Pump works.. but randomly stopped working earlier.. do I trust it?

R

RyanLucier

Gawd
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
667
Ok I've got a Swiftech MCP350, and it's worked great for over a year now. However, I left today for about an hour and a half and when I came back, my computer was off. I turned it on wondering why it shut itself off, it began running but crashed entering windows then turned itself off. This repeated 3 times. At this point, I popped the side of the case off and realized that no water was flowing. My pump had a bunch of air sitting at the intake/exhaust tubes. I am assuming what happened was the system auto shut off when it hit 60C on the cpu, as I've got this set in the bios, so I don't believe any damage has been done.

I was able to get the pump running again by turning the computer on while holding one of the water tubes above the pump to get water running into it again.. and now the system works fine.. but the question is... do I trust it?

I'm told running a magnetic pump that isn't primed can ruin it immediately. Mind you I originally primed this pump properly before ever turning it on, it was setup correctly (also the reservoir is the highest point in the system and such, I've setup watercooling setups before and am relatively familiar), but clearly for whatever reason it stopped running today and I turned the system on 3 times without knowing no water was flowing (and there was a lot of air bubbles around the intake/exhaust of the pump).

So guru's.. anyone have any opinions? Is it simply a matter of time before it fails? Or should I just keep an eye on it and if nothing happens, ignore it and be merry :)
 
It's probably fine. Although I'd run some sort of temp monitoring program to shut the computer down if it gets too high.

Speedfan comes to mind.

It never hurts to have both a HW and a SW temp monitor :)
 
mmm thats a very good point. I only have it set to 60C shutoff in the bios, but a software solution is probably a great failsafe as well.

The pump has been "gurgling", like when air bubbles pass through the system etc., every so often.. as if the reservoir was low on water, but it isn't. Still not too sure if it's trustworthy but I'm keeping a very watchful eye on it.
 
RyanLucier said:
mmm thats a very good point. I only have it set to 60C shutoff in the bios, but a software solution is probably a great failsafe as well.

The pump has been "gurgling", like when air bubbles pass through the system etc., every so often.. as if the reservoir was low on water, but it isn't. Still not too sure if it's trustworthy but I'm keeping a very watchful eye on it.
Click to expand...

It seems you need to re-bleed the system. Turn it off, and use those big man-muscles to spin it around on ALL it's axes. Air moves UP, so try to get the res as high up as you can (by rotating the case along it's Z axis).

Then re-fill the res. I lose about 4cc of water a month.
 
Also check your seals around the pump. The pump's natural suction may have pulled in air around the seals, trapping it in the pump. This is known as "pump airlock" and can cause the situation you are in. I am not sure whether to trust the pump or not, but on an industrial level I would replace it. If the pump was running for a while without fluid, shaft and bearing damage could occur without fluid to lubricate the pump. In the case of the MCP350, I don't believe that much could have happened, unless you wanted to open the pump and check.
 
have you figured out why the hell the pump went dry? that's probably pretty important to figure out and prevent in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top