Lifegard Quiet One feedback wanted
- Thread starter delphinus
- Start date
I have owned two or three of these pumps over the past 7 years.
Unfortunately, every single one I've owned has seized after between one and two years of operation. Usually, I am able to get them going again by physically cleaning the impeller, but without frequent maintenance, I don't think they're as reliable as some others.
It's a pity, because this is one of the quietest pumps I've found, and also relatively powerful for the price.
I've switched to using the Velocity T3 which is also very quiet, but more expensive. It has proved much more reliable in my setup.
In my experience, both of these pumps tend to put a lot of heat into the water.
--Albert
Unfortunately, every single one I've owned has seized after between one and two years of operation. Usually, I am able to get them going again by physically cleaning the impeller, but without frequent maintenance, I don't think they're as reliable as some others.
It's a pity, because this is one of the quietest pumps I've found, and also relatively powerful for the price.
I've switched to using the Velocity T3 which is also very quiet, but more expensive. It has proved much more reliable in my setup.
In my experience, both of these pumps tend to put a lot of heat into the water.
--Albert
I used a Quiet One for over 2 years with no problems, and I never cleaned it in that time. It was even a used pump I bought from a member here. I decommisioned it for about 7 months after moving, then broke it out to try it again. It didn't work upon first try. After cleaning the impeller, it worked great for another 6 months until I broke down the tank. I plan to use it again in the future, I found it very reliable.
I had one once but only used it for about 6 months. They definitely live up to their name of being quiet but be forwarned that they also run hot. When I switched to a GRI I lowered the tank temp about 3 degrees. I've seen a few horor stories posted about this particular pump but I never had any trouble with mine.
I own a total of 8 life gaurd quiet one pumps. They are silent, and I keep my tanks silent.
The do produce heat, but they are silent. Some of my Quiet One Pumps are over 11 years old. The product has not changed at all.
Over the years I have had 3 of them seize up. Sadly the 3 that seized the replacments have been shortlived.
In fact in the last week I have replaced 2 of them that are less than 6 months old. I have been dealing directly with Lifegaurd (which is now called Pentair). They admit the pumps made this year are having a higher than should be seizing problem.
They have a new line of pumps coming out after New Years.
The current pumps are white with blue manifolds. If you can find the older red pump with beige manifold I highly recommend grabbing it.
It also depends on what you want to do with this pump. For circulation its great. But it does not maintain alot of head pressure. So I would not recommend it for a cannister system.
Even with the current problems, there is no other pump on the market like it. The pump makes no noise.
This past couple of weeks while switching out the ones that had issue I popped on a Lil Giant MD4- Yep it pumps a bunch of water, but the noise, hum and vibration, are just uncalled for.
I run a 125H with two sumps, a chiller and 3 Quiet One Pumps. If the chiller is off the only noise you can hear is from the one non electronic Halide ballast. And if the ballast is off you can hear the powerheads in the tank. The Quiet One pumps make no noise at all.
I may seem a lil zealous about these pumps, but I enjoying watching my fish in silent serenity, maybe some jazz, but no noise from the tanks.
The do produce heat, but they are silent. Some of my Quiet One Pumps are over 11 years old. The product has not changed at all.
Over the years I have had 3 of them seize up. Sadly the 3 that seized the replacments have been shortlived.
In fact in the last week I have replaced 2 of them that are less than 6 months old. I have been dealing directly with Lifegaurd (which is now called Pentair). They admit the pumps made this year are having a higher than should be seizing problem.
They have a new line of pumps coming out after New Years.
The current pumps are white with blue manifolds. If you can find the older red pump with beige manifold I highly recommend grabbing it.
It also depends on what you want to do with this pump. For circulation its great. But it does not maintain alot of head pressure. So I would not recommend it for a cannister system.
Even with the current problems, there is no other pump on the market like it. The pump makes no noise.
This past couple of weeks while switching out the ones that had issue I popped on a Lil Giant MD4- Yep it pumps a bunch of water, but the noise, hum and vibration, are just uncalled for.
I run a 125H with two sumps, a chiller and 3 Quiet One Pumps. If the chiller is off the only noise you can hear is from the one non electronic Halide ballast. And if the ballast is off you can hear the powerheads in the tank. The Quiet One pumps make no noise at all.
I may seem a lil zealous about these pumps, but I enjoying watching my fish in silent serenity, maybe some jazz, but no noise from the tanks.
I bought one within the last year. It seized once within the first 3 months. Made me mad. I went ahead and added ball unions so that removing the pump for cleaning or replacement would be easy. It has never seised again since that first time. I bought a Magdrive pump that was so noisy that I never even connected to my tank. I tested it in a bucket in the garage and said no way. I kept the MagDrive as an emergency backup.
The Quiteone is amazingly quite!
Louey
The Quiteone is amazingly quite!
Louey
My first question on that thred is what would cause that to happen .. That is crazy ... I am starting to look at mine very closely ...
I have a Quiet One running as a return ... its the red and white modle .. I have had it for 2 years ... and I bought it used when I bought my second 90 gallon tank threw the paper .. the guy I bought it from ran a FOWLR for 3 years prior to that but had back sergery and was no longer able to care for the tank .. so ...
It almost looks like somthing hard got sucked in and cracked the housing ... I think I will put a strainer on mine
...
I personally have had good luck with them ... however the one I have is atleast 5 years old .... Not too sure about the new ones ....
Its amazing that bolth of the pics on that thred .... what evan amazed me more was neither of them leaked water! ... hows that?????? ..
I have a Quiet One running as a return ... its the red and white modle .. I have had it for 2 years ... and I bought it used when I bought my second 90 gallon tank threw the paper .. the guy I bought it from ran a FOWLR for 3 years prior to that but had back sergery and was no longer able to care for the tank .. so ...
It almost looks like somthing hard got sucked in and cracked the housing ... I think I will put a strainer on mine
... I personally have had good luck with them ... however the one I have is atleast 5 years old .... Not too sure about the new ones ....
Its amazing that bolth of the pics on that thred .... what evan amazed me more was neither of them leaked water! ... hows that?????? ..
Thanks for all the feedback.
If it wasn't for the cracked housings in that thread .... anyways I think for now I'll go with a Mak4. Disappointed I won't be getting that quiet of a pump but I suppose that with a bullet skimmer and a LG4 with fan on the other tank right next to this one ..... it's not like the room isn't already noisy with aquarium gurgles and fan whirrs and pump hums and other noises...
If it wasn't for the cracked housings in that thread .... anyways I think for now I'll go with a Mak4. Disappointed I won't be getting that quiet of a pump but I suppose that with a bullet skimmer and a LG4 with fan on the other tank right next to this one ..... it's not like the room isn't already noisy with aquarium gurgles and fan whirrs and pump hums and other noises...
delphinus,
I would not worry too much about that happening to you. I meen .. think about how many Quiet One pumps are in use today .. this is the first time I have heard of thies pumps doing that .. allthough I see now it is possible .. but I am willing to bet that for ever 150 pumps .. 1 or 2 went bad ...
I can think of other pumps with much worse ratios ...
<COUGH REO COUGH CLEARING THOUGHT SUCK COUGH> Excuse me ..
it seems that every pump manufacture will have a pump that exploded, froze up, smoked or detinated the problem is you here all the bad stuff about them .. but never the good.
I would not worry too much about that happening to you. I meen .. think about how many Quiet One pumps are in use today .. this is the first time I have heard of thies pumps doing that .. allthough I see now it is possible .. but I am willing to bet that for ever 150 pumps .. 1 or 2 went bad ...
I can think of other pumps with much worse ratios ...
<COUGH REO COUGH CLEARING THOUGHT SUCK COUGH> Excuse me ..
it seems that every pump manufacture will have a pump that exploded, froze up, smoked or detinated the problem is you here all the bad stuff about them .. but never the good.
I have 2 Q1's for my 90 gallon with no problems as of this date. The only drawback, as stated before, is the added heat to the tank. Im shocked to see the cracked housing but think this is a very rare occurance for this pump. The Mak 4 will give you much noise compared to the silent running of the Q1. I would go with the Q1........Just my opinion.
Have had mine running for about a year and a half...Switched from a Rio 2500, and it really is Silent. I can put my ear to it and still don't hear anything. Like some have said, it does produce a little heat...but I think my Rio produced more.
When I setup a new tank, I will defiantly use a Quite One.
When I setup a new tank, I will defiantly use a Quite One.
I've seen them crack before, in fact we have a cracked model in the back that I use as a model for drilling sumps. The pump was fantastic up to about 3 years ago. The ones made over the past 3 years (last year of red production and the two years or so of the blue models) have had a piss poor reliability rate. As a retailer I've never had problems with being able to return them to Lifeguard for rebuilding/replacement (the cracking is rare, running hot and seizing isn't) however I've grown mighty tired of this and we don't carry this pump anymore because of it.
Too bad, because when they work they really are stellar pumps.
More expensive and not so quiet are the Little Giants. I'm QUITE pleased with these pumps. We are running four here in the store and in the past 5 years running 24/7/365 with ZERO maintenance (they really should be cleaned and oiled every 6 months) only one pump died and that was recently (we maintain them now!).
Too bad, because when they work they really are stellar pumps.
More expensive and not so quiet are the Little Giants. I'm QUITE pleased with these pumps. We are running four here in the store and in the past 5 years running 24/7/365 with ZERO maintenance (they really should be cleaned and oiled every 6 months) only one pump died and that was recently (we maintain them now!).
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