My first 5K+ started cracking a few weeks in and progressed over the first year. I RMA’d it before the year was up.
My replacement got a small corner chip (my fault from hitting it with a controller so won’t RMA) but hasn’t expanded in several months. Got a Pimax protective sleeve which aside protection also shows where the sensors reside with it’s cut outs.
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My 5k+ has developed the cracks.
I’m pretty sure every single HMD without RE housing will crack at some point. I’ve seen some crazy ones, but my HMD is out of warranty, been cracked. Now developing one up the front of the hmd slightly, but it’s very thin.
Honestly I think the best move is to just buy the silicon sleeve and forget about it. I don’t think this is gonna get bad enough to cause light leakage for 99% of people
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Problem is I was set to resell mine once the 8KX arrived and use the money towards a 3080 ti. If I was just keeping it wouldn’t bother me. I agree with you, it’s not going to effect the usability of the device. I wonder how much it effects the resell value. It was close to brand new apart from that. I got it as an insurance replacement to my old one which got damaged in the sun.
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It would be nice if we get an option to get new housing or at least print out our own.
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It really seems like every HMD with the black housing will have cracks sooner or later.
I have been trying to buy a 5k+ on ebay for a few weeks because i don’t want to deal with pimax weird shipping and tax issues.
I always have the sellers send me pictures of the corners of the HMD and every single one i got pictures from has cracks.
They really should use the blue housing for all their Headsets.
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When pimax started shipping the Artisan the stories very quickly cropped up about cracking there too. Pimax did come back with an explaination of that case being manual fabrication and coating process: (https://community.openmr.ai/t/february-17-2020-update/26111/2?u=spamenigma) They seemed to be sticking with the same housing however a few weeks later it appears that they changed to the RE housing without saying anything.
The only assumption I can make is they have finally learned to give up on the crappy black housing which is a far too long overdue decision and go with RE.
8K is already discontinued and I’m expecting 5k+ to be close behind, to be replaced by Aritsan and 5k super (if that’s even a thing anymore already… it’s all gone quiet there?). Maybe a revamp on the XR housing too would finish the range and eliminate that black cracking mess that’s plagued the HMD’s for 18months.
One thing pimax imo need to do is stop pulling the warranty card on people with cracked housings. It’s very clearly been a highly flawed part and they should be doing more than just rejecting support requests as a first reaction. I’ve heard cases of them offering self install of housing for an unreasonable cost. A nominal shipping charge is maybe acceptible but they need to have a standard policy on this and meet people halfway at least if not all the way on this issue.
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I have waited just before the warranty ends to RMA my KS 5K+ (many cracks, pictures in this thread).
Received the replacement a week ago, inspected at unboxing, no visible crack.
I have used it 2 times, mostly to check if all the problems I had with the 1st unit were solved.
Approx 3 hours of use in total, with great care (it rests over a large thick foam pad after using it).
Checked it today: both top front corners already cracked… (pictures below)
This is very disappointing. Changes may have been made on the manufacturing process but the result is there, replacement still cracking after only 7 days / 3 hours of use, with no shock, no sun exposure, 20-23°C ambiant temperature, no cleaning liquid…
So what now ? Will Pimax offer to replace it now the warranty is over but the replacement began to crack so quickly ? @PimaxUSA
The replacement is a 203 version according to S/N, manufactured on September 2019 (if the date is now written like that in S/N and not using week number like before).
It seems other people have received a 204 version as a replacement (like @Yata_PL for example ?). So more recent than mine, but who knows if 204 version has a more improved casing than my 203 and wouldn’t crack ?
Is there someone here who has tried one or more RMA because of cracks and who finally ended with a replacement not cracking anymore ?
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The black housings crack. They will always crack, I wouldn’t expect anything otherwise at this point. Some claims have been made to the contrary, but evidence up to now strongly suggests that the issue has not (and will not) be fixed. I think that only the new RE/Vision series housings can truly address this… maybe. There are also concerns that the housing underneath the rubber coating may crack as well, and truly we’d never know it if this were the case.
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I share your opinion.
When I see reports just above from people with 3 cracking replacements, on top of mine that also cracked right away with so little usetime, no way can I believe this would only be affecting some production batches, nor that the percentage of cracking units could be as low as claimed.
So idk what to do with my replacement now. It also has one dead pixel but the other issues from my first unit are gone (horizontal scanlines and faulty USB cable), excepting the cracks.
I have reported the cracks in the ticket I had used for the initial replacement request, I will see if a solution is proposed there (possibly a protective cover as for other people).
I don’t want to tape the casing, but maybe applying a very small amount of epoxy right now would prevent the cracks to expand more with a minimal visible impact. Especially if then covered/hidden with a protective cover (but some reports about dead panels will make me think twice before using such cover, as they may have gone dead due to overheating because of that cover).
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Smart ppl waiting for the last days of warranty and doing only one advantage RMA 
Confirming - so far so good , not even single crack on my 204 since Dec 2019
Simply not true. It’s a fact that the units that were not made with the automated process cracking can occur. There are still units out there that have manually coated housing. To assert this equates to all of them is just plain irresponsible. Your “evidence” is posts by less than 50 people on the internet.
This is very similar to people making the claim that “all” 2080ti’s would eventually fail due to so many reports of chip failures. Nvidia reported that less than 1% were actually returned under their warranty. Same is true for the black cases as the issue even at it’s height wasn’t endemic.
Those with this issue can *AND should create a ticket. We will evaluate the issue on a case by case basis.
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Good luck with so called official reports. Volkswagen reported low emission in diesel engines which ends international scandal “Dieselgate”
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Fortunately for Nvidia, Amazon fulfillment actually backed up their claims. But hey there’s never a situation where you can’t simply claim “conspiracy”.
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My evidence is the Reddit, the forums, and my own unit which cracked almost immediately in late 2019. This is compounded with recent reports from users here, despite claims that the issue is no longer relevant. I wouldn’t say that it is irresponsible; it is possible that it is untrue given recent progress at Pimax with the housings, but its not an assumption made without due diligence or in bad faith. What we currently know about the units that have been received so far does legitimately seem to suggest the caution should be exercised if the fragility of the housing is a concern for a potential customer. For such expensive items, I think that it would be more irresponsible not to warn others about this risk.
I am assuming that it will be fully addressed with the Vision series (blue) housings, but I simply cannot trust the original ones at this point. I hope this makes sense.
Your evidence is “reddit”? wow. Nuff said.
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Based my knowledge all 2080ti with micronik DDR5 were defective. I had one of that cards which runs only 2 weeks and dies. I would say in first 2 months defective ratio was very high but Nvidia changed memory vendor ( Samsung) and situation was under control.
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So you have clearly identified the root cause but you still send those well identified cracking units as replacements ? 
For a replacement that cracked right away (few hours of use after unboxing) but the warranty is now over because the customer/backer had waited the last moment to RMA his initial unit (expecting it will make him receive the most up-to-date revision replacement, on top of saving several RMA to Pimax), will you replace it with a “crack-proof” unit ?
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Thank you a lot for the details.
Your feedback makes me rethink my options and I may ask to get it replaced again.
I had the same reasoning late RMA should maximize my chance to get the best revision but it seems I have received an older replacement than yours despite I have RMA several months after you (replacement received early June 2020).
So seing you were sent a 204 back in Dec 2019 and it is not cracking, I feel not well rewarded for waiting even later to RMA mine. 
Wait for more testimonies . I think @blitze also have .204 revision