H50 lifecycle

[george1979]

Hi,

I have a Corsair H50 installed in my system (specs on sig) and its coming up for 3 years old. At the moment I'm getting about 45 degrees at idle and 60-ish under load so it still seems to be performing well enough (I need to give my case a good clean out to help temps too).

Thing is I've had a nagging feeling that, due to its age, something might go wrong and I'm terrified it'll leak. I was wondering what the average lifetime of these units is and is there a recommended replacement time?

Thanks.

EDIT: After cleaning out my case (shamefully overdue) I get mid 30s at idle and after a 10 minute OCCT stress test it peaked 64 degrees so its still performing well. Still curious about how long it is reasonably expected to last though....

[Iain162]

I'd say these systems are good until they leak which they shouldn't do unless you mess about with them quite a bit.. these systems are filled with ethylene glycol, im assuming corsair have used a variant of this liquid which has little or no electrical conductivity so even if your H50 did leak it wouldn't ruin any of your components you'd just have to keep an eye on temps and have your motherboard warnings on for CPU temp and dead fans..

At the end of the day its all down to what your comfortable with, these systems are guaranteed for 2 years if you want to change it to avoid a disaster its your choice but if you don't remove it from your case that often or flex the hoses much it should last, I think the pump would fail before you have any problems with seals if looked after correctly.

[george1979]

Thanks, I rarely touch it except to clean it out once in a while so hopefully shouldn't have a leaking issue. It does put my mind at rest a bit.

[unholy_war]

i would go with a new unit as the temps will be alot better

[george1979]

i would go with a new unit as the temps will be alot better

I think 35-40 degrees at idle and mid 60s under load is totally fine. Replacing for that reason would seem to be overkill to me. Was more concerned with leaking, pump breakdown etc but since its non conductive fluid its not worth worrying over. I'll look at replacing it when I upgrade my mobo/cpu.

[unholy_war]

fair enough save the money and buy more beer lol
ive got a i5-3570k OC to 4.6 on H80i and idle my temps are like 28c-31c

[Greybeard]

Thing is I've had a nagging feeling that, due to its age, something might go wrong and I'm terrified it'll leak. I was wondering what the average lifetime of these units is and is there a recommended replacement time?

We've seen H50 coolers last between 5-6 years. The only reason why it would really breakdown is if you tamper with it, but if you simply let it run till it drops, they do last for a long time. unholy_water is right, we do use non conductive liquid in the cooler. Its a mix of distilled water and Propylene Glycol