Whats the trouble with rio pumps??

[tazdevil]

OK I know this has been talked about, but I asked pet wharehouse this very question and they stated "the copper used in these pumps is not ionic copper so there is no way they can leach copper in the system" and stated further that "although they can have a higher failure rate, they are safe in a saltwater environment" I currently have a 2100 in my sump, 3 200's for circulation/wavemaking, and a 180 for surface wavemaking. What gives??? are they really that dangerous or could these problems be total tank failures coinciding with rio pump failures (loss of circulation etc.). Replies welcomed!!!

 

[Carpentersreef]

Here's some food for thought...woke up to a burning smell thread

Mitch

[ October 23, 2001: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]</p>

 

[tazdevil]

ok well, what should I replace all these pumps with??

 

[Carpentersreef]

I'm now using a Hagen 802 for the return from my sump, and a couple more in my main tank and also maxijet 1200's in the main. I've got a dolphin ampmaster supplying my protein skimmer and an Eheim 1060 circulating the water in the skimmer.

Also, try using the search function for rios.

Mitch

[ October 23, 2001: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]</p>

 

[Johnthereefer]

Recently visited my favorite LFS. Apparently a RIO pump casing cracked and fried the clam lagoon (big clam only shallow display). Wow! Very very sad. This guy lost 12 very large Derasa's and MAximas. I WILL NEVER BUY A RIO PUMP. They are cheap shoddy poorly built pieces of #@$$.

After seeing the dead clams..and black Rio.....

So, in response to your inital question..I've been pleased with Mag pumps.

later

 

[danmhippo]

I made a hard decision a year ago to replace all my powerheads. I have read about fellow reefers' heart broken stories and can't help thinking what I would do if it really occured to me. Coincidently enough, a RIO 2500 failed on me the very next day. Though it did not leach oils into the water as some others' did, but that has given me enough scare already.

I don't know about you people, but I have devoted a great part of my time/$$/energy into the tank I now have, and don't want it to crash just because of some inexpensive pumps. Think about it, a mere $20 differences per pump maybe costing you hundreds (if not thousands) of your hard earned dough. It's not worth it. I want to be able to sleep tight, and not worrying about if the pump failed, the whole tank is ruined. It's better to be safe than sorry. I have since replaced the smaller PHs with maxijets, and larger pumps with Mag's.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tazdevil:
<strong>...... "the copper used in these pumps is not ionic copper so there is no way they can leach copper in the system" and stated further that "although they can have a higher failure rate, they are safe in a saltwater environment" .........

</strong><hr></blockquote>
The copper in the coil is elemental copper that will oxidized if get in contact with salt water. However, with a little current, it can really oxidized and release copper into the tank in a few min to hours (over heated motor housing melted and copper coil come in contact with salt water, oxidized and release copper and melted plastic into my tank)
Forget about Rio. Don't risk you thousand dollars tank for 20 dollars in saving buying a cheap pump. It happened to me in Feb 2000. I lost lots of animals and eventually have to take down that tank.

 

[Brad Ward]

IMNSHO, every Rio should come with a jar of Vasoline. I sure needed one when a 2500 cracked and sizzled in a 175 reef I maintain. I have also had this happen to a 1700,2100,and 3100 model. Not only is the product defective, Taam (Manufacturer) did not respond to any of my letters or e-mails. There is no excuse for them not to fix this defect, and I believe they could care less about all the death their product has been responsible for over the last 10 years. If not for boards like this, most hobbyist's would never know about this products problems. My wholesale distributor has stopped carrying these pumps after dealing with many unhappy stores.

Sincerely,

Brad Ward

 

[ReefMon]

 

[J.T]

As of today my Rio 2100 just died after a year. I was in my room and noticed my sump was high and not flowing. So I took out my pump and it was fried and smelt like cooked electronics. These pumps are going to start a fire in somebodies house.
Dont get me wrong I loved it when I first got it and didn't listen to other reefers when they nocked on it, but I soon found out for myself...

Don't get cheap sh!t when you are putting it in water in YOUR HOUSE.

 

[scavdog]

From reading about a billion posts on failing Rios I can't help but feel that the 2100 is the lemon in Rios line of pumps. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[tazdevil]

OH ^%%^^(@#$, and few other choice words! I wish I had discovered this site before I outfitted my reef!! Back to the drawing board and try to convince the woman that we need to replace these before all heck breaks out in the tank (maybe time to replace the woman as well

). Soo- my current saetup has a berlin classic turbo with its pump going through the bulkhead. Any recommendations on in sump pumps to get back to tank-about 5 foot straight up? also in tank wavemaking pumps? any help is much appreciated. Down with the rio's

 

[jethro]

Got rid of the one that was running my Remora because I couldn't stand the noise. My kids love using it as a toy motercycle engine when they ride bikes.

 

[Anonymous]

For the longest time we dismissed the reports, RIO's are probably the single most popular pump sold in America and probably didn't have any higher of a failure rate than any other pump but due to greater volume you saw a larger number of failures. We ran RIO's for years in our store and sold hundreds with no failures in store or returns or complaints from our customers. However. In the last year we had a number of new pumps fail, 2100's and 2500's mainly both instore and returns from customers.

It is apparent after cutting a couple open, that the potting is not sufficient on these models and they melt/break the potting when the pump seizes.

This problem and the ever popular RIOism of needing constant cleaning and maintenance to run correctly caused us to drop them from our main line of pumps and switch to the Supreme Mag.

Do I suggest you panic and replace all your RIOs? No. I would suggest you start planning/budgeting to do this when time permits.