Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Whats the deal with these pieces of sh**? I had a pair of PP15s that I picked up in July 2017 and both of them died around the same time this spring (approx 9 mo old) . They have both failed In less then a year. I picked up a single PP8 and have been running a few cheapo power heads from the LFS, and now my PP8 has died. The PP8 is around 6 months old. This is 100% totally unacceptable to me.

Why are these junk? When one failed, I figured that shit happens, but now that I have had 3 fail, all within a year of ownership each, I am getting somewhat pissed off. If I wanted to be seperated from my money, I can think of many different fish tank related things, or I could have given it to the Salvation Army and know that it went to helping someone recover.

I am actually looking for technical info. I have 3 control boxes, and 3 pumps. The pumps do not respond to the control box in any way. I just took one of the control boxes apart, and see no signs of burnt electronics. All lights are working. I can't find my multimeter, and figured before I invest more time into this garbage I would ask around. What is the common point of failure? Is it serviceable? Anyone else have issues similar to this?

These get cleaned ever few weeks, so it is not for lack of care. The last time I looked at their website, I didn't get the impression that they stood behind their products. I only bought these because I have an older TAAM "wavemaker" controller that is analog. It has 2 knobs. One controls how long the pump is on, and the other controls how long it is off. It is brutally simple. I now need to go rooting around for it and my 2 remaining generic power heads, which I have had for 5 or more years, 3 of which was in full service.

I can explain how unimpressed I am, and very few would understand. What a let down.
 

saintsreturn

Well-Known Member
I do not know bud. I only have one of their products and use it outside of my tank. As much as i hate spending money, these things seem to be a "get what you pay for" type item. They are a rip off in design, which could be good but could not be too. I see a lot of people running them, and then a lot of people with failures.

As far as technical, mine has been running on and off and i havent seen any issues yet, so not sure.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I can understand why your disappointed in the PP-15's but consider, one of them costs about $69 verses about $349 for a EcoTech Vorteh MP40. Yea, the MP40 is about 5x the price, but it will last for years. This is why I tell people to always buy top quality equipment.

I'd say cut your loss age get new circulation pumps. You need not go as high end as the MP40's, but get something better.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I did a bit of tests on all 3 of them, and the failure is inside of the sealed housing of the pump itself. I figured that this was possible. I will probably go back to my 1990s style unit plugged into a generic power head. It worked for years, and basic power head designs like I need last quite a bit longer then these Jebao garbage. I may sell the power adapters and impellers locally if anyone in my local club is interested. I just figured even if they were total garbage that they would last longer then a few months. The closest I have ever seen a pump "fail" was a Magdrive-5....the cover piece that holds the impeller in actually wore out until the impeller started rattling. It was a cheap replacement, and I have had that unit since 2000/2001. It still works great. I won't be using jebo products again.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I know the feeling. I hate to think about the times I went cheep on equipment, and it always seemed like I ended up replacing it.
 
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