products with defects or unadvertised changes that you won't find in the release reviews (while noting that previous batches were perfectly fine) and you get attacked. This is the internet of course, what do you expect?
Click to expand...

When you consider it is a very small number of people who are having problems compared to the total number of units sold, yes, you will get trashed at least a little for making a thread titled "Avoid Corsair Hydro coolers for now"

The icing on the cake is how big of a hard-on you have for slots on the screws. A reason has been given for why they may of taken them off, a reason which outweighs them keeping slots on the screws.
 
darkstarcow said:
When you consider it is a very small number of people who are having problems compared to the total number of units sold, yes, you will get trashed at least a little for making a thread titled "Avoid Corsair Hydro coolers for now"

The icing on the cake is how big of a hard-on you have for slots on the screws. A reason has been given for why they may of taken them off, a reason which outweighs them keeping slots on the screws.
Click to expand...

Your logic and reasoning is flawed. Compared to the total number of units sold is irrelevant. The total number of units so far have been decent fine working units. All the threads on the forum indicate that it is certain latest batches with specific serial numbers that are having issues. This was all explained in the original post as simply to watch out for the latest batches and serial numbers mentioned.

In case you haven't been reading, I've been saying they should be redesigned so fingers can reach them as your average enthusiast board these days does surround your CPU with heat sinks and capacitors. It is lazy engineering to simply fill them out with flush heads as a solution to reduce the number of RMAs. When the thumb screws are barely a quarter of an inch off the board, people who cannot reach will improvise other tools anyway. All this pales in comparison to the pump grinding issues. I actually blame CoolIT more than Corsair. I live in the same city as CoolIT and used to be proud of the fact that my watercooling was locally designed but I'm a little frustrated from swapping 3 watercooling units in a week.

Forget it, I bought a Kuhler 920. Much better design and I can control the unit from software instead of having to open the case to press the button or forking out even more $$$ for Corsair's unreleased "Corsair Link" hardware unit and software.

If you want a Hydro, try to look for older serial numbers and caveat emptor as always and make sure your retailer will accept returns. I found out that the fine print on their receipts indicate they are not supposed to accept watercooling returns for some reason and I just lucked out by getting an employee that didn't know that.
 
Last edited:
This pump noise issue is nothing new and I have seen plenty of posts with users having issues. Just visit the Corsair forums if you want to see it for your self. My unit runs great and gives me no issues but I feel bad for those who are having problems. I would hope Corsair makes it right for everyone.
 
Has there ben a response, either privately or pubically from Corsair in any of the other threads posted?

this is pretty frustrating I'm sure.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Your logic and reasoning is flawed. Compared to the total number of units sold is irrelevant. The total number of units so far have been decent fine working units. All the threads on the forum indicate that it is certain latest batches with specific serial numbers that are having issues. This was all explained in the original post as simply to watch out for the latest batches and serial numbers mentioned.
Click to expand...

His logic isn't the only one flawed, so is yours. How long should people avoid them? How big is the "bad batch". Several people have said they purcahased around the time you did and had no issues, including me. I bought both an H80 and an H100 and had zero issues. Also 40 posts or even 200 might be small compared to how many total units they sold in that time. You would like to see less problems sure, but at the same time Corsair has been a very open and reputable company for fixing issues. So to tell people to avoid their products is a little bit harsh.

Also I like the thumbscrews the way they are, I would be upset if they redesigned them. I have had several water cooling blocks with similar styles to that. A few had higher thinner thumb screws, but those were harder to tighten properly.
 
I was given a H100 as a holiday present, one that I plan to replace the current old model TRUE Black that cools my i7-920 @ 3.8. Turns out its part of the "11359483" batch which has been reported to have the pump problem. I could return it to Amazon and hope for a better one, but if Corsair themselves are providing expedient RMAs etc... I'd rather get one guaranteed not to have pump trouble or crappy screws. I heard that Corsair was giving some kind of 50% coupon or discount code for their products to those affected - anyone know about this?
 
BTW, after reading through many of the forums on this issue, it seems there is a fix, which is to run the pump through a fan controller and turn the fan controller all the way up. This would lead me to believe that for some reason the pump is not receiving enough power through the regular motherboard controller.
 
NoOther said:
BTW, after reading through many of the forums on this issue, it seems there is a fix, which is to run the pump through a fan controller and turn the fan controller all the way up. This would lead me to believe that for some reason the pump is not receiving enough power through the regular motherboard controller.
Click to expand...

The H80 and H100 use a molex and not a fan header for power. It should already be receiving the maximum power provided on that rail. I've heard another fix is to take the radiator out and shake it to dislodge air bubbles.
 
I'm perfectly happy with my H80. Bought it about a month ago. It replaced an H60 that also worked perfectly.

EDIT: I checked and my batch is 11399402 so apparently not all of them are bad.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Corsair generally provides easy replacement, but you pay shipping for the first failure and replacement may take a few weeks. Then again 7 out of 8 Corsair products I have tried have been either defective or fully DOA which is why I did not buy either an H100 CPU cooler or an 800D case for my soon to occur switch to water cooled GPUs.
 
Teenyman45 said:
Corsair generally provides easy replacement, but you pay shipping for the first failure and replacement may take a few weeks. Then again 7 out of 8 Corsair products I have tried have been either defective or fully DOA which is why I did not buy either an H100 CPU cooler or an 800D case for my soon to occur switch to water cooled GPUs.
Click to expand...

7/8? really? are you buying from the local 'open box super discount store' or what?

That's an insane figure.

Anyhow, if i'm not mistaken, Corsair has only stated that a single batch of Hydro series units may have issues and should be RMA'd. Not multiple batches.

... you do realize that most everyone that has a negative experience with a product will come on here and look for others / post about it right? And likewise folks relatively speaking will not come on here and create a thread to say how great a product is because that's considered a waste of everyones time and they get ignored or flamed?

point is: you're viewing a majourly skewed portion of the product in question when you go trolling a forum for info on it. So, without the real data, ie: global sales figures / failure rate (stated as far less then 5% by above mentioned linked cosrair rep post) ... you're just blowing smoke.

I agree that corsair should have screws with tightening limits. Having said that, you should have done some reasearch on just how well this product would fit your motherboard. ... That's sort of like buying an aftermarket HSF and griping about it covering RAM slots without having done a basic google search to see if anyone had issues. Come on now!

FWIW, no grinding noise from my H100... yet? ;)
 
Just got my H80 a week ago. It's working perfectly. Just like the H50 I have running for the past 2 years in my wifes PC.
 
I've had the grinding noise issue with the pump on my H60 before but I have gone and replaced that a while ago, Though I am planning to get an H80 or an H100 soon, I hope I don't have bad luck again >< Corsair has been a good brand to me all around with minor issues rarely but what brand doesn't have a flaw every now and again?
 
If I got something like this with no slots and was reduced to needle nose pliers I would be livid.

fucking retarded...sorry
 
Corsair H80. Arrived around December 14th or something. Running great uptil now.
Flat screws but was able to tighten with hand. Unless you are a gorilla, I can't see anyone having issues with tightening the screws.
 
jojo69 said:
If I got something like this with no slots and was reduced to needle nose pliers I would be livid.

fucking retarded...sorry
Click to expand...

If you need pliers to tighten these thumbscrews, you would indeed be fucking retarded.

It's not difficult. Hell my koolance waterblocks have thumbscrews. Why the hell would you need to crank down on it with a screwdriver?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top