9011 Feedback

[Ycore]

I just got this skimmer the other day and thought maybe I could provide a little bit of feedback you could pass onto product engineering.. With a few minor modifications an amazing skimmer with "some quirks" can simply become a hassle free amazing skimmer.

At first I had a hell of a time getting it to skim properly.. Water wouldn't rise in reaction chamber.. Too many micro bubbles.. Water wouldn't rise in extension pipe.. After reading through many "help" posts on the 9010, I was able to find the solutions to my problems, but with some minor documentation updates and some very simple mods to the skimmer itself, all this could be avoided for future customers..

1) Build some sort of retention clip or mechanism to better hold the compartment around the pump intake in place (the area where the extension pipe goes into). This snaps out of place WAY too easily. I sweated and cursed many times while trying to squeeze the skimmer into a tight sump area only to have the compartment "pop off"

2) The bottom bevelled slider with the rubber feet.. Same thing as #1.. Have a clip or something to hold this in place.. Unless you have the luxury of delicately dropping your skimmer perfectly vertical in your sump via a crane or something, this slides open way too easily while trying to adjust the skimmer position.

3) The extension pipe.. If it's jammed in too far it affects skimmer performance. Too little and and it doesn't work.. Have this inserted into bulkhead, or threads, or something that ensures it's optimally inserted.

4) Update the docs to remark that the collection cup has to be firmly in place and level for the skimmer to work properly..

That's it.. Great skimmer once you know all its quirks.. I get the impression that a lot of people in light of not knowing the above are using it suboptimally.

Two days later after install and it's pulling amazing foamy skim.. Love the fact that unlike my Bubble-Magus, it's impossible to overflow the cup by "opening it up" too much.

Question though.. The "air screw" is definitely working-- if I close it all the way the foam level drops.. However, anything past maybe 5 turns and fully open and I don't see any difference in foam output, is this normal?

 

[rvitko]

Thanks for the feedback. It is refreshing because you give important details rathe than just "it is great..." or "what a piece of ...."

I would like to say that 2 is in the process of being solved, the mold will be modified to have a couple locking pins to hold the cover on.

Problem 1 happens largely because this opening in the skimmer is cut by hand and it can vary a little, this is a common problem for us, we have been around for 50 years, the aquarium market was very small when we started and almost everything was done by hand and still many things are done by hand, it adds some charm and character but doesn't give that perfect interchangeable fit and finish. We are working on this with a new Comline molded body but this is still at least a 18 months away.

Problem 3 happens because the elbow is from Spears (US pipe manufacturer) and the rest is made by us, variations in there elbow and on our end sometimes result in an imperfect fit. This is the most difficult to solve. There is a stop ridge molded into the piece we make, but occasionally an elbow has an undersized OD and QC on PVC parts is generally checking only ID for pipe fit in the intended use.

As far as the manuals, they get tweaked a little every 6-12 months as we revise them, they do improve over time but the manuals are produced and edited in house in German by 3 people and then translated by a translator and I try to smooth out the English which is not as easy as you might think. They ask that I am mindful that British English is the world standard and so I sometimes have to accept words that an American may find awkward, like Earthed instead of Grounded or cabinet filter plant instead of sump, I do always take feedback like this and try to find ways to improve the manuals in future revisions but somethings will always be hard to describe and really need a picture or video and other times I have to use words that would not be my first choice for the sake of universal acceptance. There is also a bit of getting lost by what you already know, for example if you had to write a manual for something in your profession, there would probably be a lot of things that never occurred to you to explain because you have done it so many times it seems to be instinctual. The same happens in our case and it is only feedback like this that helps us know what to explain.

If you look inside the threaded screw hole, you will see there is a hole perpendicular to the screw, the screw is basically uncovering the air intake and it is true that after 6 revolutions or so it is completely uncovered, likely after 5 it is uncovered 90%+ and there is little visible difference in performance.

 

[rehnberg]

this is good info for skimmer owners! #3 is really touchy to figure out