Hi Rene,
my fault for not doing 'research' before formulating an answer on my point of view.
Because nickel plating (
electrolytic & electroless) is pretty much standard in the watercooling scene and chrome plating much less common (
for various reasons) I assumed the block was nickel plated
.
More so because nickel is a little bit yellowish metallic color and when it stains the color is varying from yellow to brown as in your pictures.
Chrome on the other hand is a more white/blue metallic color which is much better corrosion resistant then nickel, so it hardly stains.
This led me to possibly wrong deductions and conclusions, which I could have prevented by doing my homework
. I'm sorry for that.
However what I said in my previous post about nickel plated copper is not untrue.
A picture to show the color difference between chrome and nickel
The Alphacool product statement regarding the advantages of chrome-plated copper is to be taken with a grain of salt, as theorectically it not being false, it is more or less a marketing sales pitch with some metallurgic properties slightly out of context as there are way more nuances to it on a deeper technical level.
But if it works, I'm all in for innovation and improvements
.
About the value of all kind of product images, I think that at least 99% of all (
digital) product images existing are 'edited' and show a product in an absolutely flawless state under optimal lightning and staging. The product has to sell itself as a matter of speaking, the perks of the consumer society we live in.
So I personally consider marketing product pictures as an indicator, nothing more, nothing less, but feel free to disagree.
Than again I fully understand your disappointment with this product as you had three of them all showing the same issue, that should not be and have happened. In a custom loop most of the time it is user related (
mixing metals and an uninhibited conductive coolant), but in an AIO it clearly is the manufacterers fault.
As you are very familiar with medical gasses thus also with corrosive gasses you'll also know that if chromium oxidizes the chromium oxide is green. That is not the case here and not very likely to happen.
So I would be more inclined to presume that there are some kind of reactive components/contaminants in the coolant but more likely from the rad (
dissolved soldering/brazing residues) triggering the stains to develop. Not necessarely the production technology, but more likely the execution of certain process steps thereoff. A likely culprit is the radiator cleaning if my suspiction is right.
But that's for the Alphacool guys to figure out and improve the manufactering process (
steps) or product components, as they for sure will be aware of the fact that in the private customer market aestetics are waaay more important than in the industrial sector with more focus on other criteria.
Meanwhile I feel sorry for you to have had this experience, I just hope that despite the stains it does a really good job at cooling your high end graphics card.
And on the latter aspect be able to enjoy it for a long time as well as for Alphacool to improve their products to prevent from simular cases in the future.
Regards, Krasseknar
