Vortech Pumps and Service are Awesome!

[budsreef]

I bought two Vortechs back in February for my 120G and have had them running without a problem until I was away on vacation. My son called to tell me that one of the wet sides was laying on the bottom of the tank. It wasn't until the next day that I got the message and talked him through finding the motor that was still running on the floor behind the tank and get it unplugged.

I got home late on a Saturday night and waited till Sunday morning to deal with it. I took the wetside out cleaned it and couldn't find anything wrong with it so I put it back in. Since I was at it I pulled the other one out to clean it and found the magnet inside was starting to rust. I cleaned it as best I could and put it back in the tank as well. I sent an email to Ecotech Marine support that afternoon and received a reply Sunday night to send both wetsides in for them to look at. I sent them in on Wednesday afternoon, they received them Friday late, rebuilt the insides with upgraded parts and had them back to me by Thursday.

 

[budsreef]

Ecotech Marine has done several upgrades to their pumps to address problems that have been experienced by many. The wetsides have a new magnet that is better coated so it can't rust, the screw and nut is now made out of a non rusting material, and the cover has a much better fit. I think the magnet may be stronger as well. If you have these pumps you could very well experience these same problems and if they are still in warranty they will fix them with the upgraded parts when you send them in. If you want to just take care of it yourself, you can order the upgraded parts for $9.45 plus shipping and eliminate the potential of the problem.

They have also upgraded the drivers and there are several ways to get the upgrade. The cool thing about it is any upgraded driver can update any other driver. I plan on getting this done as soon as possible. One of the things fixed in the new driver is if the unit separates the driver will turn off the motor, unlike what happened to mine.

 

[FutureInterest]

Also if you know anyone with an updated driver you can download it direclty to your driver wirelessly. I might just send one of mine in and hook up my old tunze for the time being. I'm hoping that someone else here has already done so .

The new driver also allows you to save your pulse settings instead of reconfiguring it when you changed to another setting. That's a big plus.

I also agree that the service for the pumps is exemplary. Its handled by icecap and icecap service is always top notch.

 

[budsreef]

You don't really need to send it in, but you can. I think Sam is getting an updated driver and I plan on taking one of mine there to update it and then I can update my other one. I also borrowed BobZ's while mine were out for service so I'll update his before I give them back to him.

 

[FutureInterest]

Oooo Sweet. I didn't know Sam had vortechs. I'll give him a ring.

Thx.

 

[tebriel]

Those are the craziest highest tech powerheads I have ever heard of. Next thing you know they'll see cyano on the sandbed and point more flow at it. Then it'll name itself HAL and want to be our "friend"