Hydros Maven is Delayed

[Scottiemac]

I couldn't wait any longer. Pulled the trigger on an Apex w/ Trident. Thus far I am very happy with it.

Going to keep many things on Hydros, such as the wave engines and I like how it controls my Philips lights. Maybe some things like the refugium reactor, scrubber, and reefmat can say on there.

 

[vandy]

I don't know if it makes a difference, but Sam is in Australia. I believe their English speaking support for the world comes from there and Focustronic has a strong community in the area.

In the USA it is difficult to get support and from what I've seen, they're quite defensive about their products to American customers. It could be that Focustronic's support is better in Australia and therefore they have less to complain about.

I purchased the previous Mastertronic and had nothing but trouble with it. The accuracy was poor, and it was inconsistently poor. The Dosetronic almost destroyed my tank, dumping 1700ml of Magnesium in there in a day and a half.

Whats the point of offering a product in a country if you're just going to let your customers out to dry? This hobby heavily relies on reputation and reading some of the stories about lack of support completely turned me off to that product

 

[JeffB418]

Looks like focustronic made some improvements on their testing device, where it no longer uses the syringe and rotating vials.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/mast...HwrcmRBXURImBbLyeWa43uiFi4xWEOIzlXAc9PbWMs2pI
Will be interesting to see how this works and is reviewed. As a bonus, it you can also use third party reagents.

And looks like it’s already on sale…

 

[mmorrison55]

Is that good or bad?

 

[Scottiemac]

And looks like it’s already on sale…

From what I can see, BRS is the only company even selling the FME in the USA. That they're out of stock could suggest that they were just trying to get rid of it. They did this with Hydros gear last year.

 

[saltcreep74]

I couldn't wait any longer. Pulled the trigger on an Apex w/ Trident. Thus far I am very happy with it.

Going to keep many things on Hydros, such as the wave engines and I like how it controls my Philips lights. Maybe some things like the refugium reactor, scrubber, and reefmat can say on there.

Nothing wrong with the Trident...I picked one up here last year, used....no "testing errors" or failures...im completely happy. You do have to stay on top of maintenance. Besides refilling the reagents, can't complain.

 

[Scottiemac]

Nothing wrong with the Trident...I picked one up here last year, used....no "testing errors" or failures...im completely happy. You do have to stay on top of maintenance. Besides refilling the reagents, can't complain.

Agreed, and I'm sure the Maven will behave in the same way once they figure things out.

 

[LunchboLobster]

Any updates/rumors on Maven launch date? Have the Trident and it works fine. Would love to have N/P auto testing. Trying to figure out if I should invest further into Apex or hold out for the Maven. 6+ months out is too long to wait!

 

[Reef Puncher]

Any updates/rumors on Maven launch date? Have the Trident and it works fine. Would love to have N/P auto testing. Trying to figure out if I should invest further into Apex or hold out for the Maven. 6+ months out is too long to wait!

i spoke with hydros on phone. they still dont have a release date in mind yet. i bought their alk tester. ehhhh its ehhh. i love all the rest of their prodcuts though, i have their x10, the sole, their doser, their salinity tester which works great. but for some reason i cant get constant accurate readings on my alk tests. it varies day to day by .1 to .5 dkh, but all my other tests, salifert, hannah, all show stable alk, the same every day.

 

[BeanAnimal]

i spoke with hydros on phone. they still dont have a release date in mind yet.

It would appear that they bit off far more than they could chew. Given that I have not seen a single hearsay leak regarding the product status, I can't imagine that there are many, if any alpha or beta units in the wild. But who knows...

 

[vandy]

It would appear that they bit off far more than they could chew. Given that I have not seen a single hearsay leak regarding the product status, I can't imagine that there are many, if any alpha or beta units in the wild. But who knows...

i've seen the unit in person because somebody is local to me who is a beta tester.. but he returned the unit over a year and a half ago after his testing was finished.. surprised its still taken this long for a release

 

[areefer01]

It would appear that they bit off far more than they could chew. Given that I have not seen a single hearsay leak regarding the product status, I can't imagine that there are many, if any alpha or beta units in the wild. But who knows...

Will it take as long as the probe...

 

[BeanAnimal]

Will it take as long as the probe...

ION-D?

 

[areefer01]

ION-D?

Yeah - only as it relates to the public notice to availability.

 

[BeanAnimal]

i've seen the unit in person because somebody is local to me who is a beta tester.. but he returned the unit over a year and a half ago after his testing was finished.. surprised its still taken this long for a release

Fun Fact:
The entire Empire State Building from ground breaking to opening only took 410 days....

Yeah - only as it relates to the public notice to availability.

The communication was arguably handled as poorly, COVID shutdowns and supply chain issues or not. Worse in some ways, as countless people had already paid for the product.

On the other hand, they didn't prematurely announce to damage a competitors sales, knowing that they were nowhere close to being ready for market.

They didn't try to straight face spin vendor DRM lock as some kind of quality control benefit while ironically entering into a contract with (and distributing) the 3rd party reagents used to undercut their competitors sales. That part is what floors me. Hypocrisy and irony all wrapped up in a convenient ball.

But, that's my take. Neither situation looks good.

 

[reely989]

Any updates/rumors on Maven launch date? Have the Trident and it works fine. Would love to have N/P auto testing. Trying to figure out if I should invest further into Apex or hold out for the Maven. 6+ months out is too long to wait!

I don't think they have any idea. I like my hydros stuff but I do think it was pretty shady to dangle the maven in front of customers' faces to try and keep them away from the Trident NP to only then backtrack and say "oh we weren't ready". All that being said, the longer it goes the more convinced I am that the current attempts at automatic testers in these form factors are just going to be flawed. Alk seems pretty reliable to auto test, so I'm just sticking with an affordable KH guardian and spot checking everything else.

 

[rtparty]

Fun Fact:
The entire Empire State Building from ground breaking to opening only took 410 days....


The communication was arguably handled as poorly, COVID shutdowns and supply chain issues or not. Worse in some ways, as countless people had already paid for the product.

On the other hand, they didn't prematurely announce to damage a competitors sales, knowing that they were nowhere close to being ready for market.

They didn't try to straight face spin vendor DRM lock as some kind of quality control benefit while ironically entering into a contract with (and distributing) the 3rd party reagents used to undercut their competitors sales. That part is what floors me. Hypocrisy and irony all wrapped up in a convenient ball.

But, that's my take. Neither situation looks good.

Neptune literally wrote the book: “How to not release a product: Spearing yourself with a Trident”

CoralVue saw it and wrote the book: “Hold my beer: A massive Maven meltdown”

Not only did they miss LAST Black Friday, it seems they missed this one too.

 

[mmorrison55]

This may be out before the maven…



Looks interesting but I can’t find any real detail on it, just teasers

 

[areefer01]

I honestly don't understand what all the ruckus is about. It is delayed, so what.

I do understand the ruckus about the reagent DRM and reselling of knock offs for the competitor.

 

[ReefED!]

I never interpreted it as such a bad faith move by CV


I'm sure the product team wanted to announce it, but it seems like they're just struggling with quality / reliability issues and want to get it reliable before they ship it

I can get behind that, and I don't mind the delays.

I still think they'd be much better served just perfecting one or two tests - like Alk and Phosphate - rather than trying to get the entire suite

Mag and Calc are going to add complexity that isn't needed for an entry into this space IMO.