Aqua Zonic Evo 4 Review

[matthemmings]

Hey guys - so I was looking for a relatively budget return pump but not the super cheap (and super loud!) ones.

I came across these Aqua Zonic pumps and managed to get a 2000l/h unit for around £25 ($30 currently) though couldn't find a single review for one.

After doing a bit of research I found that Aqua Zonic is a brand name of Qian Hu who run Yi Hu fish farms over in Singapore. They're also responsible around 3000 different aquatic products including food, medicines, lights, heaters, tanks and even heat packs and fish bags. They also hold an ISO 9002 (quality management) certification so that was a good sign so I took the 'plunge' [emoji57] and bought one and figured I'd give a review to serve as a reference for others if they're looking at them.


Part One - The Unboxing

It arrived today thanks to the usual cheery Yodel driver in a fairly standard box:

Contained within is the pump itself, the little rubber footed stand, a length of airline and an adjustable valve should you wish to use it to power a skimmer or such:

First impression is that its surprisingly big for a 2000l/h pump and I'd suppose that's because it'll be a common chassis and these things go up to 6000l/h.

Here it is next to a 10ml syringe from a Red Sea test kit for comparison.

Another thing that immediately jumps out is the cable, at 1.2m long it'll certainly be long enough for most uses and interestingly came without a plug fitted which is technically illegal in the UK ...

Construction seems pretty solid and it has a decent enough looking ceramic impeller so that shouldn't corrode under saltwater use. Looks like the impeller cover is almost designed so you could attach some tubing to it rather than letting it take in the surrounding water.

For my next part I'll be checking out its claimed 2000l/h power and also seeing how much head loss we get in what is likely to be a fairly unscientific experiment involving a sink and a large plastic tub. Will also be interesting to find out just how loud it is too.

.... after I fit a 3-pin UK plug to it anyway [emoji16]

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[matthemmings]

OK so the results are in from the not very scientific testing.

To do the test I filled a container with enough to cover the pump well, then added another 10L or so. Then I piped the outlet into a 10L bucket and timed how long it took to fill, simples.

With as little head height as possible the timings are:

Run 1 - 44sec
Run 2 - 46sec
Run 3 - 43sec

Which gives it around 818l/h with no head height, bearing in mind this is a 2000l/hr pump, that's pretty poor!

When looking at a 1m head height the performance suffers (as you'd expect):

Run 1 - 73 sec
Run 2 - 77 sec
Run 3 - 74 sec

Which gives a mean of 486l/h, again pretty poor especially compared to an Interpet 1000l/hr pump I had lying around that achieved 330l/h on the 1m head height test.

So in conclusion, this is a pretty sturdy looking pump that is whisper quiet when running but it in no way delivers what it promises when it comes to performance.

Side note - I tried the air intake to see how it might perform driving a skimmer but only succeeded in dribbling water out of the end of the airline tube. Perhaps with an air pump attached or at least a one way valve it might work?



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[scuzy]

The old saying goes you get what you pay for.


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[matthemmings]

The old saying goes you get what you pay for.


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Or less than 50% of what you pay for in this case! [emoji52]

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