DAN HSLP-48: A powerful sub 50mm heatsink

Hi everyone,

It looks like the new Alpenfön Black Ridge has some manufacturing problems. Some heatpipes are not soldered correctly with the base. Maybe you know I can’t give support by myself because it is not my product. My name is only printed on the carton because I helped EKL Alpenfön in the development process. However I forward the manufacturing problems to EKL and they ask me if I can post the following statement (I translate it from German to English):


“Dear customers, the first review samples were not affected by the problem, so we start producing the first batch with a rush order. This first batch is affected by the problem and is a result from quick manufacturing. We are very sorry about it. All already ready new batches and future batches will not have this problem. We informed all resellers. The resellers will contact you for a replacement process. We guarantee an easy replacement of the product. We feel very sorry that this happened due to quick manufacturing and we ask your forgiveness. - EKL”


Furthermore they confirmed that the current version with bad soldering will not perform as good as the flawless version. So everyone will get a new flawless version.

With best regards
Daniel Hansen

How do I know if my unit is affected? Does it mean we will have to return them for replacement?


How about the AM4 bracket? If they are going to fix the issues, shouldn't this be addressed as well?

I can't find the reason behind supporting old AMD sockets in this cooler, especially AM3 which doesn't have an ITX board available.

Can you forward this to the manufacturer to update AMD bracket design to focus only AM4 so it doesn't collide with components on asrock and MSI boards?


Also if possible for future revisions - I would gladly pay few more bucks for 1 cm longer cold plate with two mounting positions shifted by 1 cm so the pci slot would not be obstructed unless of course the position of the plate (heatpipe bend) could be fixed for this.
 
How do I know if my unit is affected? Does it mean we will have to return them for replacement?


How about the AM4 bracket? If they are going to fix the issues, shouldn't this be addressed as well?

I can't find the reason behind supporting old AMD sockets in this cooler, especially AM3 which doesn't have an ITX board available.

Can you forward this to the manufacturer to update AMD bracket design to focus only AM4 so it doesn't collide with components on asrock and MSI boards?


Also if possible for future revisions - I would gladly pay few more bucks for 1 cm longer cold plate with two mounting positions shifted by 1 cm so the pci slot would not be obstructed unless of course the position of the plate (heatpipe bend) could be fixed for this.
Just got an email from caseking asking to send the product back, annoyingly stating a replacement is not available right away. I've asked them if I can use the current model until it is, unless this flaw results in major issues aside from slightly higher temps.
 
So I guess all of the early reviews should be dismissed until this manufacturing issue is resolved
 
Just got an email from caseking asking to send the product back, annoyingly stating a replacement is not available right away. I've asked them if I can use the current model until it is, unless this flaw results in major issues aside from slightly higher temps.

I got one too. Noticed them about other issues as well in hope they will forward it to the manufacturer as well.
 
Damn. Literally just removed my LP53 from my board to put this on. Only checked here because I was considering a 120mm fan and wanted to see if there were any other recommendations other than the Noctua (hate the brown colored ones).

Looks like I'll be redoing the LP53 for now, though I haven't heard anything from the vendor yet. (I used Overclockers UK to ship to the US).
 
I got one too. Noticed them about other issues as well in hope they will forward it to the manufacturer as well.
What kind of issues? On my unit, I noticed the sticker on the baseplate having an air gap like it was removed partly and placed back perfectly aside from a line in the middle. Also some imperfections on the heatpipes, but I've never had an alphenfohn product before so I don't know what their regular finish looks like.
 
What kind of issues? On my unit, I noticed the sticker on the baseplate having an air gap like it was removed partly and placed back perfectly aside from a line in the middle. Also some imperfections on the heatpipes, but I've never had an alphenfohn product before so I don't know what their regular finish looks like.

Check my earlier comments. This cooler looks like it was only tested on few motherboards and literally no SFF cases other than A4-SFX and similar layout.

Anything that doesn't have a recess above the IO plate and needs a space above the slot either because of the card being in the slot (duh), or using pcb riser or just requiring some space for the riser ribbon there like in Sentry will have problems with this cooler.

I hope they will fix it, possibly with ~1 cm shift of the base plate so the cooler doesn't intrude the pci-e slot area.
 
Hi everyone,

It looks like the new Alpenfön Black Ridge has some manufacturing problems. Some heatpipes are not soldered correctly with the base. Maybe you know I can’t give support by myself because it is not my product. My name is only printed on the carton because I helped EKL Alpenfön in the development process. However I forward the manufacturing problems to EKL and they ask me if I can post the following statement (I translate it from German to English):


“Dear customers, the first review samples were not affected by the problem, so we start producing the first batch with a rush order. This first batch is affected by the problem and is a result from quick manufacturing. We are very sorry about it. All already ready new batches and future batches will not have this problem. We informed all resellers. The resellers will contact you for a replacement process. We guarantee an easy replacement of the product. We feel very sorry that this happened due to quick manufacturing and we ask your forgiveness. - EKL”


Furthermore they confirmed that the current version with bad soldering will not perform as good as the flawless version. So everyone will get a new flawless version.

With best regards
Daniel Hansen

Dang it, literally just got my build done. Took forever to get everything in place as well.

IMG_20181127_151502.jpg
 

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Man Asus really doubled down on the heat shield craziness with the Z390. And I thought the 270 was bad!
 
Couldn't you just detach the plastic shroud over IO on the motherboard instead?

I wonder if they would replace your cooler now after this mod ....

Might have been easier, I just preferred this solution. I would hope the mod wouldn't change any chance of replacement seeing as I was under the impression that I had bought a complete product that I didn't ever need to present in original condition again.


Oh, that's wonderful! Thank you! I may do this with a Dremel What CPU are you using and are you going to post temps?

I think I will post a small build log with parts used & temps.
 
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They would be pretty polite if they do replace it. One reseller from germany (alternate) where i ordered my cooler, removed the black ridge from their website. Guess it will take some days/weeks till the new badge of coolers arrive
 
They would be pretty polite if they do replace it. One reseller from germany (alternate) where i ordered my cooler, removed the black ridge from their website. Guess it will take some days/weeks till the new badge of coolers arrive

That's where I got mine from as well. Have you heard from them regarding a replacement?
 
Might have been easier, I just preferred this solution. I would hope the mod wouldn't change any chance of replacement seeing as I was under the impression that I had bought a complete product that I didn't ever need to present in original condition again.

I wonder how will it go with this replacement. I believe they should replace the cooler even if people modded the AM4 bracket because it's their fault for not supporting AM4 mounting properly - there's a clearance area determining where board manufacturer can go and where cooler manufacturer can go and they crossed the boundary there.

Shaving off a big chunk of a fin stack like you did is really extreme and they most likely don't have to replace it according to warranty conditions, but technically they instigated this by not designing it properly so they'd have a hard time figuring out how to handle this for you. It'll be easier/cheaper/faster for them to just replace it for you unless there's a lot of people doing stuff like this and they decide to cut their losses on such damaged units.

They would be pretty polite if they do replace it.
Well, yeah and no, not really. That's a hard one to crack who's really at fault here from the manufacturer point of view. They have to thread carefully to not make themselves bad PR here.
 
Hi everyone,

It looks like the new Alpenfön Black Ridge has some manufacturing problems. Some heatpipes are not soldered correctly with the base. Maybe you know I can’t give support by myself because it is not my product. My name is only printed on the carton because I helped EKL Alpenfön in the development process. However I forward the manufacturing problems to EKL and they ask me if I can post the following statement (I translate it from German to English):


“Dear customers, the first review samples were not affected by the problem, so we start producing the first batch with a rush order. This first batch is affected by the problem and is a result from quick manufacturing. We are very sorry about it. All already ready new batches and future batches will not have this problem. We informed all resellers. The resellers will contact you for a replacement process. We guarantee an easy replacement of the product. We feel very sorry that this happened due to quick manufacturing and we ask your forgiveness. - EKL”


Furthermore they confirmed that the current version with bad soldering will not perform as good as the flawless version. So everyone will get a new flawless version.

With best regards
Daniel Hansen
any way to know if the overclockers.co.uk units were affected? Or any idea when we'll hear from them about the returns/replacement procedure?
 
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I just spoke with Alternate, where I purchased my Black Ridge. The replacement samples will be in stock with retailers and ready for shipping late January/early February.
 
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Too bad the Black Ridge has to be sent back... Looks quiet neat
 

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Yeah, that was me saying that. I used a grinder on the IO side of the fin array in order to make it fit.

View attachment 123318
Wait what!?!?!?! Why didn't you mod the shield instead? Why would you sacrifice the heatsink?!?!?!!?

Hi everyone,

It looks like the new Alpenfön Black Ridge has some manufacturing problems. Some heatpipes are not soldered correctly with the base. Maybe you know I can’t give support by myself because it is not my product. My name is only printed on the carton because I helped EKL Alpenfön in the development process. However I forward the manufacturing problems to EKL and they ask me if I can post the following statement (I translate it from German to English):


“Dear customers, the first review samples were not affected by the problem, so we start producing the first batch with a rush order. This first batch is affected by the problem and is a result from quick manufacturing. We are very sorry about it. All already ready new batches and future batches will not have this problem. We informed all resellers. The resellers will contact you for a replacement process. We guarantee an easy replacement of the product. We feel very sorry that this happened due to quick manufacturing and we ask your forgiveness. - EKL”


Furthermore they confirmed that the current version with bad soldering will not perform as good as the flawless version. So everyone will get a new flawless version.

With best regards
Daniel Hansen

Is there anyway that we can get our hands on these faulty heatsinks for a lower price?
 
I bet the manufacturer will have to pay for the manufacturing problems so they will receive the faulty coolers
 
I bet the manufacturer will have to pay for the manufacturing problems so they will receive the faulty coolers

I imagine they might be able to repair and resell them. If it's just the soldering it might be as simple as reflowing them again.

On a vaguely related noted, I've been hunting down some VLP RAM over the last few weeks and have ended up with an extra Crucial/Micron 2400MHz 16GB module (MTA18ADF2G72AZ-2G3). If anyone's interested let me know, I'd be happy to let that go at cost (£135). I'm in the UK, but I could ship elsewhere. There's a couple of other listings for the same module on eBay right now, so it would be easy to get a matching second one. I briefly tested the module, seems to run fine at 2800MHz with stock voltage and latencies - so probably more with higher voltage and/or looser timings, though I did not try.
 
Just to clarify, dondan, does receiving replacement coolers require returning the original? Or will the retailer simply send a new "perfect" cooler when they're available? I'm curious as I ordered mine from OverclockersUK and I'm in the US so shipping back and forth could take a while and/or be expensive.
 
Just to clarify, dondan, does receiving replacement coolers require returning the original? Or will the retailer simply send a new "perfect" cooler when they're available? I'm curious as I ordered mine from OverclockersUK and I'm in the US so shipping back and forth could take a while and/or be expensive.
Caseking is giving refunds, I guess we'll have to order again once the revision hits the market.
 
Just to clarify, dondan, does receiving replacement coolers require returning the original? Or will the retailer simply send a new "perfect" cooler when they're available? I'm curious as I ordered mine from OverclockersUK and I'm in the US so shipping back and forth could take a while and/or be expensive.

I can only say it again, i don't know. It is not my product.
 
I contacted ocuk. They said they haven’t heard from Alpenfohn, and if I don’t like the cooler I can initiate a return/refund request. So I contacted the Alpenfohn instead earlier today. I’ll report back once I hear back.
 
I also ordered mine from Overclockers UK. Not installed it yet. Returning it will most likely cost almost as much as ordering a new one.

But isn't Overclockers UK owned by the same group as Caseking. How come they don't have the same info? Hopefully, this will get sorted, and they also will refund this product.
 
I also ordered mine from Overclockers UK. Not installed it yet. Returning it will most likely cost almost as much as ordering a new one.

But isn't Overclockers UK owned by the same group as Caseking. How come they don't have the same info? Hopefully, this will get sorted, and they also will refund this product.

I would expect one of few possible reasons behind this:

1) Caseking orders were the first batch that had the soldering issue and OCUK units weren't affected.

2) Amount of orders delivered with faulty units outside EU is not that big and therefore they are not doing a recall. They may just ship you the fixed unit after they fix the manufacturing.

3) It's not possible for them to make a free return shipping like in the UE where they just gave us shipping labels to print out. Maybe they need to give you a return "envelope", stamps etc so they're going to make a replacement with stuff required for return package at the same time.
 
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