Your Long Term Review Jebao DC Controllable Return Pump ?

[outy]

Crazy is how you constantly troll this pump, and everything you have stated has been proven wrong on aquarium pumps.

Fact is hundreds if not thousands have been sold, and no one is in here complaining about failure, yet with Vecra's many complain as many do not make it a year.

SO we do have a credible track record here to deal with. The pump has been out on its current form for 15 months.

And almost no complaints. Much better then vectra

 

[outy]

So how does this help determine if jabaos are worth the investment long term?

Based on how much electricity they save on a yearly basis.


I only have to run one 7 months and it pays for itself

My Iwaki cost over $223 a year to run . at 160W

jebao only cost $76 at 55W

 

[Yaryman]

Just replaced my Mag 12 return pump with DCT-4000 at full power. The Mag 12 has run for something like 5 to 10 years 24/7 with no problems. ( It still runs ) The Mag 12 was running at 79 watts. The DCT-4000 is running at 34 watts.

If my math is correct, 24 hours x 45 watts ( savings ) = 1080 watts or 1.08 kilowatt hour every day. 1080 watts x 365 = 394,200 watts or 394.2 kWh per year.

Using a 20 cent per kWh price, ( I've got time of use metering to go with my Solar panels ) we get 394.2 x .2 for a savings of $78.84 each year over the Mag 12.
I paid $63 for DCT-4000.

I don't know how long it will last ( I would think running it 24/7 would increase the life span if not using the feeding feature ), but if I make it to one year, the pump has payed for itself.

As for noise, my skimmer pumps are much louder, so I can't tell how quiet it really is. I can say that there was virtually no vibration on the return line, so little in fact that I had to check if the pump was running. It was.

 

[Dross]

Just replaced my Mag 12 return pump with DCT-4000 at full power. The Mag 12 has run for something like 5 to 10 years 24/7 with no problems. ( It still runs ) The Mag 12 was running at 79 watts. The DCT-4000 is running at 34 watts.

If my math is correct, 24 hours x 45 watts ( savings ) = 1080 watts or 1.08 kilowatt hour every day. 1080 watts x 365 = 394,200 watts or 394.2 kWh per year.

Using a 20 cent per kWh price, ( I've got time of use metering to go with my Solar panels ) we get 394.2 x .2 for a savings of $78.84 each year over the Mag 12.
I paid $63 for DCT-4000.

I don't know how long it will last ( I would think running it 24/7 would increase the life span if not using the feeding feature ), but if I make it to one year, the pump has payed for itself.

As for noise, my skimmer pumps are much louder, so I can't tell how quiet it really is. I can say that there was virtually no vibration on the return line, so little in fact that I had to check if the pump was running. It was.

The only possible error in your analysis is that you are assuming you never need to heat the tank with electric heat with the DC pump running. Anytime an electrical heater come on, you are not saving anything because the pump's power also acts as a heater. Probably still wise to go with a DC pump with that high of a power cost, but you may not see the full savings.

 

[Frogmanx82]

During heating season you are saving nothing as the heat from the pump goes directly to reduce the heating requirement. Also the heat from the DC pump is largely in the transformer which is not in contact with the water and does not reduce the heat requirement. So you could argue that in the heating season the DC pump actually uses more electricity than the AC pump when combined with the heater requirements.

 

[d0ughb0y]

the dc circuit is quite efficient, there is barely (only minimal) any heat loss on the power adapter nor the controller. not enough for sure to make a difference in heating the tank. I used an eheim 1262 for many years and glad to have replaced it with a dc pump. eheim runs hots. I posted a while back the apex temp chart to demonstrate it. I have to cool the tank a lot during summer with eheim pump. fan is ON a lot and results in higher evaporation and not to mention increases humidity, more frequent ATO refill, etc. There is no question in my mind DC pump is better than AC.

jebao return pump is currently the fourth (or is it fifth) generation and each generation has improvements over the previous. I'd say the latest dcp is probably perfect mechanically. controller can probably still see improvement, but that is all just firmware.

I use jebao dcp return pump, dc skimmer, dosing pump, and power head and they all work quite well.

 

[RobZilla04]

Jebao DCT 9000 - two years running and no issues (knock on wood). Run between 60-70% on average and cleaned once or twice annually (solution of RODI/Vinegar run for 45-60 min).

 

[Yaryman]

During heating season you are saving nothing as the heat from the pump goes directly to reduce the heating requirement. Also the heat from the DC pump is largely in the transformer
which is not in contact with the water and does not reduce the heat requirement. So you could argue that in the heating season the DC pump actually uses more electricity than the AC pump
when combined with the heater requirements.

The heat from a pump might affect a smaller tank, but my 300 gallon tank is more effected by room temp. Before replacing the Mag 12 with the DCT-4000 I was running a 175 watt heater
as the over night house temps were dropping to 66 or 67 degrees causing the tank temp to drop to 74 and below.

On the other hand, during the summer if I leave for several days, the house temp can rise 80 degrees or above without the air conditioning running.
I would leave the air set at 79 or 80 to keep the tank below 85 degrees. Now with a cooler pump, maybe I could set the air conditioning at 81 degrees.
My estimate is that the air conditioning runs at 5000 watts. So running that less, certainly makes up for running a 175 watt heater for a few extra days.

Pump Update - Still running after 5 days.

 

[Yaryman]

Jebao DCT 9000 - two years running and no issues (knock on wood). Run between 60-70% on average and cleaned once or twice annually (solution of RODI/Vinegar run for 45-60 min).

Are you putting the entire pump in the solution, or just the impeller?

 

[d0ughb0y]

you put the entire pump in the solution with pump running. maybe after an hour or two, disassemble it, brush all the crud and calcium build up off the pump, rinse in clean water, and run in the vinegar solution some more. repeat until all calcium build up are gone. I do the same with powerhead.

I find that 1 cup vinegar in 5 gallon bucket (maybe filled with 3 gallons tap water) works fine. if pump has lots of build up, run it for 24 hours. no need to use pure vinegar. I laughed when I read once someone buys a pallet full of vinegar from costco. I cleaned a 60 gallon tank I recently torn down with like 10 years of really hard thick coraline build up using only 1 gallon of vinegar to 60 gallons of tap water ran for a couple days. did not have to use 60 gallons of vinegar.

 

[HBtank]

Really should about running anything electrical in vinegar for more than 30 minutes or so (as a general guideline), as it may effect seals etc.. Use a reasonable concentration that limits exposure time (depends on buildup).

 

[d0ughb0y]

I've read about that and wonder what happens. so I just googled it now and it seems like they are just finding something to blame and blamed it on vinegar. (manufacturer not honoring warranty because pump was cleaned with vinegar I think is pure BS) I did find most use 50/50 vinegar and water solution. I do no more than 1:16 and it cleans just fine, may need to soak it a little longer. never run into any issues. maybe because I dilute it 1:16.

googled some more and found that diluted vinegar is safe on rubber, plastic, expoxy, etc, but full strength and soaked for extended period is not. did not find anything as to dilution ratio. I would not be surprised if some people use vinegar full strength (like the one I read that buys vinegar from costco by the pallet). I think people tend to be impatient and use full strength to clean faster.

 

[RobZilla04]

Are you putting the entire pump in the solution, or just the impeller?

Whole pump. Dilute the vinegar quite a bit so it doesn't tear up the seals.

Never disassembled the return pump. I do remove wave maker impellers and brush those down. Guess I could do it with the return pump, just never thought about putting in that much work. At this point I'm happy my $95 investment has run this long.

 

[Yaryman]

The heat from a pump might affect a smaller tank, but my 300 gallon tank is more effected by room temp. Before replacing the Mag 12 with the DCT-4000 I was running a 175 watt heater
as the over night house temps were dropping to 66 or 67 degrees causing the tank temp to drop to 74 and below.

On the other hand, during the summer if I leave for several days, the house temp can rise 80 degrees or above without the air conditioning running.
I would leave the air set at 79 or 80 to keep the tank below 85 degrees. Now with a cooler pump, maybe I could set the air conditioning at 81 degrees.
My estimate is that the air conditioning runs at 5000 watts. So running that less, certainly makes up for running a 175 watt heater for a few extra days.

Pump Update - Still running after 5 days.

Pump Update - Still running at 15 days.
Did replace a Mag 7 with DCT-4000 that was running as return pump. I'm running that pump at 40% ( 18 watts ) That's 21 watts less than Mag 7.
The tank does now run cooler without the 2 Mag pumps. The house temps have increased, yet the tank hasn't.
I am running a 175 watt heater that before the switch to DCT pumps wouldn't be required in March.

No two ways about it, the DCT pumps run cooler in the tank. All in all that's a good thing. Yes, I will have to heat the tank during the coldest months.
But, having the tank run MAYBE two degrees cooler in the summer is a great trade off. The tank is in the hottest room in the house, and I'm also in that room. I like cooler.

Second, with a cooler running tank, I don't have to worry so much about the tank overheating if I go away for a week in the July heat.
Leaving the house AC at a higher temp more than makes up for running a 175 watt heater in the winter. The AC runs at about 5000 watts.

Only downside so far. Not that the Mag pumps were loud, but the DCT pumps are very quiet. So quiet I can hear how gosh darn loud my protein skimmer is.
If one of skimmer pump fails again, I will replace the skimmer. I've seen several models using the DCT-DCS pumps, and am likely to go in that direction.

 

[NYC/NJREEFS]

Dct-6000

Dct-6000

I ran my DC-6000 for over a year and the half w/o cleaning it once. They are quiet, and cool running. Unfortunately, the controller went bad on mine recently. One thing I didn't like was the spark it would do when plugging in the pump plug to the controller.

 

[RobZilla04]

I ran my DC-6000 for over a year and the half w/o cleaning it once. They are quiet, and cool running. Unfortunately, the controller went bad on mine recently. One thing I didn't like was the spark it would do when plugging in the pump plug to the controller.

Cutting power to the controller solves this issue.

 

[d0ughb0y]

I ran my DC-6000 for over a year and the half w/o cleaning it once. They are quiet, and cool running. Unfortunately, the controller went bad on mine recently. One thing I didn't like was the spark it would do when plugging in the pump plug to the controller.

the spark is caused by charging of the two huge capacitors inside the controller. it is harmless and will not affect/damage the pump or controller. if you are not comfortable seeing the sparks, you can unplug from ac outlet, plug in the dc jack, then plug in to AC outlet.

 

[AddictReef]

Ran a DC 6000 for 3 years. Took it offline working great.
Upgraded to the DCS 12000 that has been running for 2 years. I clean them once a year.

Pretty satisfied so far.

 

[lpsouth1978]

I ran a DCT 12000 om my 300g reef tank for almost 2 years until we broke down the tank. I loved that pump and never had a single issue with it (other than the red scooter blenny that got turned into sushi by it, I still have no idea how he got in there). I am now in the process of setting up a 40B and just ordered one of the DCP pumps, hopefully it is as good as the previous model.

 

[asmodyus]

I just picked up a used Jebao DCP-18000 for my new 180 and was going to mount it outside but I was told not to and run externally and run it internal because Jebao are known to leak. Any input this claim?