Let's Count the Broken RIOs

[spongebob1964]

smoke on the water!

smoke on the water!

I almost got fried, but I smelled that nasty ozone and heard crackling coming from the water. The 3100 had burned out! Gone bye-bye. Yes, I lost just one..thankfully!

 

[looser]

Lets just eliminate any confusion. RIO's SUCK. I bought four 2100s six weeks ago. Two are dead and the others sound like they have one foot in the grave. What a waste of money! After reading this post I'm going to pull the remaining two and replace all of them before something really goes wrong.

 

[traveller7]

1 Dead RIO 2500HP
1 Dead RIO 600
Of the other 10 RIOs, no problems other then worn impellers.

6 Hagen 200 - 6 failed and were replaced in the recall many years ago. 2 of 6 replacements(201s) have failed completely since.
1 Hagen 402 going strong.
6 Hagen 802 going strong.

Too many maji-jets to list - no failures

Renas - no failures

Sicce"sp" (labels wore off years ago) - 1 of 2 failed since the 80's

 

[Steve Hicks]

Totals ...

90, 3 of 7 failed.
180, 0 of 4 failed.
400, 0 of 2 failed.
600, 7 of 14 failed.
800, 4 of 12 failed.
1100, 0 of 3 failed.
1400, 3 of 5 failed.
1700, 9 of 18 failed & 3 shocked or polluted.
2100, 31 of 40 failed & 10 shocked or polluted.
2500, 15 of 19 failed & 3 shocked or polluted.
2800, 1 of 1 failed.
3100, 5 of 9 failed & 4 shocked or polluted.
3200, 0 of 1 failed.
3800, 0 of 3 failed.

"Big models", 4 of 4 failed & 3 shocked or polluted.
"Unspecified models", 96 of 148 failed & 8 shocked or polluted.

 

[harry1215]

i have had a rio 2 rio 2100's and 1 2500 running for over 7 yrs now. I would never buy another one, because it seems all the new ones are not built correctly. But the ones running in my tank never really had a problem, never replaced impellar, never done maintance.

 

[quokjs]

This thread is about counting the broken rios - of course there will be more bad news than good news here.:rollface:

 

[melev]

Yes it is. However, if you've taken the time to read the whole thread, you'll see many many posts of people stating which Rios continued to work without a problem, as well as a number of other types of pumps by other manufacturers. Some still working, some dead.

I really don't find this thread to be too biased, if you consider it only as a feedback by those that have used this product. Ideally, it would be nice to get replies from every single person that has ever used Rio powerheads. Then we'd know for sure. But the numbers so far indicate the 2100 and 2500 are the worst of the batch, right?

 

[colemanitis]

My RIO has been pushing a skimmer for several years now. I've never had a problem with it. All of the negative posts here on RC does make me nervous though.

 

[TIGER SHARK]

I ordered the RIO 1700, I think thats the model, from Marine Depot, it worked for about 3 days, then just stopped. I now use a Mag5

 

[COWabonga]

rio 1400 = dead

 

[alcmaeon]

Hey, its my first post! I couldn't resist when I saw this topic, as I joined this forum specifically to figure out how to make a CPR bakpak work right because the Rio it came with is SO horrible!

I've had 3 Rios, none worked longer than a year. On the other hand, I have 6 Aquaclears in 2 freshwater chiclid tanks that are going on 11 years running!

 

[melev]

Hey, its my first post!

Welcome to Reef Central!

 

[NathanH]

3 rio 800 dead at about a month of use each.

 

[traveller7]

Welcome to Reef Central!

Or alcmaeon!

<img src="/images/welcome.gif"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[Mr Bojangles]

1 dead rio

started to make a loud grinding noise and had to be started by hand

 

[alcmaeon]

Thanks!

 

[kevlouie]

got 5 rios, been running 2 of them for 9 years, never a problem, lost 5 other powerheads various makes, generally all impeller problems so....


Rios 0/5 failures
Others 5/9 failures

 

[Tremelle]

Rio=1 and it took 9 fish with it.
Other=0

 

[billzie]

First I apologize if I'm repeating info here, I didn't bother to read the entire thread.
I've had many RIOs over the years and have never had a problem, and I blame that on routine maintainence. All of the horror stories I've heard or seen first hand were with the larger RIOs and were pumps that had no maintainence, I assume they overheated and the particular resin that RIO uses melted into the tank. I believe that these failures are completely preventable with a good routine cleaning, like you should with all equipment. I've never heard/seen first hand a small RIO fail, I have heard of just about every other pump maker have failures. I wonder if the RIOs are suffering from Urban Legend status? Bill.

 

[Andru881]

I never had any rio's mess up but I threw away my power sweep after 4 days