Edit – EK have now made an official statement on the issue:

“The first batch of XE radiators had slightly shorter distance between top chamber and enclosure this way allowing the top screw to touch and scratch the inner top chamber. This is the case ONLY on XE 480 model and does not affect the smaller versions (120, 240 and 360). We have opened up and pressure tested all current stock of XE radiators (all of 480 models and samples from other sizes) and have found out that there is no risk of leakage due to this indentation. The screws do scratch the surface and sometimes dent the chamber, but they do not puncture it. Therefore XE radiators are fully functional and OK to use.

EK Water Blocks is ready to process any RMA request or exchange of product without any limitations if the customer decides to do so with proof of purchase dated prior to 30th of October 2015.

All XE deliveries from EK Water Blocks to official resellers and end customers from this point on are clear of this risk as we have eliminated such scratched units from our inventory.”

So EK have confirmed that dents will not turn into leaks – so if you have dents then feel free to carry on with your life. I am confused about the statement that only the 480 radiator is affected given that we’ve seen dents on other sizes. Still there is an option to RMA if you’re at all concerned. Hopefully this is the last we see of the issue because the XE is a great performing radiator!

Original Post

While we don’t want to prematurely call this out as EK’s fault – there does seem to be some real issues with the new EK XE radiator that won a Gold award and the all-round best performance category in our 28 way 360 roundup. The issue started with one OCN’er finding a leak in his brand new XE radiator that was fresh out of the box. Upon investigating it seemed that there were indents into the sealed end caps from the screws that secure the outer frame of the radiator together. These screws should not be touching the inner end cap at all.

More OCN users started to check their radiators and most of those that did seemed to have matching indents even if they weren’t yet leaking. There is currently no explanation as to what is going on. The damage does not appear to be from the screws being screwed in too far, instead it’s almost as if the end tank is blowing up due to excess presure into the screws. It is unclear if the radiators are suffering from this in manufacturing or if there is something else going on later that causes it. Certainly fast_fate did not remember seeing it when taking apart his sample. However as the photos below show – the problem is definitely now there across multiple units. This is somewhat embarrassing for EK especially as it comes only a few weeks after their “quiet” recall on the 140mm Vardar fans for being too noisy. To be clear we have not seen this on EK’s other radiators – we made sure to check- only the XE seems to be affected:

For now we’d advise staying away from the XE until we hear from EK what the problem might be. In the meantime though HWLab’s SR2 MP is a very good alternative that placed only a fraction behind the XE in our roundup!