new maxi jets as bad as reviews say?

[astroboy]

I need to buy some powerheads for a new tank and I was going to get a couple of maxi jets, which have worked OK for me in the past, but I read the online reviews and alot of people are making the claim that the newer maxijets, which are made in China, instead of Italy, are complete junk. A major problem is that the impeller blades break off after very little use, which obviously is an amazingly bad quality control issue.

 

I was just wondering, does anyone in the club have any experience with the new maxi jets?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[Coral Hind]

I have two of the 400 and one 900 of the newer version from Marineland. I've been running them for about six months and haven't had any issues. I did read reviews that the Cobalt MJ's are closer to the originals and are better than the Marineland the cheaper version. 

[Der ABT]

marineland ones are fairly junky...they work and i havent had issues but the dont seem to deal with head pressure as well. and they are ALOT louder.

 

the cobalt ones definately seem just a little better, less noisy...

 

oh yeh and the old impellers do not fit in the new pumps/ new impellers in the old pump housing....was hoping that wsa true cause i have a bunch of motors that work and just need impellers

[Coral Hind]

I agree with you on the head pressure comment. I tried to replace my old MJ400 with a new Marineland 400 and it wouldn't pump the water up to the tank. I had to replace it with the newer 900.

[Matt LeBaron]

IMO spend a bit more on the Cobalts.

 

Just tossed a Marineland pump that I used used to move water around for water changes because it was releasing a lot of electricity into the water. Shocked myself good when I was draining water out of my sump last week to clean the bottom of it and once the water got below my ground I got a really good shock, twice because I didn't put two and two together immediately.

 

That pump hit the trash can quick. It was less than a year old and didn't see heavy use at all. Really terrible how poorly made they are now.

[Coral Hind]

I wish I would have spent some time to read some reviews before buying mine. I would have spent the extra money on the Cobalt's myself as Matt suggested. They can't be as bad as the old Rio pumps used be. One of those almost killed me.

[treesprite]

I bought 2 old-version Maxijet 1200s cheap  from the shop that just went out of business, where they also had a bunch of the new version ones.  The owner told me and a couple other people that the older ones are much better, to get those instead of the newer ones.