Risk of leakage spurs EK Waterblocks to recall all Predator 240 and 360 AiO watercooling kits

EK WaterBlocks suffers a significant setback as the company recalls all of its EK-XLC Predator 240 and 360 all-in-one liquid cooling solutions due to potential risk of leakage. The company claims the issue stems from the use of a faulty O-ring in the EK-Supremacy MX CPU waterclock, it affects about one in ten of all revision 1.0 units manufactured from October 2015 to December 2015. While it's a sad occurrence, we applaud EKWB for taking swift action and taking full responsibility. You can find details about the recall at this page.

What was initially estimated as limited risk situation with small percentage of units developing a leak over time that can be resolved with direct customer contact, turned out to be a more widespread problem.

After receiving first few customer feedbacks in December 2015 about the leakage issue, EKWB identified the issue in the faulty O-ring in the EK-Supremacy MX CPU water block that was used in the unit. Since there had been no complaints from initial pre-order customers before December, EKWB decided that the issue should have originated from the new batch of O-rings used in production at the beginning of November. Therefore, EKWB recalled all affected products at resellers and informed the customers who bought the unit after that period to check the production date accordingly and arrange a replacement unit.

However, with more and more customers reporting the issue we have realized that O-ring issue is not limited to November batch and the only appropriate action to protect customers is a total Product Recall of all sold and unsold units.

All Revision 1.0 units produced from October 2015 until end of December 2015 are potentially affected by the risk of leakage and in order to prevent any computer component damage, the units need to be replaced. The leakage may occur between copper cold plate and bracket on the water block after it is heated up and pressure rises. Current statistics show that 1 out of 10 units leaks.

We are warning all customers of EK XLC-Predator units to discontinue use of cooling device and contact EKWB for replacement unit or refund. EKWB is taking full responsibility for this issue and will be:

Replacing or refunding all returned units to the customers

Refunding the customer any computer component damage created by a leakage

EKWB has redesigned and released a new version of EK-XLC Predator (Revision 1.1) on the 4th of January 2016 that prevents any leakage under normal working modes. All customers with Revision 1.0 units will be offered a replacement R1.1 unit or a full refund. Revision 1.0 backplate is not compatible with Revision 1.1 backplate!

The image below shows the old (left) and the revised kit (right):