Do not purchase Maxspect Gyres (100% Rotor Failure)

[Funlad3]

Hi all,

Just got off the phone with a very friendly BRS customer service rep who offered me $20 whole dollars of store credit for $820 of Maxpect Gyre XF350s that I purchased when they announced the new cloud version back in 2023. I ordered three pairs of two Gyres at the time and have only used two of these sets for under a year when I heard a whirring noise on one of them last night. Four out of the four pumps had split magnetic rotors and were leaching heavy metals into my tank, explaining why my acros have all paled out and died within a month of adding them to the display.

BRS considers its 12 month warranty on these items from the purchase date rather than original use date, so despite these pumps seeing less than 1 year of use (and another set of pumps still sitting sealed in the box), I'm out $820 (minus a $20 conciliatory credit) and thousands in coral.

Do not use these pumps.

 

[jjvanb]

The impeller you posted a photo of is from the V1 model... not that exploding impellers of any kind are fun.

 

[BryanM]

And for me, its pretty hard to fault BRS for your desired warranty date of one year from put in to service... That's not really how that works.

My understanding is maxspect makes almost all the gyre pumps, my icecap 2ks work great, and I'm intending an upgrade soon.

 

[Jamie814]

BRS considers its 12 month warranty on these items from the purchase date rather than original use date,

How would anyone prove the original use date?

What if you purchased it 3 years ago or more and only started to use it 6 months ago, they should still honor the 1-year warranty in your opinion?
I don't know any warranty that takes effect only when you say you started using the item as opposed to when you purchased it......

BRS would not be the one required to honor the warranty, they're just a reseller; the manufacturer would be the one to honor the warranty.

It does suck though that they broke already. Did you use any harsh cleaners on them to remove calcium deposits?

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

I’ve had a few of these newer ones do this on me as well

I’m running lots of gyres dating all the way back to like some of the older original ones and I do think that this latest version with the cloud has the most vulnerable magnets for sure for whatever reason

I prefer the model before the cloud I wish I could just get that. I don’t like the new cages either.

 

[Funlad3]

How would anyone prove the original use date?

What if you purchased it 3 years ago or more and only started to use it 6 months ago, they should still honor the 1-year warranty in your opinion?
I don't know any warranty that takes effect only when you say you started using the item as opposed to when you purchased it......

BRS would not be the one required to honor the warranty, they're just a reseller; the manufacturer would be the one to honor the warranty.

It does suck though that they broke already. Did you use any harsh cleaners on them to remove calcium deposits?

I understand them not being able to verify the date of the original use, but magnetic failure on 4 out of 4 of the pumps that were used is clearly a manufacturing defect. I still have the other sealed box of two which I will not be using or reselling to anyone else.

As for why this is a BRS thread, they now handle the warranty and replacement for all US-sold Maxspect products. BRS originally told me to call Coralvue (the original Maxspect distributor), and Coralvue told me to call BRS back now that Aperture has the US distribution rights.

Edit: Wanted to add that these were only ever cleaned by hand w/ warm water and a toothbrush!

 

[Funlad3]

I’ve had a few of these newer ones do this on me as well

I’m running lots of gyres dating all the way back to like some of the older original ones and I do think that this latest version with the cloud has the most vulnerable magnets for sure for whatever reason

I prefer the model before the cloud I wish I could just get that. I don’t like the new cages either.

These were the XF350s of the generation right before the cloud controller/individually directable nozzles came out. I originally purchased these when they were put on close-out at the announcement of the cloud version, so it seems like this has been an issue for at least two generations. To your point, I have some much older XF200 series pumps that are still running just fine!

Once I get my water and rock cleaned up/detoxified, I definitely need to place an order from you!

 

[Funlad3]

And for me, its pretty hard to fault BRS for your desired warranty date of one year from put in to service... That's not really how that works.

My understanding is maxspect makes almost all the gyre pumps, my icecap 2ks work great, and I'm intending an upgrade soon.

I used to work in a shop and folks were always very happy with their IceCap versions; I wonder if they spec out their magnets/waterproofing differently.

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Yeah, I think I may have figured this out at least got another piece of this puzzle.


I just opened two brand new ones for 350s and I kind of just went to clean them off like I normally do and the impellers are already cracked so I have a feeling that all these ones that are““ cracking and rusting are doing so because the plastic is cracked before they even go in the tank and maybe I never looked at them that close but what an epic failure honestly

Little hard to see, but if you look close, you can clearly see the crack it almost spans the whole magnet casing and now I’m gonna go look at all of my other ones I got about 20 of these running now.

 

[Funlad3]

I just opened two brand new ones for 350s and I kind of just went to clean them off like I normally do and the impellers are already cracked so I have a feeling that all these ones that are““ cracking and rusting are doing so because the plastic is cracked before they even go in the tank and maybe I never looked at them that close but what an epic failure honestly

Gotta love quality engineering. Just replaced mine with two amazon ECP 150 Jecod gyres, and they have much stronger flow. I can't speak to how long the magnets will last and the motors are slightly louder, but at 1/3rd of the price, I'm happy to check them once a month.



Now that I've been running MetaSorb, my urchins, snails, and stomatellas are way more active than I've seen in months. Going to send out another ICP and hopefully start adding acros back in another few weeks. :)