You have always come off as a professional and not a shill. In an modern environment where many do not, it is very much appreciated.
How do you think that they will last? I have AmpMasters that are more than a decade old with absolutely no issues. They do push a lot of water in a CL, but I imagine that the RD3 230 does too... it will send a stream across a 8' tank that will move the sand back 30 inches if unchecked.
Thank you for the kind words. I walk a fine line because of my affiliation but I always try to be unbiased since I am always will be a hobbyist first.
Longevity is a good question. Sspecially since, when it comes to pumps, there are some very fine examples to compare to. Those examples have a very long and solid history in our hobby where as the RD3 230 has only been on the market for around 2.5 years now. This is going to be a long answer as I tend to be long winded and it’s kind of a loaded question. :lmao:
I’m on about 2.5 years with my two RD3 230’s without a hiccup. Since I handle support on them, I’m aware of the failure frequency here in the US and to date, there have been only 2 controller failures that I can recall and no motor failures. One of those controller issues was the backlighting and the other was technically a DOA with a non responsive menu button. There might be another one that I can’t remember and one guy brought in an impeller that was destroyed which he clearly dropped (even though he denied it) because it was grenaded but we did him a service and replaced it under warranty since he was a good customer. The only other issues I’ve seen with them were early on and packaging related. There were a handful of pumps that arrived with cracked AKB’s where the back of the pump hit the side of the box during transit and snapped the stem that the bypass tube connects to at the back of the block. The packaging has since been changed to address that.
What I can say since I’ve had my hands on all kinds of pumps is that these pumps are VERY heavy well built pumps. Nothing like any other DC pump on the market in terms of mass and feel. The magnets are huge too which speaks volumes about the power of the motor. Point being that they are built very well and there really are no compromises in these pumps that can been seen or felt. The controller which is the one gray area is very robust too in that it’s built into a very nice and large aluminum casing and is designed to dissipate heat. As such, all I can do is speculate given it’s construction and the failure rate or lack of. I think these pumps will last a long long time. And I will be honest, I am not a fan of DC pumps for return pumps and would normally avoid them but these pumps are different and I trust my system to one for my return. I still however keep one of my Superdarts plumbed with matching unions as a spare just in case. That said, I’ve run Reeflo’s for many many years. I always loved those pumps. I’ve had Iwaki’s in the past that I removed after 10 years of running. Not because they failed but because I wanted greater efficiency. I have a 25 or so year old little giant 4MDQ on my mixing tank that served as a closed loop pump on my current display many years back. I loved the Reeflo’s because they were built to last and my only gripe with them was the seals of which I kept spares along with spare pumps and would swap pumps replace seals myself as needed. You can’t kill an Iwaki but they are noisy, inefficient and transfer a fair amount of heat. For me, I was after, quiet, efficiency, little to no heat transfer and reliability. The RD3’s have proven to be quiet, efficient and don’t transfer heat relative to other pumps. So far, they have proven reliable but given how long I’ve been in this hobby and how long I’ve owned pumps in the past, I can only hope my RD3 230’s will last as long as a Reeflo motor let alone an Iwaki. It may not happen but I don’t have any reason to think they won’t last a long long time.
All things considered, for me, power savings in my system wasn’t just about the watts the pump draws. Back in 2010, my electric bill was around $1100 a month. I had a hodge podge of pumps ranging from Iwaki’s, Little Giants and Lim Wave Baldor based pond style pumps not unlike the Ampmasters. My 1/2HP chiller was running 12 hours a day. At that time, I decided to do some major upgrades and I spent a small fortune (several thousand) on those upgrades to my system. Those upgrades included new sump/refugium, new pumps including a bunch of Tunze’s to replace a couple closed loop pumps, lights, chiller etc. One of the major goals was obviously efficiency. Ditching the inefficient pumps, halides, etc while streamlining my sump setup. When I was done, my chiller was no longer needed and my electric bill dropped to $4000 a month. I shaved thousands of watts of my system and increased my flow throughout my system substantially. I was honestly shocked and what seemed like a fortune at the time paid for itself the first year and has since paid for itself ten fold. Best of all, my tanks health improved by leaps and bounds as well. I am always trying to find ways to make my tank more efficient while not compromising quality and now have my electric bill down to $350 a month. As I said above, I am not a fan of DC pumps for return pumps and wouldn’t have put one of these on my return if I didn’t believe whole heartedly in them. Granted, these are not a traditional DC pump in that they don’t use DC voltage to the motor. It’s actually low current AC voltage which eliminates a point of failure because you don’t have the typical AC to DC conversion. As such, I have to believe these pumps will last quite a long time. The only question would be the controller side but they too are well made. Ultimately time will tell. Unlike a pump like an Iwaki or even the Dolphins that are essentially timeless and see little to no change in the model cycle or a Reeflo that only see’s motor changes, a pump like an RD3 inevitably will see model changes over the years so while I don’t expect a pump like the RD3 230 to be timeless, I can only hope (and have reasonable expectations) that they will last until I am ready for the next upgrade which I don’t anticipate being anytime soon. Especially since I am very happy with my system and equipment choices as it sits now.
At the end of the day, I’d never fault somebody for running a Reeflo, Iwaki or Dolphin. I think they are great pumps and for the most part bullet proof. In my world here on the forum or doing installs, every application or customer has different needs but most are price conscious. I do enough tank installs and don’t install that many RD3’s. This is in large part because most customers want the least expensive equipment they can get and because of that, I end up recommending almost everything but RD3’s. More often than not in those cases, Reeflo and Iwaki’s are first choice, Fluval SP series is another one I recommend all the time because I love that block. Now if somebody wants a super powerful solid built pump and price isn’t a concern, then the RD3’s would be my first suggestion unless the system has insanely high head pressure in which case, I’d recommend the Abyzz pumps since these handle super high head pressure better than almost any other pumps on the market. I will also say, having handled the Abyzz pumps on numerous occasions that I think the RD3 compares very favorably to the Abyzz pumps in any application under 20’ of head. Especially since there is now RD3 pressure pumps but still, the Abyzz absoltely has it’s place in the market despite it price tag.
All said and done and affiliations aside, I really love my RD3’s and there honestly isn’t a pump I would trade them out for at this point. I hope to feel the same way another few years down the road. :thumbsup:
Damn, that was a much longer response than I thought it would be. LOL
