Wear on Pumps

[james1701]

I have seen some say letting the computer sleep and waking it up can damage water pumps. That is best to just leave computer on, or turn it off. Is that true with pumps connected straight to 4 pin molex for power and sleep?

 

[aigomorla]

yes the on and off cycles can kill pumps if ur doing it a lot.

Each time u wake up a PC, the pump is overvolted for a brief moment, and then volted down.

Repeat that over many times, and the pump is bound to fail from shorts from being over volted like that.


Also I would say it really depends on the pump as well.
If were talking a D5, then I don't think you'll have any problems with sleep.
The D5 was designed to be run at 12-24V, which means on a 12V rail, its not going to exceed the voltage.

However on something smaller like a DDC, those were designed to be run on 12V.
Over time with constant on and off's, they will fail.
I have seen a couple fail, and even lost 1 on a system which was built to sleep.

 

[BrightCandle]

My DDC is about 6 years old, I have been turning my computer on and off daily for a very long time. Haven't yet had it fail. It might very well cause wear to turn it off, but so does leaving it on. Which is worse probably depends on how long its off for. Suffice to say I wouldn't change your behaviour based on some perceived increase in wear.

 

[smackababy]

My DDC is about 6 years old, I have been turning my computer on and off daily for a very long time. Haven't yet had it fail. It might very well cause wear to turn it off, but so does leaving it on. Which is worse probably depends on how long its off for. Suffice to say I wouldn't change your behaviour based on some perceived increase in wear.

I've only ever had one pump fail, and it was one I purchased used, so I don't have any real record of what was going on before I got it. I've had my computer turn on and off, go to sleep, wake, etc for a long time and never had any pump problems beyond that single time I had a failure. And, I run dual pumps in every set up, so take that into account.

It might increase wear, but the MTBF on a DDC is 5 years. By the time wear and tear adds up over the normal on / off cycle for that, I think you'll be okay with buying a new one.

 

[james1701]

Good deal, then I don't need to worry about waking my D5's five or six times a day. Thanks

 

[aigomorla]

well when i implied sleep, i meant like those short bursts where ur waking the pc up at least 10times per day.

Anything less then i consider more on / off.

For example.. my cousin had his sleep settings for 30 min of inactivity.
he would wake his pc up, do some stuff, and then be afk while he was playing his console.

He would repeat this cycle at least 10times per day.
His pump only lasted 2.5yrs

Still 2.5 yrs is a very long time, however, its nothing compared to my almost going 10yr DDC-2's.

I also think heat plays an important role in DDC's health.
My DDC's are all heatsink'd so they are limited to be warm to the touch.
The PWM DDC's are not run at full speed either unless load is applied, so they also stay pretty cool.

Ive seen a lot of burn't pcb's on DDC's due to heat itself.

So its a lot of things which can come together and not just one problem itself.

 

[guskline]

When I'm done at evening, I turn my systems off.