Part 1 of my series with interior views and material analyses of commercially available radiators for PC water cooling starts on Monday. I’m leaving out the AiO compact water coolers for now, but I’m still planning something in this regard. But I’ll come back to that later. On Monday, I have already worked through the first examples of (alphabetically sorted) Alphacool, Aqua Computer, Bykski, EKWB, Hardware Labs and Watercool in the article. The latest radiators from Corsair, Magicool, Thermaltake and various noname third-party suppliers have already arrived or are already in stock.
What exactly do I have in mind? Since I’ve been repeatedly asked about the inner workings of radiators after their unexpected demise or symptoms such as clogging, oozing or bloating, I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I have and will get myself brand new radiators from the current portfolios (retail goods, not golden samples from the manufacturers or suppliers) and test them for everything that you normally can’t do without expensive laboratory equipment. So it won’t be tests on flow rate, cooling performance or anything like that, they’re already a dime a dozen.
What I am planning, however, is a laboratory analysis, i.e. a material test of the assemblies from the pre-chamber to the threaded inserts, the cooling channels and cooling fins through to the solder joints and screws used. It is also cut open, separated and lasered. The first part on Monday will show you that this was urgently needed. Only two out of six radiators were completely free of defects, the rest were either advertised with the wrong material or one even had a lot of lead in the solder, which will now lead to a Europe-wide sales ban.
However, it is also unacceptable that customers are lured in with pure copper and in the end only receive brass, regardless of whether it is a so-called “premium” product or just bar stock in the medium price range. I can spoil the fact that one radiator was a positive surprise because you rarely see such exemplary manufacturing quality, one really lived up to its all-copper marketing and the rest were disappointed to the point of anger.
More samples please!
Of course I’m not a Croesus, because even the purchase of 12 radiators so far has required a certain amount of money if you want to buy anonymously. I’m still looking for more parts, from Barrow to XSPC to various budget radiators from AliExpress & Co. The radiators should be 120s or a maximum of 240s, larger formats can only be processed with more effort because I then have to “trim” them first. However, they should be unused and, if possible, brand new radiators, as I also look for flux residues and test whether the radiators have been rinsed well.
Of course, I won’t be able to do any real, comprehensive RoHS tests because my equipment isn’t up to the task, but you can at least look for lead very reliably, and I would find even the smallest residual amounts and impurities. And the rest, whether copper, various brass alloys or whatever else, can also be determined very precisely. That’s why the somewhat sensationalist lead story about the “slaughter festival”, because people have simply looked the other way for far too long!
If you want to help: contact us by e-mail and the rest will be clarified internally. The rest will help by reading and paying attention. So have fun Monday morning around 6.00 a.m., then there will be the first flush!
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