Waveline Pumps and RLSS customer service

[zygote2k]

A few meetings back I won a DC5000 in a raffle. I had put it to use on a 90g SPS tank.

It worked fine for a few months and suddenly stopped dead.

I emailed Adam at RLSS in Canada and explained my situation. He offered to ship a brand new one out free of charge, no questions asked.

It came in the mail today but it was the new model DC6000 instead. Lucky me!

 

This is the kind of customer service standard that needs to drive this industry.

 

[Origami]

Great customer service. I've heard about a couple of DC5000 failures in recent weeks. I wonder if there was a production quality problem? I have two DC5000's on my skimmer that have been running pretty much continuously since Thanksgiving 2012.

[monkiboy]

that's awesome rob! you got an apex or similar to tinker with that thing?

[YHSublime]

Nice! Good to hear, great to share! Every good customer service story is not always shared, but every negative one is always told. Congrats on your new pump!

[jimlin]

cool, wonder how reliable these dc pumps are since they were all made in the same factory. hopefully the dc6000 will be better.

[zygote2k]

that's awesome rob! you got an apex or similar to tinker with that thing?

no need to control a device that already has a built in controller...

Apex is great for controlling regular devices but not so good for controlling things with built in controls.

[Djplus1]

no need to control a device that already has a built in controller...

Apex is great for controlling regular devices but not so good for controlling things with built in controls.

Besides, freeing up Apex outlets is a good thing. So you can plug your toaster up for when the water temp hits its lowest right before dawn to kick on and make you breakfast.

[monkiboy]

no need to control a device that already has a built in controller...

Apex is great for controlling regular devices but not so good for controlling things with built in controls.

i really disagree. that's the whole reason these are so interesting now over the previous gen is the apex-compatibility and the design and performance fixes. i'm going to do some awesome things with these guys with my apex!

[gws3]

agree with above.  these pumps will allow you to do things you could only do before with the addition of switching or diverting devices like oceans motions.  and their capabilities go beyond that as well.  I really hope this product matures to a point of high reliability.

[Oprah Wrangler]

I had the same experience not two or three weeks ago with Adam. (just before he got married)  I did notice that there were a few differences in the replacement pump.  I think they made some upgrades to correct old design flaws.  I am glad that you also had a great experience with customer service.

[zygote2k]

^ theses statements are true if you constantly want to tinker with your tank. In the world of professional aquarium maintenance, it's way easier to let things be if they have their own controls. 

The corals grow just as easily and the fish are just as happy.

[jimlin]

i really disagree. that's the whole reason these are so interesting now over the previous gen is the apex-compatibility and the design and performance fixes. i'm going to do some awesome things with these guys with my apex!

what are you planning to do?

[zygote2k]

do you really need to program a return pump to constantly ramp up or down over the course of a day? The feed switch is the single most important feature.

you'll say  you wanna do a closed loop- we solved that problem with Mp40's which have their own control- put them on anti sync wave mode and you're done.

 

The simpler the easier the nicer.

[gws3]

the application i have in mind is a series of raceway tanks on two closed loops.  similar to what an aquaculture facility uses.  the closed loop takes it in at one end and pumps all the way to the other end.  all corals along the very long flow path are exposed to flow.  the controllable pumps allow you to switch the direction of the flow every 15 minutes per say.

 

I challenge (friendly) you to propose a more efficient way to get flow over this large area that is not constant direction. 

 

 

do you really need to program a return pump to constantly ramp up or down over the course of a day? The feed switch is the single most important feature.

you'll say  you wanna do a closed loop- we solved that problem with Mp40's which have their own control- put them on anti sync wave mode and you're done.

 

The simpler the easier the nicer.

[Djplus1]

the application i have in mind is a series of raceway tanks on two closed loops.  similar to what an aquaculture facility uses.  the closed loop takes it in at one end and pumps all the way to the other end.  all corals along the very long flow path are exposed to flow.  the controllable pumps allow you to switch the direction of the flow every 15 minutes per say.

 

I challenge (friendly) you to propose a more efficient way to get flow over this large area that is not constant direction. 

Good luck with that

[jimlin]

the application i have in mind is a series of raceway tanks on two closed loops.  similar to what an aquaculture facility uses.  the closed loop takes it in at one end and pumps all the way to the other end.  all corals along the very long flow path are exposed to flow.  the controllable pumps allow you to switch the direction of the flow every 15 minutes per say.

 

I challenge (friendly) you to propose a more efficient way to get flow over this large area that is not constant direction.

 

Sounds interesting. i know the previous versions had leak problems when ran externally. from your description it sounds like you will be running two pumps externally which to me seems like a really cool idea. you can maybe have one of those tanks be a fuge/refugium. 2 pumps and a skimmer pump to run multiple tanks sounds like a winner to me, but how will it look?

[gws3]

This is just for circulation through some troughs for growing out corals efficiently.  large surface area, shallow depth.  Large reflectors on light movers.  Will be a mini coral farm.  This is just an idea in my head at this point though... will be a while before I am able to put it all together. 

 

 

Sounds interesting. i know the previous versions had leak problems when ran externally. from your description it sounds like you will be running two pumps externally which to me seems like a really cool idea. you can maybe have one of those tanks be a fuge/refugium. 2 pumps and a skimmer pump to run multiple tanks sounds like a winner to me, but how will it look?

[Coral Hind]

Zygote2k, Thanks for sharing the positive story on your experience.

 

gws3, The coral troughs sound cool. It also sounds like WAMAS might have another coral vendor. I'm looking forward to seeing that build thread.

 

[Origami]

the application i have in mind is a series of raceway tanks on two closed loops. similar to what an aquaculture facility uses. the closed loop takes it in at one end and pumps all the way to the other end. all corals along the very long flow path are exposed to flow. the controllable pumps allow you to switch the direction of the flow every 15 minutes per say.

 

Very interesting idea, Graham. But couldn't this also be done with two regular pumps under control?

 

 

(Sent from my phone.)

 

 

[gws3]

Very interesting idea, Graham. But couldn't this also be done with two regular pumps under control?

 

 

(Sent from my phone.)

 

yes, but typical AC pumps are not desinged to be switched on and off.  apologies for the super slow reply... been busy moving.

[Origami]

No problem, Graham. Hope the move smooth.

 

Since my earlier post, one of my DC5000's bit the dust. Word from MACNA was that there may have been a batch with bad thermal sensors made in the February timeframe. The symptom I observed we that the pump starts up for less than a second before shutting down. So far, it may be isolated to the first generation and a narrow production window. But, we'll see.

 

Sent from my phone

 

 

[epleeds]

No problem, Graham. Hope the move smooth. Since my earlier post, one of my DC5000's bit the dust. Word from MACNA was that there may have been a batch with bad thermal sensors made in the February timeframe. The symptom I observed we that the pump starts up for less than a second before shutting down. So far, it may be isolated to the first generation and a narrow production window. But, we'll see. Sent from my phone

Are they fixing it or are you sol?

[Origami]

I was fortunate to get them under very favorable conditions, so I'll be replacing it. I tried to track the guys down from H2O Systems (RLSS) while at MACNA (they didn't have a booth, but were wandering the aisles, it was said) to tell them about it, but never caught up with them. I'll try to follow up. In the longer run, though, if the second fails similarly, I'll probably be replacing both with another product. Keep in mind that the DC6000's are different and even made at a different factory than the original DC5000's, so the jury is still out regarding reliability in an out-of-water recirculating skimmer configuration.

[LanglandJoshua]

I'm glad you guys had such great service, I had a small part issue that was originally my fault. After three months and six times of being told "its in the mail" later a distributor and Quantum Reefs stepped in, and helped me get it working...now as of tonight one of the two DC5000 pumps on my skimmer just bit the dust...so to anyone considering these pumps try and be sure your pump is not from the faulty batch. Or get another model...