Batch of Arctic Liquid Freezer II Coolers Have Design Flaw, Company Announces Free Service

[A Computer Guy]

Myself and others commented on the issue with cheaply building things in general, then made comments about our preferred brand of custom parts. I have never recommended AIOs in general - air cooling or custom liquid are the only sensible choices.

One of the reasons I went with a custom loop to replace my AIO was for the ability to detect problems and perform maintenance with the loop.
Some would probably say air cooling is the only sane choice.

There are also people who buy an AIO, where it's a case of when, not if, there's an issue - and end up either replacing it with another AIO or having to do DIY fixes such as in this case, or having it completely fail eventually.

I hate to think of all the AIO eWaste. It would have been nice if the AIO's had standard G1/4 fittings to make maintenance and conversion to a custom loop possible. In the end I guess you can just open the AIO and replace the fluid.

 

[mechtech]

“, the gaskets were not sufficiently vulcanized causing a chemical reaction to occur between the copper cold plate and the gasket. This reaction may lead to sulfur residue and copper plate deposits.”

“overseas gaskets”???

 

[Space Lynx]

They are fully backing the product as they should which a lot don't, Shit happens they are owning up to it i have respect for that.

Trying to keep things as cheap as possible always encourages manufacture problems.



Under side of the box and on the rad.

Just watched this video. Arctic just won my business. Absolutely fantastic response from a company.

Fucking respect.

 

[trsttte]

You're certainly not paying for better performance in the actual cooling portion of the AIO

Not to mention outside a couple of exceptions (like Artic here) most major brands (Corsair/NZXT/Asus/etc) all use the same Asetek AIO design with more or less proprietary rgb sprinkled on top.

 

[Space Lynx]

Not to mention outside a couple of exceptions (like Artic here) most major brands (Corsair/NZXT/Asus/etc) all use the same Asetek AIO design with more or less proprietary rgb sprinkled on top.

Not to mention it is so fucking refreshing seeing a company get out ahead on this, present a solution, provide it for free, etc. I remember having to contact two computer companies for warranty problems in like 2013 and again in 2014, and it was just a nightmare. Given the run around and all kinds of shady shit on their end.

Arctic, Noctua, Sapphire are my top three favorite companies in the computer world. Constantly and consistently impress me. I wish one of those companies made motherboards, then all my problems would be solved as far as trust goes.

 

[dgianstefani]

One of the reasons I went with a custom loop to replace my AIO was for the ability to detect problems and perform maintenance with the loop.
Some would probably say air cooling is the only sane choice.

I hate to think of all the AIO eWaste. It would have been nice if the AIO's had standard G1/4 fittings to make maintenance and conversion to a custom loop possible. In the end I guess you can just open the AIO and replace the fluid.

You can make a compelling argument air is the only sane choice.

However - in the case of ITX systems or balls to the walls systems liquid cooling is definitely practical. There's no comparison with heat transfer - liquid wins every time. Having the ability to put radiators wherever to add cooling capacity, increase the size of reservoir to add cooling buffer, put a BF pump in that never needs to go faster than 30% and will last 10 years easily, all these give you design flexibility and efficient use of space. There's so many bottlenecks in cooling, from silicone to IHS, from IHS to coldplate, from coldplate to coolant/heatpipes, from coolant/heatpipes to radiators etc. So many ways to refine and improve with liquid cooling, plus it fundamentally starts from a better place due to thermal capacity of water/other coolants and how fast you can refresh that.

AIOs are easy, have most of the benefits of liquid and make sense from a short term convenience point of view, that's about it.
They'll always be a worse version of custom liquid in every sense of the word, long term value for money, performance, aesthetics, risk, etc.

Arctic arguably make the best AIOs, but they're still AIOs.

I hate to think of all the AIO eWaste. It would have been nice if the AIO's had standard G1/4 fittings to make maintenance and conversion to a custom loop possible. In the end I guess you can just open the AIO and replace the fluid.

Alphacool do this, but the problem is the integrated pump/blocks are too weak. Again it's just another compromise. I used to have an alphacool AIO for precisely this reason - all copper parts (incl rad) and g1/4 fittings - replaced as rad was too thin, pump was too weak and tubing was ugly af.

 

[samum]

Out of 4 Arctic AIOs I've had, 2 have failed. That was before the supposed production time of these units. I had one replaced under warranty, the second I didn't bother, just bought another brand.

 

[ymdhis]

Looks like my D15 isn't affected once again.

Neither is the h212.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Out of 4 Arctic AIOs I've had, 2 have failed. That was before the supposed production time of these units. I had one replaced under warranty, the second I didn't bother, just bought another brand.

What kind of failure?

 

[samum]

What kind of failure?

Either pump failure or blockage - no fluid circulation.

 

[Bomby569]

very low bar when they doing the bare minimum is deserving of praise. Anyway shit happens, when do stuff you're subject to errors, no one is immune.

 

[ThrashZone]

Out of 4 Arctic AIOs I've had, 2 have failed. That was before the supposed production time of these units. I had one replaced under warranty, the second I didn't bother, just bought another brand.

Hi,
Yeah it isn't pretty when they fail either

I just sold my corsair rma replacement on ebay as new rma replacement sold in one day.

 

[Valantar]

very low bar when they doing the bare minimum is deserving of praise.

Considering that the standard for the industry - and indeed most companies - is a choice between
- fingers in ears, shouting LALALALALALALALA
- finger-pointing, shifting blame
- reluctantly putting together a bare-minimum response after continuous customer and media pressure, or
- quietly discontinuing the product line and/or disbanding the company to avoid liability
then this is indeed worthy of praise. Yes, it should be an obvious and unremarkable thing, but it isn't, and praising good behaviour is just as important as calling out the bad when it comes to changing things.

 

[AndyGawg]

I think Arctic did the right thing by being open about the possible defects, and offering a simple repair kit. Not a few companies would have pretended nothing happened as even the defective models may last years. Then just replaced them due to the long warranty.

I haven't read any post anywhere about someone having leakage or other issues due to this particular problem. Of course there are other complaints from some people, such as mounting, stiff tubes etc, but that is usually the case with any such product. Most people seem pretty happy and don't write up a review, they just use their cool PCs.

I have just ordered another 360 with model no. ACFRE00068B, couldn't find out the rev no. vs model no. but it must be at least rev 2 as ACFRE00068A came before it. I think someone mentioned it is likely rev 4.
Also I read the RGB models have a very different model numbers.

Guess I'll have to wait a few days, but I do wish that somewhere (I've searched a lot) the model number which matches which rev. number or numbers, was given, even if just approximate.

Anyway, I am not too concerned. I will alway purchase Arctic coolers as they are just great. I build a lot of PCs and after using the original Freezer1 years ago never looked back. Sure, a lot of cases wont
take the 38mm thickness and they are not the easiest to install. But the excellent cooling and quiet operation more than make up for that. Well...if checked the case has vertical clearence for 38mm vs. traditional astek 27mm rads. Edit: Most cases accuratly state the rad max size in length, but haven't seen one mentioning the depth clearance yet - the 38mm I mean. Need to check that before purchase!!

Their announcment before a lot of complaints about the defective models has ironically made me respect them more. They did right, and that's not a given. Kudo's to Arctic.

Oh, forgot, the price for the non RGB models is excellent value. They are up to rev 7 now. That's a lot!!

 

[Klemc]

I buyed it 24 june 2022, could it be one of those ?

It says rev 4 but has a sticker advertising LGA1700 kit (that was included).

 

[AndyGawg]

I buyed it 24 june 2022, could it be one of those ?

It says rev 4 but has a sticker advertising LGA1700 kit (that was included).

Pretty sure you are fine. Purchase date is after they had recalled and fixed all merchants (like Amazon). In fact, I'm sure you are fine. If you want piece of mind on the site they give clearer dates etc.
Mine turned out to be fine, but they still sent me a kit, no questions asked as I made a "mistake." They have handled this very well. If memory serves v4 was after this and they were all fine, may want to double check though. Or "accidently" request one. This was a while ago so my memory isn't perfect, but I think the whole thing is done/corrected now. Haven't seen anything about this for a long time, except your post.

Funny, I have a spare kit which I'll never need. Summary: I am sure you are fine, but I won't promise. (I rarely promise stuff). If I were you I'd double check the dates etc (if I had time to waste) but knowing I would be fine. Then I would forget it and use it. (And perhaps "accidently" order one.) Even if the data doesn't match they honor all requests.

If I were a relaxed kind of dude, I wouldn't do anything.
I'm not relaxed and OCD when it comes to PCs. Annoying since building them (I have built many since 2009) is a hobby I do for myself and friends, they pay for the parts that's all. When practicing my hobby, which includes really tight overclocking to the max, my stress levels soar. Still, it's a hobby - that makes me nervous.

EDIT: Just remembered, if it has a OC sticker on it they have fixed it, or made it after the problem was found. I guess they are still doing that? Seriously - you will won't have a faulty one.

 

[Klemc]

yes, the sticker, i can't remember if it was here (kind of things i remove asap), i send them the bill and product number, they will tell me.

Also the AM5 instruction is strange, they have two diferent iron rod, mine are two identical, so i told them about that too, i couldn't follow their instruction exactly, but moving holes from 2 to 1 for the upper gave correct distance.

https://support.arctic.de/products/img/xam4-installation-015.jpg.pagespeed.ic.cULfYID-0k.webp

https://support.arctic.de/products/lf2-280r4/AM4_Manual/Installation/x16a_en.jpg.pagespeed.ic.bIXGaustWT.webp

It's just the good thing to cool my today coming 7800X3D.

Thanks, and for the review.

 

[kapone32]

Looks like my D15 isn't affected once again.

That was uncalled for lol.

This is why I love my Inwin SR36. None of these issues. 2 Pumps a huge cold plate and it just works.

 

[AndyGawg]

Yeah the instructions suck. AMD looks worse. Once all sorted, well fitted blah blah, you will be glad you got it. Very powerful cooling, for a very reasonable price, Good luck!

EDIT: See, I am a nervous wreck, I got your name wrong. Sorry, Klemc!