fried Vortech driver?

Gary Majchrzak

Gary Majchrzak

Team RC
I just returned from vacation and the light is flashing on my Vortech's driver. Something smells really bad, too- what the heck do these critters do in the aquarium when I'm away.... or did the reef gnomes sneak back while I wasn't looking?

It looks like somebody might have splashed some water outside the aquarium.

Has anyone else reading this experienced something similar?

Everything else here appears fine. My Tunze Stream's driver is encased in what appears to be a waterproof housing.... kudos to the Germans on that design.

Don't tell me I need to replace that Vortech driver :sad2:
 
I got water on my power supply once and that fried both the PS and the driver. Smelled like melty plastic death
 
I bought a replacement secondhand and kept the extra wetside as a spare rather than buy new parts... but I can tell you when I needed to replace a different power supply (unrelated issue) it was a lot cheaper through the local dealer than ordering direct from Ecotech
 
thanks for sharing that.
My dry side assembly seems okay.

I believe it was only the controller/driver that might have caught some splashing.....
 
Gary, I fried the driver on our MP 20. Some water dripped on it when I had my arms in the tank. I sent it to Ecotech...they indeed said water was the culprit. For $50 I was sent an upgraded Wireless driver and the old spent driver.

Also, they said the newer upgraded driver is more tolerant to drips/light splashes but it's still far from waterproof.
 
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The driver for my MP40W started flashing all colors and wouldn't initiate the powerhead. I sent it to ecotech, they said water damage, and upgraded the driver for $75.

I don't recall it ever getting wet, and couldn't find evidence under the tank of any drips or anything, but when I looked at the old driver outside of the case it was easy to spot where a bit of water came near the ac adapter jack and caused a short.
 
OK, judging from the previous comments you will be taken care of going through ecotech :) I based what I said on the prices found on their website, which is $150 for the driver
 
cardiffgiant said:
when I looked at the old driver outside of the case it was easy to spot where a bit of water came near the ac adapter jack and caused a short.
Click to expand...
after examining it I think this is exactly what happened to mine.
A drop of water hit that little jack and caused my problem- I'm almost 100% sure of it. The end of the jack appears to be a little blackened.

I almost want to use that grimace smilie now.

iamwrasseman said:
amazing that something built for a saltwater fish tank in not waterproof or at least water resistant .
Click to expand...
I'm sure there's somebody somewhere designing some kind of plastic cover for those drivers as I type this. It's just too valuable a component and it appears that many others have experienced this problem.
 
Agreed. After doing the driver replacement myself (that's another story) you can see that these devices are no more water resistant than your cell phone or the remote for your TV. Definitely keep these things as protected from water as possible.

So... I shipped mine back and wasn't available the minute that they called to tell me that the damage wasn't covered under warranty. So they just shipped it back without fixing it because they weren't sure if I would want to pay $75 to fix a $400 powerhead.
 
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