Kessil Failures

[ca1ore]

I figure there are a lot of Kessil users here on R2R. Am curious, with regard to the A360WE, what folks experiences have been with longevity. I have a bunch of them on my system and have not been particularly happy with them from a reliability perspective. Kessil is very good about the warranty (and I had two fail under warranty), but I've now had my first fail outside of the warranty and am trying to decide how to proceed. 2-3 years from a $400 (now $350) light just seem quite poor to me, but perhaps I am just unlucky. I clean them out regularly. Anyhow, would be interested to hear how long folks have been running these lights and whether you have had failures.

With the X just around the corner, I've no interest in a new old 360 for $250. Or even whether to continue with them - even though I do like the look they throw in my tank.

 

[Punksboops]

I had 1 fail under warranty and was replaced but all of mine are now passed the warranty time closing in on the 3 year mark

 

[andrewkw]

How often do you clean them? The one annoying thing with Kessils at least the older models (I hope 360x corrects this) is you have to void the warranty and open them up and clean the properly. Once a year or so, maybe twice a year would be better. Dust debris and everything else just gets baked onto them. I purchased my a350 in 2012 and it's still running fine. I have 2 other Kessils, an a360 and an a360we. Of the 3 only the 360 gives me trouble. It will blink when it first turns on or if I push it too high maybe 80% or higher. It's more of an annoyance then anything and does occasionally blink when it comes on but is fine for the duration of the day. Taking it apart and cleaning it does not fix the problem so I just live with it.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I know most users don't have an air compressor, but I've found that blowing them out with an air compressor as opposed to a can of compressed air works much better. More power, and you don't risk having some of the liquid accellerant coming out into the light and circuit board. And always make sure when you're blowing off the fan to wedge something in the fan blade so it doesn't overspin when blasting it with air, that can also cause the fans to pre-maturely wear out, causing major heating issues. I ran mine for 2 years with no issues doing this To my knowledge, the user I sold them to is still using them to this day

 

[madweazl]

I haven't had one fail yet but I do tear them down completely and do a thorough cleaning twice a year. The heatsinks get a lot of build up that you cant clear unless you tear them all the way down. It's a fairly simple process and if you inform Kessil of what you're doing, they'll make a note of it so your warranty isn't voided (as reported by other users). The 360WEs I have were purchased used and I've been running them a little over two years now.

 

[JerSaint]

I have an Amazon Sun for freshwater and had it stop working on me,after some experimenting I found the problem to be the power source. There was a very small amount of corrosion on the connector coming from the adapter. I used a bit of high grit sandpaper and it helped for a while. I eventually bought a new power source and it has been smooth sailing since. Fingers crossed! Good Luck with them.

 

[Punksboops]

I was afraid to use a compressor for fear of too much power

 

[ca1ore]

How often do you clean them? The one annoying thing with Kessils at least the older models (I hope 360x corrects this) is you have to void the warranty and open them up and clean the properly.

Every three months or so. I think as long as you don't tell them, taking off the cover is no big deal. Anyhow, in my case it does not appear to be a result of dust (plus I heard a pop when it failed). I've done all the basic troubleshooting - swap power brick, see if another light will work on the broken one's power supply. Just looking for data points to inform my go forward strategery …..

 

[wesman42]

I haven't had problems since I got rid of them for Black boxes

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

i have 3 over my 120 ran at 100 percent im at the 3 year mark and no issues I have yet to clean them I will this weekend lol the only thing I don't like is the left side of my tank is a perfect blueish color and the right side has a slight green hue and I cant get ride of it I have mixed them I different locations and its still like that I think its just the way the leds are mixed

 

[HB AL]

I have five, 3 of them are 3 years old and 2 are 5 years old. I had 1 that had the white leds stop working within a month of buying it and they replaced it quickly. I really dont blow them out to clean that often maybe every couple months or so. In my case they have worked excellent, corals grow great and are colorful, plus the shimmer i love. They have been as reliable as could be up to this point.

 

[Buzz171]

Once I took mine down for cleaning ( they are suspended from hanging wire rope above the tank) And... "Ploop...." down she went into the tank. I took apart, poured alcohol over it and blew it really dry with compressed air. So dry I broke two of the fan blades off!! As if I hadn't been in enough panic.
I do a lot of circuit board repairs on tv and stuff and I was impressed how well the boards were coated with protective resin and the workmanship of the boards. I ordered a replacement fan from ebay, trying to match specs best I could. They seem to have a proprietary fan. Worked as good as new. Have had the same two for years I got off ebay and no issues. Going forward I plan to replace the fans every few years, one because I can and I know they don't like heat.

 

[robert]

Bought 5 Ap700s when they first came out. Three years later (out of warranty), I've had two with fan failures and two with controller failures (network issues). One had both fan and controller issues, so three of my five had issues. No LED or optic problems. They would simply overheat and cut out. Despite being out of warranty Kessil evaluated my lights and repaired (replaced) them free of charge. Absolutely no hassles.

With a 4k investment, three failures was concerning - I know I got the earliest production run - but even out of warranty, Kessil stood by their product. To me this means everything. I love the lights and have nothing but good to say for their product and support.

 

[HB AL]

Bought 5 Ap700s when they first came out. Three years later (out of warranty), I've had two with fan failures and two with controller failures (network issues). One had both fan and controller issues, so three of my five had issues. No LED or optic problems. They would simply overheat and cut out. Despite being out of warranty Kessil evaluated my lights and repaired (replaced) them free of charge. Absolutely no hassles.

With a 4k investment, three failures was concerning - I know I got the earliest production run - but even out of warranty, Kessil stood by their product. To me this means everything. I love the lights and have nothing but good to say for their product and support.

Yup, they are the best in customer service and since my fish and corals like the lights, and I love the aesthetics they produce im a Kessil customer for life. Metal Halides seemed to grow acros better and the aesthetics were equal but the heat they pruduced (no chiller required now)and the electrity draw really is the reason i switched leds. If I ran an Acro coral selling business i would probably have halides and t5's but not ever again for my home tanks.

 

[Awesome Dennis]

I have a kessil A360WE that's doing great @3-4 years of use.
My H380 takes a lot of salt creep being in the tight sump space but keeps going.@2+ years of use.

 

[pelphrey]

I know most users don't have an air compressor, but I've found that blowing them out with an air compressor as opposed to a can of compressed air works much better. More power, and you don't risk having some of the liquid accellerant coming out into the light and circuit board. And always make sure when you're blowing off the fan to wedge something in the fan blade so it doesn't overspin when blasting it with air, that can also cause the fans to pre-maturely wear out, causing major heating issues. I ran mine for 2 years with no issues doing this To my knowledge, the user I sold them to is still using them to this day

I've had 2 of my a160we's for 2 years or so now, with no failures.

Expensive I know... But it comes in handy for a lot of things!
https://amzn.to/2Qb72Rt

 

[Albertan_Reef]

My kessel a160 have a bit of corrosian on the power supply end. I have to regularly clean it

 

[ca1ore]

OK, so sounds like my experience is something of an anomaly. I’ve got a spare 160 that I can swap in for the malfunctioning 360. I’d prefer to wait for the 360x rather than replacing with a WE.

 

[saf1]

I haven't had one fail yet but I do tear them down completely and do a thorough cleaning twice a year. The heatsinks get a lot of build up that you cant clear unless you tear them all the way down. It's a fairly simple process and if you inform Kessil of what you're doing, they'll make a note of it so your warranty isn't voided (as reported by other users). The 360WEs I have were purchased used and I've been running them a little over two years now.

Interesting point about letting them know so it doesn't void the warranty. I do not own Kessil's nor any other off the shelf LED package but went with my own multi chip for this very reason. A lot of the packages out there seem to be closed or not easily accessible to clean out dust. I've been considering the new Kessil's but not sold yet.

It is like a blessing and a curse. The smaller package looks really nice and something I could work with but the small package also seems to be difficult to clean to keep proper airflow. We are getting into some higher end CPU/GPU cooling packages now for LED lights it seems.

 

[madweazl]

i have 3 over my 120 ran at 100 percent im at the 3 year mark and no issues I have yet to clean them I will this weekend lol the only thing I don't like is the left side of my tank is a perfect blueish color and the right side has a slight green hue and I cant get ride of it I have mixed them I different locations and its still like that I think its just the way the leds are mixed

You may be able to "correct" the color issue by rotating the array (e.g. turn the light 90° or 180°). Also, if the lights are daisy chained, the third light in the array may be receiving slightly less signal voltage causing a difference on the "color" and/or "intensity" channel. Changes to intensity also change which diodes are on within the array and will impact color slightly.