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

[btarunr]

Since its launch in 2019, the Liquid Freezer II series has won countless awards and become a popular product in the hardware community. Because ARCTIC is committed to serving this community with honesty and transparency, it is our duty to inform you of a potential issue. During ARCTIC's routine quality checks, we found a potential issue with certain Liquid Freezer II units. Which products are potentially affected? Affected products first went on sale in May 2021.

In certain units, 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. If this has happened, it can lead to a reduction in cooling performance and potential loss of cooling liquid. The chemical reaction and degeneration of the gasket is a slow process and can occur within the 6-year warranty period. Thus, there is no reason to panic. We recommend that all affected coolers are serviced as soon as possible.



Are current products in stores affected?
All products that were on the market and in our warehouses have been subjected to additional quality control testing and have been replaced to ensure that no affected products entered the market.

We have since increased quality assurance and quality control testing. We have also marked these products with a "QC Passed" sticker.

How is the problem solved?
We know that our customers depend on their cooling solutions. In order to ensure the shortest possible interruption, we have developed an at-home service kit to safely guarantee the 6-year life expectance of the product. With this service kit, our customers can easily replace the gasket and copper plate of their Liquid Freezer II themselves within minutes and without any expertise. Providing this service kit to our customers is a sustainable and environmentally friendly process, which upholds our company's commitment to creating a brighter, cleaner environment while reducing downtime.

How does the service kit work? What is the procedure?
Replacing the gasket and copper cold plate is done in a few simple steps and does not require any expertise. In the video, we show how to exchange the gasket, the copper cold plate, and also provide detailed instructions to ensure the replacement is done easily and effectively. As always, our support team is happy to assist our customers with any questions.

Which Liquid Freezer II are affected?
A form on our website can be used to check whether a specific Liquid Freezer II is affected. For this purpose, the respective model, the country to which the order was originally shipped, and the date of purchase are specified. Likewise, our customers can use the form to quickly and easily receive the free service kit, consisting of copper plate, gasket, MX-5 0.8 g, additional coolant and screws.

Is the warranty of the products affected?
No. The 6-year warranty will always remain. We are confident in the quality of our products and are committed to keeping our promise to our customers. ARCTIC wants to formally thank our customers for their cooperation in implementing a sustainable solution and for helping us uphold our promise to our customers.

Can the products be sent in for service?
We also offer to do the rework for our customers. To have the gasket and copper plate replaced, the product can be sent to our service teams in Germany or the USA.

Due to shipping times both to and from our facility, plus weekends, you will have to do without your Liquid Freezer II for a few weeks, depending on the destination. To send in the Liquid Freezer II, the following form on our website can be used.

Our service team will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please contact us at
lf-service@support.arctic.de

We sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this issue and thank you for your trust in ARCTIC.

Apply for Service by visiting this page.

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[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Bad luck again
MX-5 now bad gasket
I'd bet this one hurts more than some weird mixtures of paste.

 

[dgianstefani]

Cost of doing things cheaply unfortunately - execs make decisions on potential risk of failures like this vs confirmed cost of better quality manufacturing, almost always "worth" cheaper high volume and deal with the % of errors.

It's why i don't care for many brands, they're good performing products but build quality/longevity is not guaranteed or "close enough to guaranteed".

It's my £4k PC, one faulty component or leak etc can cause irreplacable loss of data/inconvenience etc. Regardless of "free service".

I can't understand why people use EK blocks and fluid, their fittings seem OK, but for the price, and the amount of issues people raise with longevity and discolouration/gumming up/other issues it seems absurd.

Corsair blocks however which use another OEM I believe, same with their radiators, have great reviews and comparable performance.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Nice, not affected!

 

[Chaitanya]

Cost of doing things cheaply unfortunately - execs make decisions on potential risk of failures like this vs confirmed cost of better quality manufacturing, almost always "worth" cheaper high volume and deal with the % of errors.

It's why i don't care for many brands, they're good performing products but build quality/longevity is not guaranteed or "close enough to guaranteed".

It's my £4k PC, one faulty component or leak etc can cause irreplacable loss of data/inconvenience etc. Regardless of "free service".

I can't understand why people use EK blocks and fluid, their fittings seem OK, but for the price, and the amount of issues people raise with longevity and discolouration/gumming up/other issues it seems absurd.

Corsair blocks however which use another OEM I believe, same with their radiators, have great reviews and comparable performance.

CoolIT and Asstek are OEMs for Corsair AIOs. Most of recent ones are CoolIT systems.

 

[low]

We have also marked these products with a "QC Passed" sticker.

Where is sticker?

 

[dgianstefani]

CoolIT and Asstek are OEMs for Corsair AIOs. Most of recent ones are CoolIT systems.

Not AIOs, their custom loop hardware - XG series of GPU waterblocks however are extremely good - best I could find outside select offerings from techn, watercool or optimus.

 

[ThrashZone]

Cost of doing things cheaply unfortunately - execs make decisions on potential risk of failures like this vs confirmed cost of better quality manufacturing, almost always "worth" cheaper high volume and deal with the % of errors.

It's why i don't care for many brands, they're good performing products but build quality/longevity is not guaranteed or "close enough to guaranteed".

It's my £4k PC, one faulty component or leak etc can cause irreplacable loss of data/inconvenience etc. Regardless of "free service".

I can't understand why people use EK blocks and fluid, their fittings seem OK, but for the price, and the amount of issues people raise with longevity and discolouration/gumming up/other issues it seems absurd.

Corsair blocks however which use another OEM I believe, same with their radiators, have great reviews and comparable performance.

Hi,
Well ek did start making some fittings out of brass and not the cheap ass miracle mixture metal the really cheap ones are still made of
So yeah I wouldn't throw them all in one group as ok only the brass one are worth looking at and expensive is ek's thing.

 

[dgianstefani]

Hi,
Well ek did start making some fittings out of brass and not the cheap ass miracle mixture metal the really cheap ones are still made of
So yeah I wouldn't throw them all in one group as ok only the brass one are worth looking at and expensive is ek's thing.

Expensive is EKs thing I agree, that's what i'm saying.

They charge the equivalent of top end watercooling while producing mixed quality products that are usually problematic in some way.

 

[AsRock]

Hi,
Bad luck again
MX-5 now bad gasket
I'd bet this one hurts more than some weird mixtures of paste.

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.

Where is sticker?

Under side of the box and on the rad.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
At least they have a US rma center.
But yeah shit happens and owning up to it indeed

 

[nguyen]

"buy cheap, buy twice"

words i live by everyday

 

[TheDeeGee]

Looks like my D15 isn't affected once again.

 

[Valantar]

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.

Yeah, kudos to Arctic for doing this properly. I'm especially impressed by how easily this seems to be fixable at home with minimal effort for users - a solution that's good for everyone, and minimizes waste.

As for everyone saying "this is what happens when you try to do things as cheaply as possible": sure, to some extent - but then literally every corporation works by that model. This sounds like it came down to poor qc from the gasket supplier, which Arctic should have caught, but is mainly the fault of whoever made the gaskets. Shit happens - at least this time the manufacturer is taking responsibility and ensuring a free, quick and minimal hassle fix for end users.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Think ek had some leaching gaskets on their gpu's
Didn't look this bad though but did leave a residue which wouldn't come off without dynamite but never a peep out of ek about it.

 

[Aretak]

"buy cheap, buy twice"

words i live by everyday

Nobody's buying twice. They're offering free repair kits. And the only thing you're paying for by buying gaudy, overpriced Corsair/NZXT/[Company] trash is all the useless RGB garbage they shove into their products, along with a nice markup to fleece brand fanboys. You're certainly not paying for better performance in the actual cooling portion of the AIO, since the Liquid Freezer IIs wipe the floor with them. But hey, at least you can tell yourself that you paid extra for the name on the box to guarantee "quality", regardless of how the actual product performs.

There's a sucker born every minute.

 

[P4-630]

Looks like my D15 isn't affected once again.

U12A also unaffected

 

[zlobby]

Take notes, EK!

Nobody's buying twice. They're offering free repair kits. And the only thing you're paying for by buying gaudy, overpriced Corsair/NZXT/[Company] trash is all the useless RGB garbage they shove into their products, along with a nice markup to fleece brand fanboys. You're certainly not paying for better performance in the actual cooling portion of the AIO, since the Liquid Freezer IIs wipe the floor with them. But hey, at least you can tell yourself that you paid extra for the name on the box to guarantee "quality", regardless of how the actual product performs.

There's a sucker born every minute.

Generally, I agree but some Corsair products use decent bases.

 

[bobbybluz]

I just got off the phone with Arctic and they already sent me the info for getting the repair kits or sending them in under warranty. I have three LF II 240's that need the kits and four others that don't (240, 280, 360 and 420). You'll need to provide proof of purchase dates plus a picture of the bottom of the pump showing the production code. I'll be doing the DIY method after they send me the repair kits. BTW anybody that's bought LF II's off Arctic's excellent Ebay site isn't affected, everything they've sold on there comes directly from Arctic and already has the upgraded seal.

 

[A Computer Guy]

This kind of proactive company response makes me want to try their Liquid Freezer II cooler in my next build.

 

[DeeJay1001]

"buy cheap, buy twice"

words i live by everyday

You are talking as if the Arctic coolers aren't arguably the best on the market. They are always at or near the top of performance charts, provide un-deniable value, and with this incident Arctic is proving they are dependable manufacturer.

 

[nguyen]

You are talking as if the Arctic coolers aren't arguably the best on the market. They are always at or near the top of performance charts, provide un-deniable value, and with this incident Arctic is proving they are dependable manufacturer.

I prefer better reliability to a few degrees C lower (that hardly matter), so I stay far away from the likes of Cooler Master, ID Cooling and Deepcool AIO.

In fact I prefer high quality air coolers than shoddy AIOs anyways...

 

[HD64G]

Kudos to AC! A bright example of how to handle defective products.

 

[dgianstefani]

Nobody's buying twice. They're offering free repair kits. And the only thing you're paying for by buying gaudy, overpriced Corsair/NZXT/[Company] trash is all the useless RGB garbage they shove into their products, along with a nice markup to fleece brand fanboys. You're certainly not paying for better performance in the actual cooling portion of the AIO, since the Liquid Freezer IIs wipe the floor with them. But hey, at least you can tell yourself that you paid extra for the name on the box to guarantee "quality", regardless of how the actual product performs.

There's a sucker born every minute.

Maybe reread - we aren't talking about the same thing.

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.

Plenty of people buy twice.

There's people who buy once, don't want to deal with hassle of replacement and maintenance etc - if they bought air or custom liquid then they probably won't have issues.

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.

Maybe this IS an example of good customer service in the event of a failure, but it's still a failure.

 

[Divide Overflow]

Outstanding response to this issue by Arctic.
My Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB had the QC passed stickers on the unit and the box and is not affected.