EK Water Blocks launches Leak Tester kit

EK Water Blocks (EKWB) has announced the release of an own-brand leak tester for liquid cooling loops, including a bundled pump to raise the system up to pressure.

Liquid cooling loops, in which a coolant is pumped from a cold plate contacting the CPU, GPU, or other chip to be cooled through tubing to a large-surface-area radiator, remain popular with enthusiasts - but custom loops, rather than sealed-loop all-in-one systems, come with a risk: If not properly assembled, there's an ever-present risk of a leak which could damage components in the system.

The solution, of course, is to test the system for leaks beforehand. This can be as simple as assembling it, filling it, and running the pump for 24 hours before actually turning the PC itself on; alternatively, the old-school approach is to blow as hard as you can into one end of the loop and see what happens. A rather more reliable alternative, though, is a leak tester - a pressure gauge which is inserted into the system, alerting the builder to any drop in pressure before the loop is filled.

EK Water Blocks (EKWB) has announced an own-brand device for doing exactly this: The EK Leak Tester. Constructed from aluminium and fitted with a revolving G1/4" connection port, the kit includes an air pressure gauge with markings showing the safe pressure range for a liquid cooling loop. A bundled pump allows the user to bring the system up to pressure, and then monitor what happens on the gauge: If the gauge shows the pressure is dropping, then air is leaking from the loop - and liquid would too.

The EK Leak Tester isn't the first pressure gauge aimed at liquid cooling enthusiasts, but the company is clearly hoping to grab a slice of the market for itself. The EK Leak Tester is available now through the EKWB store priced at €34.90 (around £32 including VAT.)