Bubble King Skimmer Club

[MBMAX]

I have owned ATB and Bubble King and the ATB while being a nice skimmer was not even in the same league as the Bubble King. It sounds like these guys are having a tough time with WTY issues, but why jump on a bandwagon when the issues are not yours? Is the purpose of railroading a brand or a company in hopes that it will improve if you do happen to have a problem.......or do you just want them to go away so you won't have any help at all if something does break? I find any type of public bashing pretty fishy in any case, the bottom line is if you really are having this many issues, what's wrong with a phone call to the manufacturer or a phone call to the vendor who sold you the product. I would think you would be able to dispute a charge with your credit card company or with Pay Pal itself. I will end this little rant by stating one obvious thing, people pay for quality, and if Bubble King was such a bad company especially with anything pertaining to Wty or replacement they would have disappeared a long time before now.

That is a very selfish attitude . I hope you don't have any problem with your skimmer and find that after 4 months and several phone calls and emails to the manufacturer and distributor still hearing excuses.
It is very ease to just give opinions when you are not going thru the situation yourself. It is not one crazy person waiting for a replacement part .
if you take the time to read this thread before posting you will see that we are several people with the same problem.
We pay for quality and I think BK is good quality but you always are going to have some problems and that's why you need costumer service.
Unfortunately their costumer service sucks.

 

[mike810]

I have owned ATB and Bubble King and the ATB while being a nice skimmer was not even in the same league as the Bubble King. It sounds like these guys are having a tough time with WTY issues, but why jump on a bandwagon when the issues are not yours? Is the purpose of railroading a brand or a company in hopes that it will improve if you do happen to have a problem.......or do you just want them to go away so you won't have any help at all if something does break? I find any type of public bashing pretty fishy in any case, the bottom line is if you really are having this many issues, what's wrong with a phone call to the manufacturer or a phone call to the vendor who sold you the product. I would think you would be able to dispute a charge with your credit card company or with Pay Pal itself. I will end this little rant by stating one obvious thing, people pay for quality, and if Bubble King was such a bad company especially with anything pertaining to Wty or replacement they would have disappeared a long time before now.

Wow. Have you read the post with people who are having problems? As if we haven't already tried emailing and calling the manufacturer and distributor a dozen or more times. Trust me, if I had not paid with PayPal, I would have already contacted my bank. PayPal only allows 45 days to file a claim and since I already had money in PayPal (PayPal didn't pull money from my bank to cover the transaction). I cannot contact my bank. I am sol!

I truly hope your bk does not crap out on you. Then you will know what it's like trying to get warranty service.

Waiting 7months plus to get a replacement pump under warranty on a $1300 plus skimmer is not acceptable!

 

[Boa1277]

I 100% feel for you Mike, I think I have Klaus card from Macna I am sure I could supply you his direct phone# if you would like or if it would help, I am not a big fan of the bandwagon bashing that's all. Who did you purchase your skimmer from, they can't help resolve your issues?

 

[SchnitzelReef]

That is a very selfish attitude . I hope you don't have any problem with your skimmer and find that after 4 months and several phone calls and emails to the manufacturer and distributor still hearing excuses.

It is very ease to just give opinions when you are not going thru the situation yourself. It is not one crazy person waiting for a replacement part .

if you take the time to read this thread before posting you will see that we are several people with the same problem.

We pay for quality and I think BK is good quality but you always are going to have some problems and that's why you need costumer service.

Unfortunately their costumer service sucks.

Agreed!!

 

[acesq]

Mike: Is your issue stray voltage like Powdermonkey's? If so, you should check his thread about replacing the GFCI that the skimmer pump is plugged into and replacing it an ELCB breaker. GFCI breakers are very sensitive to even low amounts of stray voltage (5mA) while ELCB's won't trip until the stray voltage exceeds 30mA.

I had the same issue with my 240W DC pumps made by another manufacturer (BlueEco) and the fix recommended was either removing the GFCI outlet and replacing it with the ELCB or wrapping the power cord around a ferrite choke (much cheaper). I tried a couple of different ferrite chokes, but neither worked for me so I simply removed the GFCI and replaced it with a regular receptacle and have had no issues since. I can't recommend just removing the GFCI since there is added risk (my research at the time led me to believe very little added risk) so get an ELCB.

 

[ksed]

Why do these pumps have that much stray voltage?

 

[bullitr]

Bubble King Skimmer Club

I bought a used bk and it was damage during shipping to replace my dependable reefflo orca gold even after 4 years reeflo fixed the pump warranty because they have great customer service. So in a way it save me more headache after reading this for few weeks now. Now i have atb 12.5 deluxe and customer service are in the same standard as tunze usa which is second to none.

Tunze usa and atb usa best customer service IMO in the industry

 

[sean2sean]

I should of got an atb from the start....

 

[bullitr]

I should of got an atb from the start....

My friends telling me to get bk but from now on atb all the way

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Just a FYI here since I do not run either skimmer.
Royal Exclusive now has a facility in Florida.
They were @ MACNA & I spoke with Hans.

 

[acesq]

Why do these pumps have that much stray voltage?

It's not just BK pumps, its all similar variable speed pumps. Here is an article that explains it:
http://www.jonathankimball.com/pdf/gfci_ecce.pdf

If you check pool equipment forums, people run into the same problems. From my research, it looks like Pentair makes a GFCI breaker that works with these type pumps.

 

[ksed]

Thanks for the link.
It appears that it becomes an issue with pumps with a higher amp draw.

 

[Powdermonkey]

Mike: Is your issue stray voltage like Powdermonkey's? If so, you should check his thread about replacing the GFCI that the skimmer pump is plugged into and replacing it an ELCB breaker. GFCI breakers are very sensitive to even low amounts of stray voltage (5mA) while ELCB's won't trip until the stray voltage exceeds 30mA.

I had the same issue with my 240W DC pumps made by another manufacturer (BlueEco) and the fix recommended was either removing the GFCI outlet and replacing it with the ELCB or wrapping the power cord around a ferrite choke (much cheaper). I tried a couple of different ferrite chokes, but neither worked for me so I simply removed the GFCI and replaced it with a regular receptacle and have had no issues since. I can't recommend just removing the GFCI since there is added risk (my research at the time led me to believe very little added risk) so get an ELCB.

I was hoping to have a conclusion with the use of the recommended ELCB this weekend. Unfortunately the electrical supply house set out an EPD breaker. I am waiting to hear back from the electrician on if there is a difference.
I would like to know how many of you guys have switched out to an Earth Leakage Circuit Break? Particularly from the people that are not having problems.

 

[Powdermonkey]

EPD breaker fixed my problems! I want to thank Matthias for also fixing my ingnorance. It never crossed my mind that I would have to install a special breaker. Must of glanced over that in the manual.... not an eye catching part of setting it up.

 

[vpaul79]

My double cone 150 gave me problems getting it to run at a stable level. After a month, it started to run pretty well. After another month I gave it a maintenance cleaning to get the algae and coraline buildup off the inner walls. Now I'm stuck trying to tune this thing and my previous settings are not working. If I set the venturi to 4 turns, I'll overflow or get super wet skim even with the wedge wide open. I have to run it at 2 turns or less to get keep the thing from acting up with the wedge very wide open. And even at that, I don't get the fine micro bubbles, they collect and form giant bubbles all the way to the top which seems to hinder creating a good foam head. Not to say it wont create foam, it will, but doesn't seem to be running at its optimal performance. Here is a video of it running.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DgC-iSC0mnE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You can see the very large bubbles, like the size of a thumbnail. I have not cleaned the skimmer for at least 30 days so its had plenty of time to break in again. I have it at 7", where the silicon tube coming from the wedge pipe is just underwater. I have a 140G display with 40G breeder for a sump. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Jay Ellul]

My double cone 150 gave me problems getting it to run at a stable level. After a month, it started to run pretty well. After another month I gave it a maintenance cleaning to get the algae and coraline buildup off the inner walls. Now I'm stuck trying to tune this thing and my previous settings are not working. If I set the venturi to 4 turns, I'll overflow or get super wet skim even with the wedge wide open. I have to run it at 2 turns or less to get keep the thing from acting up with the wedge very wide open. And even at that, I don't get the fine micro bubbles, they collect and form giant bubbles all the way to the top which seems to hinder creating a good foam head. Not to say it wont create foam, it will, but doesn't seem to be running at its optimal performance. Here is a video of it running.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DgC-iSC0mnE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You can see the very large bubbles, like the size of a thumbnail. I have not cleaned the skimmer for at least 30 days so its had plenty of time to break in again. I have it at 7", where the silicon tube coming from the wedge pipe is just underwater. I have a 140G display with 40G breeder for a sump. What am I doing wrong?

I have the same issues mate.

 

[sreefs]

You are getting the very fine bubbles in the skimmer body, and they are getting larger as they rise up the cone. This is all good, now close the wedge pipe a very little and let run for a day, if you get no skim after a day close the wedge pipe a little more, let run for another day. If it gets to watery open wedge pipe a very little at a time and let run for a day before you make another adjustment.

 

[Mesterhingsten]

Does anyone know size the "ozone port" on a Bubble King Mini 160 is? I have googled, but did not find any info on this. My ozone tubing is 4/6mm (inner/outer), just wondering if this will fit directly or not.

 

[Galtamar]

I was ready to order a BK supermarin 250 but after hearing this stories im having second thoughts......

 

[acesq]

I was ready to order a BK supermarin 250 but after hearing this stories im having second thoughts......

Do it. Best skimmer I've ever had. You won't regret it.