The original post: /r/watercooling by /u/AngeryPolishMan on 2024-12-22 19:56:50.

I’ve bought a Standalone Leakshield 6 months ago. I’ve ran it in multiple locations (manual has no recommended locations), at multiple vacuum levels.

The only reason i’ve bought the shield, is because i have multiple external radiators AND a cat. I do understand that the loop is far from the norm, however a lot of the annoyances about the Shield would be similar with a more sane layout.

The troublemaker PC, with the first location of the Shield visible.

I’ll list all the good things about the Leakshield first:

-It keeps the loop under vacuum, preventing leaks

Now time for the bad things:

-If the water in the loop gets any hotter than room temperature it’ll eventually condense on the membrane and there is almost nothing you can do about it

-There is no way to disable the buzzer/warning lights/warnings completely

-There is no Linux compatibility, software does not run under a VM

-Proprietary tiny USB connector, instead of using a standard Mini/Micro/C port (Corsair does that, so it is absolutely doable, but prevents AC from selling an overpriced cable to run it from a power bank)

-The tiny USB connector is recessed massively in the case, making it nearly impossible to connect in tight spaces

-Fill mode does not work, unless the device is mounted on the absolute top of the loop, I’ll give them a break and blame it on the loop layout

-Deaeration mode does not really work the way i expected, but this one I’ll blame on the loop layout too

-After power outage the settings sometimes get reset to defaults - especially annoying when not being able to run aquasuite on the PC the Leakshield is in

-The level measure mode has never worked - the only thing it is achieving is flooding the membrane. Would be a shame if it was the first thing that happens after connecting power…

-Even when using the recommended thick-walled soft tubing (Corsair 10/16) Leakshield is unable to pull all the air from the system into the reservoir (or out), no matter the location of the device

The Leakshield has triggered an alarm at least once every day since the install. It happened so often that it has gained a nickname: Complainshield. After switching to Linux i had to mount it outside of the case, just so the snooze button is easily accessible.

The only position in which the Shield worked relatively OK was when it was mounted on a curtain rod, 1,5m above the computer. There were no more false alarms, and the condensation was not a problem anymore, due to the length of the tube working as a condenser. I had to solder an extension for the proprietary cable to make it work though.

It makes me wonder if it would run OK without the membrane…

In conclusion: Unless absolutely necessary, avoid. It is literally like owning an old german car - 24/7 errors and self-made non-issues from way too many sensors for it’s own good.

This is a shame, because the support personnel is great but the product just does not meet expectations, especially at the price.