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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  • RSAUser - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link

    I'm in south Africa, I've never paid for rma as long as the item was shipped to that location originally.
  • hubick - Thursday, June 4, 2020 - link

    Phew, thanks for the heads up!

    I just built up my new SilverStone CS381 NAS box with a Corsair SF750 _last_night_!

    I order from Amazon.ca on May 24th, and mine is thankfully *newer* than March!

    I guess it pays to buy from a retailer w lots of turnover :-)
  • Techie2 - Friday, June 5, 2020 - link

    This is part of the liability when you outsource production and just put your name on a product.
  • Lord of the Bored - Saturday, June 6, 2020 - link

    Even if you make your own products, it is still a risk. Unless you make every part of your product (and no company on Earth makes power supplies from scratch) you have no way of knowing you won't receive a bad batch of capacitors from an outside supplier.
    ...
    Heck, even if you make your own everything you might have a batch of seemingly-good parts that don't hold up over time.
  • cmdrmonkey - Sunday, June 7, 2020 - link

    Corsair power supplies have been trash for years. They use cut rate Chinese OEMs. I switched to Seasonic a long time ago.
  • jeremyshaw - Monday, June 8, 2020 - link

    Cut rate OEMs aren't the real problem, since they did spec (at least their review units) to be built well.

    I suppose an OEM can slip a bad batch of subpar components through, though, and Corsair can only catch it in the RMA process (as happened this time).

    The problem is market addressability: the recall here is for a SFX PSU. Not many that hit the high marks of performance and silence like the SF series from Corsair. They cost more than any similar PSUs, and you can bet I paid that premium.

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