My MCP655 pump leaked...

[Ravynmagi]

Okay, I'm pretty sure I did something I shouldn't have done. Now I just want to find out how badly I screwed up...

This is what happened. I noticed the water in the reservoir was a bit low, so I wanted to top it off. My reservoir is mounted outside my case and the computer was running. I unscrewed the top plug and heard a suction sound louder than usual, then the water level started going down kinda quickly.

I looked real quick for where the water might be going and saw it coming from the pump, but not from the inlet or outlets. It was coming from the bottom of the pump. In the picture below you can see some white stuff around the bottom edge of the circular part of the pump where it seemed to parts of the pump housing were screwed together.

I removed the pump from the case and gave the housing a little twist to make sure it wasn't loose, it didn't seem to be. I refilled the reservoir now that the computer is off and made sure the tube was filled with water on both sides of the pump, which it was, then powered the pump back on. It seemed to be working fine again and was no longer leaking.

I'm gonna assume it was stupid to open the reservoir while the pump was running. The pump seems fine now, but can I trust it? And why did the water leak out like that?

My loops is fairly simple. Pump outlets to VGA block (Koolance 4870X2 block), to the MCR320, to the MicroRes, and back into the pump.

 

[MrE]

I've never had a pump leak when opening a reservoir while its running. I'd suspect the O ring that sits in the groove has either a crack in it, or it wasn't seated in the channel. I noticed in your pic that there is some sort of calcification on the lower right half of the pump. What are you running for fluid? Could be something in your loop eating that O ring.

 

[Ravynmagi]

That calcification looking stuff is where the water came out.

The pump and everything else is about a week old, I just set this up.

As for liquid, I'm using distilled water with a couple drops of PT Nuke.

 

[TI66ER]

I would really empty your loop and remove the pump to check out its o ring before you just run it again.If it leaked once it might well leak again.

 

[MrE]

The pump and everything else is about a week old, I just set this up.

Hmm, then I'd really suggest a tear down of the pump and careful inspection of the O ring. I'm still thinking it may be a defect and you aren't getting a proper seal which is leading to the O ring failure.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Any special advise I should know before I attempt to take apart this MCP655 pump? Never done it before, I'm guessing it's straight forward and people have done this before?

 

[MrE]

Very straight forward. The motor housing simply unscrews from the front and top inlet/outlet ports. Just pay attention to how the seal sits in the channel when the two pieces come apart.

 

[RedRaider]

WOW....

Iwaki RD30's don't leak.....

 

[Ravynmagi]

I opened it up. It was real simple as MrE said it was. The o-ring seemed like it was in place and in perfect condition.

I think the thing just wasn't tightened all the way originally. I didn't think to make sure it was when I originally installed it.

 

[MrE]

WOW....

Iwaki RD30's don't leak.....

Nope, they don't. Then again for a $200 pump that requires its own separate PSU and is a lot bigger than say a D5, makes it not feasible for most people. There is a whole post on this subject on XS with 11 pages of flames on the subject. Lets not derail the OP's thread with fanboism.

Good to see that it might have just been loose. Mine shipped the same way. It was a fluke on my part that I went to turn the pump housing and found it to be loose. How's it working out now? No more leaks?