Alphacool have a dual bay reservoir that also fits up to two dual D5’s. This is similar to the Koolance RP452x2 that we recently covered but has some very important differences.
The box is consistent with Alphacool’s usual style. Although the reservoir itself was wrapped in a thin foamy sheet, we didn’t feel that alone it was really sufficient to protect the reservoir from being accidentally dropped. We’d like to see the protection increased. Inside the box you get the unit itself as well as mounting screws and an allen key to mount the pumps and reservoir:
Instructions are not provided. Indeed if you are unfamiliar with how to mount a pump then you might be a little lost. However it’s not hard. Unlike the Koolance RP452x2 dual bay dual D5 reservoir this is not a setup that can be used as any combination of setups. The reservoir must be shared. The pumps can not be put in series despite the website claiming that this is the case. Indeed when Alphacool states that a series setup can be used they actually mean two pumps in parallel. Even for this case, the required Y adapter is not included.
You might assume that a series setup can be acheived by simply connecting the input of one pump to the output of the other. However because the reservoir is shared and can not be isolated from one of the pumps it means that one pump in this setup would end up with input and output connected to the reservoir. In other words you would end up with one pump spinning it’s wheels kicking up turbulence inside the unit while the other pump struggles to actually drive the loop. We tried this and needless to say it hurt performance significantly.
Out of the box the unit is setup with one pump mount closed off so that the unit can be used with only one pump. Indeed you can buy the unit with 0, 1 or 2 pumps prefitted if you wish. Because the o-rings are supplied you can buy the cheaper “bare” version of the Laing D5 pump that comes without the standard Laing top or o-ring. It should be noted that any D5 pump will be compatible. You do not have to use an Alphacool rebrand of the D5.
Pumps can be fitted by removing the lock ring and if fitting two pumps then the blank plate should also be removed. Note that the two pump inlets are shared. While this provides less restriction to the pumps by sharing a wider inlet it does mean that each pump can feedback into the other. It does however mean that the pump blank piece can be removed easily by poking a screw driver through the other side’s inlet:
The pump is then secured with the provided clamp (make sure the o-ring is fitted first) which is secured with 8 screws:
The 8 screws give plenty of confidence and the setup did not leak (unlike the Alphacool D5 pump top we tested). Indeed the acetal fit around the D5 was so tight it was hard to remove the pump afterwards.
There is just enough clearance for the wires to bend from the base of the D5 before they would hit the walls of the 5 1/4 bay.
The unit uses a plexi cover with black markings on it to show approximate water levels that do not really correlate to the actual minimum levels of the unit. It should be noted that one of the four screws that mounted the plexi cover was a different color and length to the other three. In the top left there is a fill/bleed port which does not fully remove but is meant to be used with Alphacool’s filling syringe thing.
On to construction…
