Who's JBJ ATO just stopped working for no reason?

[Jan]

I'm curious to see how many people have purchased a JBJ ATO that stopped working for no apparent reason.

 

1- Did you contact JBJ? What was their response?

2-How many of these units have you purchased/gone through since you started the hobby?

3-Has JBJ offered to replace the unit?

4- What are some of the explanations you've gotten from JBJ?

Edited November 15, 2010 by Jan

[L8 2 RISE]

did you try unplugging it then plugging it back in? That's happened to me and that's how I fixed it.

[zygote2k]

I've had one stop working after a month and was told by JBJ that they don't like power surges or power interruptions. They sent me a new one free of charge except I had to pay shipping like $12.

[Jan]

Yes, of course. I even had a professional licenesed electrical engineer look at them. There is a method to my madness, as usual

 

did you try unplugging it then plugging it back in? That's happened to me and that's how I fixed it.

[BowieReefer84]

The reviews on marine depot are hit and miss on the jbj ato. I want to get a tunze, but can't justify the cost right now . . .

[sportzfish]

Occassionally I have to unplug it or flip the switch between modes to get it working. The only real issue I have had was due to my incompetence in accidentally submerging the float switches and both had to be replaced.

[fry_school101]

Mine has worked flawlessly. I've had it for about 3 years now.

[rocko918]

I have had to replace a float switch. Other than that they have been running well for 2 years now.

[Coral Hind]

I don't think the older models will have the same problems since they had a core/coil transformer in them to step the voltage down. The newer ones use a few resistors to reduce the voltage and they seem to be sensitive to power surges as Z2K mentioned.

 

As for the people posting about unplugging and plugging it back in, that is a safety feature to prevent a pump from burning up. Jan is asking about units that stop altogether, no lights at all, dead.