Corsair Issues Recall for Recent SF Series Power Supplies
by Ryan Smith on June 4, 2020 9:15 AM EST
Following an unexpected uptick in RMA requests, Corsair has initiated a limited recall for some of the manufacturer’s SF series of small form factor PSUs. The SFX power supplies, which were most recently revised in 2018 with the introduction of the SF Platinum series, have quickly become some of the most popular SFX power supplies on the market due to their high quality as well as Corsair’s reputation for support. The latter of which, as it turns out, is getting put to the test, as the company has discovered an issue in a recent run of the PSUs.
As noted by the crew over at Tom’s Hardware, Corsair has posted a notice to its forums alerting users of the recall. According to the company, an investigation of RMA’d PSUs has turned up an issue with PSUs made in the last several months. When in an environment with both “high temperatures, and high humidity”, the PSUs can unexpectedly fail. The fault is apparently a highly variable one – Corsair’s notice reports units failing both out of the box and later on – but thankfully seems to be relatively benign overall, as the problem is on the AC side of the transformer, well before any power is fed to PC components.
Ultimately, while it’s not an issue that Corsair believes will impact every SF series PSU, it’s enough of an issue issue that the company has initiated a voluntary recall/replacement program for swapping out the affected PSUs. According to the company, the issue is only present in PSUs manufactured within the last several months – from October of 2019 to March of 2020 – with lot codes 194448xx to 201148xx. PSUs manufactured before that window are unaffected, as are PSUs manufactured afterwards. The lot codes can be found on the PSU’s packaging, or if you’re like a certain editor-in-chief who has thrown out their box, it can be found on the PSU sticker itself.
Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that as part of the recall program, Corsair is offering to ship out replacement PSUs in advance. And of course, shipping costs in both directions are being picked up by Corsair.
All told, it's extremely rare to see a recall notice put out for power supplies, and particularly high-end units like Corsair's SF series. Which, if nothing else, makes it a notable event.
The full details on the program, including how to identify affected PSUs, can be found on Corsair’s forums. Affected users can then file a ticket for an advance RMA over on Corsair’s support website.
Source: Corsair (via Tom's Hardware)
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megadirk - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Yes, because no company has ever had to issue a recall on a product that has a reputation of being high quality. Products can fail, it's how the company handles the recall that matters.zmeul - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
I'm kinda' curious how does exactly a product of high quality gets to fail more than a product with lower qualityor is it that the product with presumably "high quality" was not a high quality product .... yeah
jonnyGURU - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
Typically, a higher quality product doesn't tend to fail more.In this instance, the failures are limited to a particular lot code range and the reason for failure has nothing to do with build quality or design.
megadirk - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
Couldn't have said it better.kaidenshi - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
"And of course, shipping costs in both directions are being picked up by Corsair."That's interesting. I stopped buying Corsair products a few years ago after I had a PSU die just outside the 30 day return window for the retailer, who directed me to Corsair for warranty service. Corsair initially denied warranty service and told me to take it up with the retailer, and when I pushed them on it they said they would honor the warranty but I'd have to pick up shipping on both the dead unit to them and the replacement back to me. $35 total shipping paid by me for a $45 power supply didn't sit well, so I just wrote it off as a loss and have avoided the brand since.
I'm glad for their current customers they appear to be improving on that front.
olafgarten - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
It's pretty standard to charge shipping for an RMA, I imagine most PSU brands will do the same.lioncat55 - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
From experience, most of the time you cover sending the bad product back to the company and the company covers shipping back to you. I don't think that's unreasonable.eek2121 - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
If the product is defective, I should not have to pay for shipping, especially since they get better rates than I.I have only ever had to pay shipping on an RMA once, thankfully.
supdawgwtfd - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link
You only pay for shipping if you have to ship it.But from a brick and mortar store and you can drop it off for free
DigitalFreak - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link
Guess you missed this part - "I stopped buying Corsair products a few years ago after I had a PSU die just outside the 30 day return window for the retailer"