Corsair Coolant OEM still Mayhems?

[Sir Beregond]

Was at my local Micro Center and noticed Corsair's fluid which was Mayhems X1, but branded as XL5, is now a different bottle shape and called XL8.  So now I'm wondering if they have changed OEMs? Seems odd you'd change the model number if the product didn't change. 

 

Anyway, been trying to source some clear coolant since everyone is out of stock, but it's making me thing they went the Cryofuel route. Hope not, but who knows? Price also went up to $19.99 for a liter vs the $17.99 the XL5 was last time I was in here.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Sir Beregond

[Avacado]

37 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Was at my local Micro Center and noticed Corsair's fluid which was Mayhems X1, but branded as XL5, is now a different bottle shape and called XL8.  So now I'm wondering if they have changed OEMs? Seems odd you'd change the model number if the product didn't change. 

 

Anyway, been trying to source some clear coolant since everyone is out of stock, but it's making me thing they went the Cryofuel route. Hope not, but who knows? Price also went up to $19.99 for a liter vs the $17.99 the XL5 was last time I was in here.

Look no further.

 

https://modmymods.com/modmymods-modwater-pc-coolant-clear-1-liter-mod-0275.html

[ciarlatano]

13 hours ago, Avacado said:

Look no further.

 

https://modmymods.com/modmymods-modwater-pc-coolant-clear-1-liter-mod-0275.html

 

This. Support MMM, not Corsair. 

[ArchStanton]

14 hours ago, Avacado said:

Look no further.

 

The fact that it comes in the typical "quart of oil" bottle makes it strangely appealing to me 

[Avacado]

13 minutes ago, ArchStanton said:

 

The fact that it comes in the typical "quart of oil" bottle makes it strangely appealing to me 

Indeed. It is also a Mayhems blend. The first that Mick contracted with if I'm not mistaken.

[Sir Beregond]

Mod Water was out of stock all week I was looking. Thank God its back. Ordered.

 

Yeah Corsair was not my first choice...

[ciarlatano]

Now I'm wondering if the newer Corsair coolant is X1. The change from X5 to X8 may have been the changeover to X1 v2.

Or.....it may have been Corsair doing Corsair things, and X8 is the pond runoff from their office parking lot poured in a bottle.....

Edited January 22, 2022 by ciarlatano

[Sir Beregond]

1 minute ago, ciarlatano said:

Now I'm wondering if the newer Corsair coolant is X1. The change from X5 to X8 may have been the changeover to X1 v2.

Possible, but no way to really know. It was going to be my coolant of last resort. I might try to email Mick @ Mayhems and see if he responds.

 

But now that Mod Water Clear is back in stock (I swear to god it was out of stock all week), I am good.

[Diffident]

If you want clear coolant, Distilled water is about a $1 a gallon.

[Sir Beregond]

29 minutes ago, Diffident said:

If you want clear coolant, Distilled water is about a $1 a gallon.

And harder to keep up with maintenance wise. My first ever loop was distilled and a silver coil. Not a fan, had corrosion issues with my copper block micro fins. Not entirely sure why, but I stopped using silver after that.

 

Second loop was distilled with that liquid utopia that Primochill started including with their tubing. Again a disaster.

 

Third loop was distilled + the Mayhems Biocide and Inhibitor. Now this loop ended up fine (aside from crappy EK plating flaking away, but I don't blame the liquid used for that).

 

Latest loop switched to X1 clear and it's been great.

[Diffident]

Distilled with a few drops of biocide isn't any different maintenance wise.  Coolant changes would still be at the same intervals.

[ArchStanton]

7 hours ago, Diffident said:

Distilled with a few drops of biocide isn't any different maintenance wise.  Coolant changes would still be at the same intervals.

Being a novice, I won't claim to know better.  However, given the monetary investment at risk, I'll pretend the "secret sauce" anti-corrosion additives Mayem's claims are included in their X1 Eco PC Coolant Concentrate are more than just marketing for the time being.  I added their product to some deionized water that was also relatively cheap. 

[Fluxmaven]

10 hours ago, ciarlatano said:

X8 is the pond runoff from their office parking lot poured in a bottle.....

 

I wouldn't be surprised. Somehow they still sleep soundly at night knowing they convinced suckers to buy it. 

[Sir Beregond]

Yeah Corsair won't get much love from me these days. But I just saw it as a good alternative if everything else was out of stock since it was confirmed formulation of Mayhems X1 by Mick himself. But now that they rebranded it, who knows. I'm not touching it.

 

As for distilled water, I just feel it's easier to get a bottle of quality clear coolant and be done with it knowing it has everything you need in it at the right ratios. I also have my rig in a pretty sunny room and I've noticed the X1 doesn't evaporate away nearly as fast as the distilled did. Not that it matters much for yearly maintenance, but was still something I noticed.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Sir Beregond

[ciarlatano]

8 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

 

I wouldn't be surprised. Somehow they still sleep soundly at night knowing they convinced suckers to buy it. 

 

Corsair has been scum since they day they put the H100 on the market. It opened their eyes to "these kids will buy anything in a pretty package" marketing, and they ran with it full bore. That was the moment their quality on everything excepting their memory products nosedived. But....that was also when they stuck giant ornamental fake heat spreaders on all of their RAM in an attempt to push you into buying one of their CLCs. They and EK are masters of the "if you want this, you have to buy our XYZ too" marketing. It's funny that you used "suckers", because I have been saying that Corsair is a sucker play for 10+ years. Caused quite the stir when I said it in a published review. Owner of the site pulled the review same day when he got an email from them intimating that we wouldn't be seeing any more of their products - but they also did that every time I gave their products an honest review and comparison.

Edited January 23, 2022 by ciarlatano

[Fluxmaven]

9 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

Yeah Corsair won't get much love from me these days. But I just saw it as a good alternative if everything else was out of stock since it was confirmed formulation of Mayhems X1 by Mick himself. But now that they rebranded it, who knows. I'm not touching it.

 

As for distilled water, I just feel it's easier to get a bottle of quality clear coolant and be done with it knowing it has everything you need in it at the right ratios. I also have my rig in a pretty sunny room and I've noticed the X1 doesn't evaporate away nearly as fast as the distilled did. Not that it matters much for yearly maintenance, but was still something I noticed.

The problem is the bait and switch tactics. They partner up with manufactures to build quality products to gain trust and following. Then change to cheaper crap and people still buy it thinking it's good. 

 

I used to be much more frugal and either used distilled with silver or mixed my own coolant from concentrate. Now I typically just buy premixed X1. Also IDK about your area, but I've had trouble finding distilled the last couple months. Needed some to flush out components and leak test a new build and had to go to 4 different stores to find any in stock. 

[Sir Beregond]

So I did a little Googling this morning and I think it can safely be confirmed that Corsair XL8 is no longer sourced from Mayhems. If Corsair liquid cooling department is run by the old EK folks, then I have every reason to believe they just pulled a Cryofuel switcheroo given their comments below.

 

Source 1: Corsair forums: Corsair employee confirms new supplier: https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/163144-corsair-xl8-fluid-vs-corsair-xl5-fluid/

 

Source 2: Reddit: Corsair employee shows up saying it is made in Taiwan: https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/l0e6c9/corsair_xl8_coolant_who_makes_it/

 

Source 3: Reddit: Corsair employee confirms XL5 and XL8 to be "vastly different chemical compositions": https://www.reddit.com/r/Corsair/comments/nm19kx/mixing_xl8_and_xl5/

 

 

So I would no longer recommend Corsair fluid as another Mayhems rebrand if Mayhems and Mod Water is out of stock.

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Sir Beregond
formatting

[ArchStanton]

Just curious, do you fellas make a distinction between "distilled" and "deionized" water?  If so, do you regard deionized to be overkill?

[Sir Beregond]

17 minutes ago, ArchStanton said:

Just curious, do you fellas make a distinction between "distilled" and "deionized" water?  If so, do you regard deionized to be overkill?

Not sure. Deionization just removed mineral ions from the water. Distillation will leave anything higher than the boiling point of water behind as an impurity. Assuming both waters have been filtered to account for biological organisms that won't be removed by deionization, then I think it's just better to go with distilled and call it a day. The loop will start picking up metal ions again anyway given copper, brass, nickel, stainless steel (some jetplates) in the loop, so deionized water seems overkill to me if its more expensive than distilled, and distilled is available.

 

  

50 minutes ago, Fluxmaven said:

The problem is the bait and switch tactics. They partner up with manufactures to build quality products to gain trust and following. Then change to cheaper crap and people still buy it thinking it's good. 

 

I used to be much more frugal and either used distilled with silver or mixed my own coolant from concentrate. Now I typically just buy premixed X1. Also IDK about your area, but I've had trouble finding distilled the last couple months. Needed some to flush out components and leak test a new build and had to go to 4 different stores to find any in stock. 

I haven't looked recently, so will take a look next time I am out, but I've never encountered a situation where distilled wasn't readily available and abundant.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Sir Beregond

[ciarlatano]

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

So I did a little Googling this morning and I think it can safely be confirmed that Corsair XL8 is no longer sourced from Mayhems. If Corsair liquid cooling department is run by the old EK folks, then I have every reason to believe they just pulled a Cryofuel switcheroo given their comments below.

 

Source 1: Corsair forums: Corsair employee confirms new supplier: https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/163144-corsair-xl8-fluid-vs-corsair-xl5-fluid/

 

Source 2: Reddit: Corsair employee shows up saying it is made in Taiwan: https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/l0e6c9/corsair_xl8_coolant_who_makes_it/

 

Source 3: Reddit: Corsair employee confirms XL5 and XL8 to be "vastly different chemical compositions": https://www.reddit.com/r/Corsair/comments/nm19kx/mixing_xl8_and_xl5/

 

 

So I would no longer recommend Corsair fluid as another Mayhems rebrand if Mayhems and Mod Water is out of stock.

 

 

So.......likely pond runoff from their parking lot. 

 

I like the "don't mix it with XL5 as it will cause permanent damage to your components" quote.