Doser Maxi nuked itself - anyone else have this happen?

[mindwalkr]

Last night I was about to head out on a 2 day trip and was checking that my RODI and salt water holding tanks had enough for all the auto-water changes, I saw condensation inside the Doser Maxi head.... Hmm.... That's strange! Then I noticed all the lights were blinking red. Alarm on the app though? Nope!

Turns out the new hose set that I just replaced a week ago (because the old one was starting to wear after 2 years of 3 water changes a day) had split all the way down the length, then the dosing head had filled with water.

It did this because the design SUCKS (source, I am a Mech Eng) and does not contain any drainage holes for this failure mode. The SALT water then migrated into the unit around the shaft of the stepper motor. Queue the horrid smell of fried electronics!

Spares for the Doser Maxi pump parts? Nope. Go order from Dongguan Honlite Industrial in China via AliExpress and pay a minimum $60 shipping charge since they only use DHL!

Spare Doser Maxi circuit board or steppers? lolwut?

Doser Maxi replacement? Nope.... go wait for the next version to launch/ship. Given the delays with the ION Director, I am not confident it will ship on time, or that my order will be in the first batch shipped out. It looks like the new version will at least drain out the bottom if the hose splits, so that is an improvement!

So yeah..... kinda ticked. Mostly because this failure mode is the result of poor spare parts quality and bad design and now I will need to drag buckets up from my basement!

Lesson learned: ALWAYS have a complete set of spares for EVERYTHING !

 

[Matthias Gross]

The pump heads we used in our first Maxi Doser are the same as the heads Neptune System was and still is using for their DOS, these pumps are from Honlite. (except we ordered them with an upgrade - 3 rollers instead of 2).
When I initially searched for a peristaltic pump vendor and found Honlite I didn't realize that these are the same pumps as Neptune uses (except the 3 roller upgrade).
At that point Honlite had no problem to sell to 2 competing companies.
But this changed after a few months selling the Maxi, obviously NS found out that we use these pumps. So I got a nice email from Honlite where the said they stop selling us their pumps with immediate effect because they were told to do so by a certain Mr. T.

Thanks god for that - so we were forced to do our own, better design. Yes, this Honlite design is not optimal. So I decided to design my own pump from scratch. No Far East product anymore where we must hope we get a constant quality we want and a product when we order it.

It did this because the design SUCKS (source, I am a Mech Eng) and does not contain any drainage holes

Absolutely. I think I addressed this in our new pump design.
Besides that our new pump heads are much quieter and sturdy.

 

[Matthias Gross]

Doser Maxi replacement? Nope

too late anyway, EXT are all sold, I think there are just a few SA available

next batch is expected Jan - Feb 2023

 

[telegraham]

The pump heads we used in our first Maxi Doser are the same as the heads Neptune System was and still is using for their DOS, these pumps are from Honlite. (except we ordered them with an upgrade - 3 rollers instead of 2).
When I initially searched for a peristaltic pump vendor and found Honlite I didn't realize that these are the same pumps as Neptune uses (except the 3 roller upgrade).
At that point Honlite had no problem to sell to 2 competing companies.
But this changed after a few months selling the Maxi, obviously NS found out that we use these pumps. So I got a nice email from Honlite where the said they stop selling us their pumps with immediate effect because they were told to do so by a certain Mr. T.

Thanks god for that - so we were forced to do our own, better design. Yes, this Honlite design is not optimal. So I decided to design my own pump from scratch. No Far East product anymore where we must hope we get a constant quality we want and a product when we order it.


Absolutely. I think I addressed this in our new pump design.
Besides that our new pump heads are much quieter and sturdy.

Really looking forward to the new Maxi, Matthias. Thank you!

 

[Fisherman Joe]

I have two maxi pumps, my compression tubing splits ALL THE TIME.

Don’t expect much help from support or tickets. Eventually you will be ignored.
Try playing around with the length of the tube until you find one that works, but be prepared to replace it and often. It’s not as reliable as they want you to think sadly. If it’s still within warranty, return it.

 

[telegraham]

I have two maxi pumps, my compression tubing splits ALL THE TIME.

Don’t expect much help from support or tickets. Eventually you will be ignored.
Try playing around with the length of the tube until you find one that works, but be prepared to replace it and often. It’s not as reliable as they want you to think sadly. If it’s still within warranty, return it.

Two original or new?

 

[Fisherman Joe]

Two original or new?

Two of the original, that GHL denied had a fundamental flaw, only to bring out version 2. How odd.

 

[Ditto]

I have three of the Original all three still work and run. I have had the tube split twice after a replacement, this is because I have learned that you slow the pump down from fast to slow for two-three weeks after you replace it so that the tube works its way into its position and they turn back up to fast and back to work they go for another year.

And not sure how it is odd as in this thread six post up they explain exactly why they made the maxi 2.

 

[telegraham]

Two of the original, that GHL denied had a fundamental flaw, only to bring out version 2. How odd.

Maybe I'm not watching in the right places, but your Maxi heads are nearly identical to the DOS heads. They are both made by Dongguan Honlite and are interchangeable. If there was a fundamental flaw, which I've not experienced, the Neptune people would be yelling, too. What's the fundamental flaw?

Ditto spoke to the odd part. It's not odd. It's the availability of parts. Parts that I still use on my DOS that I converted to GHL control.