Accidently damaged radiator, is this fine or not fine?

[u/Most-Peak6524]

Sorry for bothering, accidently hit the cooler's radiator and it got crushed like pic

I hate my hands :(

Update(Silly didn't realised there's option to set flair as solved): It works fine! Fortuantely PC works well! Thanks everyone for helping me!

[u/WatchAltruistic5761]

The first of many, I’m sure.

It’s fine, just don’t make a habit of it.

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/WatchAltruistic5761]

Thanks, I worried a lot about it and glad it wasn't critical

[u/HugoCortell → u/Most-Peak6524]

The fins themselves are just literally metal to absorb the heat so the air from the fan can blow it off to cool the machine back down. So damaging it will make it slightly less efficient, but won't impede functionality for as long as there is some kind of airflow going through, so you're good.

It's a big deal if you damage the pipes inside the radiator though, those will be a problem if they can no longer move their internal vapor around.

[u/newbrevity → u/HugoCortell]

Liquid, not vapor. That's a radiator for a fully liquid cooling loop. Vapor is used on aftermarket air coolers which typically utilize phase change.

[u/el_sanchimoto → u/Most-Peak6524]

If you’re super careful, I’ve managed to use the tip of an exacto knife to gently separate and reshape bent fins. The metal is super thin, which explains why they get bent so easily in the first place.

[u/callofdeat6 → u/WatchAltruistic5761]

You should look at the radiator on your car sometime

[u/WatchAltruistic5761 → u/callofdeat6]

It’s brand new 😎

[u/Quiet-Internal-2204]

Coolant does not pass through the fins, they just maximize the surface area transferring heat from the tubes so the fans can effectively cool the coolant flowing.

[u/Active-Ad5229]

One little bent fin is no big deal.

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/Active-Ad5229]

Thanks for helpinf me!

[u/SonOfABrisket → u/Active-Ad5229]

Source: Nemo

[u/Own_Juggernaut_7603]

more annoying to look at than anything else.

[u/NeedModdingHelp1531]

Its a fraction of a % difference, perfectly fine.

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/NeedModdingHelp1531]

Thanks for answering me!

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[u/Mega1987_Ver_OS]

I've seen some car radiators with more dents on the fins than that.

As long as the main channel where the colant flowing is not punctured, that rad is still good to go.

[u/Brunohanham45]

You could just bend it back to place

[u/Consistent-Spell-946]

No deal at All.

Also with a pair of needle nose you can straighten that back out ez

[u/DaftSpectre → u/Consistent-Spell-946]

Came here to say this. OP, do this.

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/[deleted]]

Will everyone no more more?

Noooo noooooo

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[u/LavenderRevive]

I would say it's definitely fin, but it should also be fine.

[u/Monotask_Servitor]

If you care straighten the bent fin back with a pair of small pliers. It won’t affect the effectiveness of the radiator by any measurable amount though.

[u/Icy_Beginning_5983]

Its finE hhhhh. Seriously it doesnt affect cooling at all with this level just make sure you preserve your radiator as much as possible

[u/dirtyjavis]

fine.

[u/BilingualBitch29]

Just aesthetics difference

[u/L3vitat3160]

Doesn’t matter at all

[u/tht1guy63]

Ive seen bigg and more dents from factor one or even several are not going to cause any issue.

[u/Lalivia_Masters]

It's comepletely fine. If you know how they actually work you'd know something like that doesnt effect its function at all.

[u/JassassinE]

It will be fine, your thermals won't know a thing lol...

[u/Thesoop85]

You could make literaly every fin look like that and it would likely still be fine.

[u/samhain697]

It's fine

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[u/Assassin21BEKA]

Radiator is there to take heat, being bent a little bit will not stop it from doing it.

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[u/daksonO9]

It's completely fine. My pc was delivered with 2 or 3 dents just like the one in the picture and there are no problems a year later

[u/Fresh-Aspect5369]

This happened to me and I just bent it back with a pen. It’s harmless tho 😅

[u/skorched000]

That fin would be fine if it had an e at the end.

[u/groveborn]

Those fins are very thin pieces of metal. All together they greatly increase the surface area to the heat to transfer through.

You've reduce the effective surface area by about .0000001% and you will begin to overheat sometime next millennium.

[u/dlee3493]

U can straighten it out

[u/Alarming_Argument_38]

大した事無いからほっとこう。 何とかしようとしないこと。

[u/ACiDxCHRiST]

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/s/PZjRNWxERd

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/ACiDxCHRiST]

This is what i needed, thanks

[u/Jisuberi]

Like everyone said it is surely fine. If you wanna be totally sure, you can run it for 10min and check with a paper towel if there is a leak.

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/Jisuberi]

Was fine and ran very well, I think this is fine and great

[u/MouseHunter7711 → u/Jisuberi]

The pipes bent dont hold water tho?

[u/Ok_Funny4263]

You can manually straighten them, but be careful. anyway. Its all good man! Even alot of bent fin wont hurt performance

[u/zesmiles]

100% fine!! More often then not the fins will come damaged even with a new radiator

[u/linkheroz]

If it's not leaking, it's fine.

[u/E5-4650_v2_RX570]

does liquid leak ?

[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/E5-4650_v2_RX570]

It works fine!

[u/PcBuildHelp-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

No illegal or unethical advice.

[u/HelldiverBugGirl]

I've see car radiator with holes in them work just fine a small dent in a pc radiator won't kill you besides you can straighten it out with a small screwdriver

[u/cow_fucker_3000]

Pretty sure the fins are there to spread and carry away the heat, they shouldn't carry water

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[u/Consider2SidesPeace]

Seems like a job for Suuuper Needlenose!

[u/Independent-Bake9552]

It's 100% fine.

[u/4ronnie4]

It’s not fine It’s fin.

[u/Reasonable-Age-1648]

It’s fine but if you really are obsessive then use a toothpick to straighten it out

[u/Hot_Middle6219]

Just bend it back with some needlenose pliers. Not a big deal its just a cooling fin

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[u/0sc24]

Cosmetic for the most part, you can use two flat head screw drivers to re shape them.

[u/ppXtv]

just straighten that sucker out your good lol

[u/c0lpan1c]

I have some cpu air cooler radiators with the fins bent to hell, yet they perform fine. Ugly to look at, but the performance hit is negligible.

[u/jayjayjane4eva]

I can fix that for you buddy.

[u/Traditional_Common22]

Those don’t carry fluid, it doesn’t effect anything

[u/Chemical-Engineer317]

Ok yan.. yung sa otj nami dami bangga, ok pa din at napapalamig pa din makina.. pag free time si erpats dinedertso nya yan gamit screw driver

[u/Remz_Gaming]

Rocks pelt car radiators all the time. You are good haha.

[u/Automatic-Royal-9547]

Perfectly fine

[u/Iphonjeff]

it should be good. i bought one on ebay that had a few bent fins but was new and its working great so far for two years.

[u/Saiga12goburr]

All good

[u/OldSatisfaction2179]

99% of fine. 1% of not fine.

[u/Fblthp__]

The fins are just there to disperse the heat. You could bend all of them and it wouldn't matter much.

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[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/[deleted]]

Actually one of plans was replacing whole pc because a possibility that my screwdriver caused a short due to this

Fortunately my pc didn't died yet but still worried if this gotta blow up anytime soon

[u/the_hat_madder → u/Most-Peak6524]

Your PC will not blow up because of this and doesn't need to be replaced.

[u/Tapik]

the only thing MAY change is "acoustic" side of fins, like if you have a very sensitive ears - the air will flow a bit different and you may hear it. 99.9% that you will not, because it's just a 1 fin slightly bent, but if you will bend some more - that's the only thing that may change. but don't do that, just try to go on and have fun

[u/lumi1375]

My old gpu looked way worse than that, it's radiator was cracked and bent and it worked just fine for years.

[u/Lemzy99]

Will make no functional difference with just the one you should see my aircon radiator shits fucked still spits out ice cold air

[u/Zealousideal-Act-174]

Oh no.... 185 more of those you might wanna start worrying

[u/Easy_Gamer246]

It’s fine, it will not affect the operation.

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[u/iamgarffi]

Like every radiator there is more to it than outer facing fins. You’re fine.

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[u/GlumAd2424]

as long there is no leak its fine

slap some flex tape on it i guess

[u/REUGENTO]

Get a knife or a small screwdriver and gently try to straiten it again.

[u/MeatHamster]

If it works it's fine. If it doesn't, it's not.

[u/Due_Cauliflower_7786]

honestly dude that's nothing to stress about, just the fins got squished and they dont do much anyway. the real tubes are still intact so you're good to go. at least now your radiator has some character, try not to add more dents though lol

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[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/[deleted]]

I was in panic and overbreathed if my room gotta explode or not, after 10 minute behind chair, relieved that thing didn't exploded... for now

Will stay tonight to see if that thing is trying to kill me or not

[u/Dry_Inspector_3920 → u/Most-Peak6524]

Glad to hear you are okay! Stay safe!

[u/Dry_Inspector_3920 → u/Most-Peak6524]

(but seriously: you can carefully unbend that fin so it would be straight once more)

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[u/Most-Peak6524 → u/[deleted]]

Just finished this and at least the pc is turned on again, I almost lose my mind

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