Sleepydoc
Valuable Member
I received a COR-20 from Bulk Reef Supply last Saturday. I've had it hooked up and running for a few days, so I thought I'd post my first impressions.
It replaced a Reef Octopus Varios 6. Actually replaced isn't the right word - I wanted to get a backup pump and would have purchased another various, but the COR was coming out, so I figured I would give it a try.
It arrived from BRS nicely packaged. It includes fittings, an Allen Wrench to remove the volute and the power supply & control box. As I was taking mine apart, I did notice a small amount of water. Apparently Neptune has wet-tested all of the pumps from this first batch. Kudos to them for this- Not many pump companies do this. It does not include a strainer to cover the input like the Varios does.
Physical installation is like most pumps. It comes with a 1¼" threaded-slip union that screws on the top as well as some adapters to reduce the output to 1" or ¾" if needed. I already had a union above my varios6, so I got a section of 1 ¼"PVC and another matching union to put at the top; now I can easily swap the COR out for the Varios 6 just by unscrewing the union.
The control box for the COR mounts like other Neptune modules - there's a rear mounting plate that you screw down and then the box slides onto the plate.
If you're installing it with an Apex, Fusion now has a COR task that steps you through the setup process. It was about as painless as one could hope for- You plug in the power, connect the aquabus cable, then run the COR task. First it has you set the minimum speed, then the maximum speed using the two buttons on the control box. At that point, you're basically done. (note that the COR 15 uses 1link, the COR 20 does not)
When setting the min/max speeds, the buttons appear to step the power up & down in 5% increments. This is finer control than most DC pumps give you without using the 0-10V input, but it was still too coarse for my purposes (I had my Varios programmed so it would throttle down to the point where the pump speed was exactly balanced by the downward water pressure, meaning no water flowed forward or backwards at this speed.) You can go into the COR20 outlet settings in fusion and change the speed in 1% increments, similar to any other 0-10v controllable pump. Once you have set the minimum and maximum speeds, Apex will scale the display percentages accordingly. 1% is the minimum speed, not 1% of the total pump speed/power. Likewise, 100% on the display is the maximum speed you determined at setup, not the maximum speed the pump is capable of. This could be potentially confusing, but overall, I like it.
As a pump, it pumps water. Not much more I can say about it. Someone told me that the COR20 is basically like a 'Varios 7' and I would agree with that. I had my Varios 6 running at 100% and the COR20 puts out the same amount of flow at 70%. As far as power goes, the power consumption at comparable flows is virtually identical, so the GPH/Watt would appear to be similar.
The COR 20 initially seemed to be a touch louder than my Varios 6, emitting a soft hum/whine, but that was because I had it running at 100% initially. When I dialed it back to a comparable flow, it was just as quiet as the Varios 6 (I used a dB app on my iPhone to check the noise levels and they were both 48dB measured immediately above the water line. Realistically, I can't hear either one with the sump doors closed. It's as quiet or quieter than any other pump I've used.
There are 2 tiles that are added to your Fusion dashboard with the COR pump. One is a COR outlet, the other shows you the watts, RPMs and pump temp. The watts displayed is actually the watts used by the pump itself, not the power supply or control box. When I measured the total watts as measured by the EB832, it's about 7 watts higher than the pump display. Right now the total consumption is 67W, with 60W at the pump, so it's basically like having a 60W heater in my sump.
The setup adds a line to your error outlet, "If Error COR_20 Then ON." I haven't had occasion to check this yet. According to the manual it has 5 different alarms: Run Dry, Over and Under Voltage for the DC power supply, over current (can be used to detect a blockage) and Temperature
I haven't had a chance to play with it much, but the programming for the pump appears to be much easier and more straight forward than the standard programming has been. Previously, you had to define profiles and assign them to the pump if you wanted to adjust the speed, for the COR you can simply say "If FeedA then 50" to set it to 50% Likewise, it seems you can use the COR speed in your other programming with statements like "If Output COR_20 Percent < 50 Then..."
I would note that while the COR 20 can be used in standalone mode, it has no 0-10V input, so you won't be able to control it with a non-apex controller, beyond on/off.
Overall, I'm happy with the pump. It works well (well, for 4 days, at least!) is quiet, and was easy to install. I haven't had occasion to do much with the apex programming yet, but the programming seems to be more intuitive than a standard DC pump. Reliability is yet to be determined. The beta testers gave good reports, but I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear any bad reports from them if there were issues. Still, they did a fair amount of beta testing, which is always a good thing.
It replaced a Reef Octopus Varios 6. Actually replaced isn't the right word - I wanted to get a backup pump and would have purchased another various, but the COR was coming out, so I figured I would give it a try.
It arrived from BRS nicely packaged. It includes fittings, an Allen Wrench to remove the volute and the power supply & control box. As I was taking mine apart, I did notice a small amount of water. Apparently Neptune has wet-tested all of the pumps from this first batch. Kudos to them for this- Not many pump companies do this. It does not include a strainer to cover the input like the Varios does.
Physical installation is like most pumps. It comes with a 1¼" threaded-slip union that screws on the top as well as some adapters to reduce the output to 1" or ¾" if needed. I already had a union above my varios6, so I got a section of 1 ¼"PVC and another matching union to put at the top; now I can easily swap the COR out for the Varios 6 just by unscrewing the union.
The control box for the COR mounts like other Neptune modules - there's a rear mounting plate that you screw down and then the box slides onto the plate.
If you're installing it with an Apex, Fusion now has a COR task that steps you through the setup process. It was about as painless as one could hope for- You plug in the power, connect the aquabus cable, then run the COR task. First it has you set the minimum speed, then the maximum speed using the two buttons on the control box. At that point, you're basically done. (note that the COR 15 uses 1link, the COR 20 does not)
When setting the min/max speeds, the buttons appear to step the power up & down in 5% increments. This is finer control than most DC pumps give you without using the 0-10V input, but it was still too coarse for my purposes (I had my Varios programmed so it would throttle down to the point where the pump speed was exactly balanced by the downward water pressure, meaning no water flowed forward or backwards at this speed.) You can go into the COR20 outlet settings in fusion and change the speed in 1% increments, similar to any other 0-10v controllable pump. Once you have set the minimum and maximum speeds, Apex will scale the display percentages accordingly. 1% is the minimum speed, not 1% of the total pump speed/power. Likewise, 100% on the display is the maximum speed you determined at setup, not the maximum speed the pump is capable of. This could be potentially confusing, but overall, I like it.
As a pump, it pumps water. Not much more I can say about it. Someone told me that the COR20 is basically like a 'Varios 7' and I would agree with that. I had my Varios 6 running at 100% and the COR20 puts out the same amount of flow at 70%. As far as power goes, the power consumption at comparable flows is virtually identical, so the GPH/Watt would appear to be similar.
The COR 20 initially seemed to be a touch louder than my Varios 6, emitting a soft hum/whine, but that was because I had it running at 100% initially. When I dialed it back to a comparable flow, it was just as quiet as the Varios 6 (I used a dB app on my iPhone to check the noise levels and they were both 48dB measured immediately above the water line. Realistically, I can't hear either one with the sump doors closed. It's as quiet or quieter than any other pump I've used.
There are 2 tiles that are added to your Fusion dashboard with the COR pump. One is a COR outlet, the other shows you the watts, RPMs and pump temp. The watts displayed is actually the watts used by the pump itself, not the power supply or control box. When I measured the total watts as measured by the EB832, it's about 7 watts higher than the pump display. Right now the total consumption is 67W, with 60W at the pump, so it's basically like having a 60W heater in my sump.
The setup adds a line to your error outlet, "If Error COR_20 Then ON." I haven't had occasion to check this yet. According to the manual it has 5 different alarms: Run Dry, Over and Under Voltage for the DC power supply, over current (can be used to detect a blockage) and Temperature
I haven't had a chance to play with it much, but the programming for the pump appears to be much easier and more straight forward than the standard programming has been. Previously, you had to define profiles and assign them to the pump if you wanted to adjust the speed, for the COR you can simply say "If FeedA then 50" to set it to 50% Likewise, it seems you can use the COR speed in your other programming with statements like "If Output COR_20 Percent < 50 Then..."
I would note that while the COR 20 can be used in standalone mode, it has no 0-10V input, so you won't be able to control it with a non-apex controller, beyond on/off.
Overall, I'm happy with the pump. It works well (well, for 4 days, at least!) is quiet, and was easy to install. I haven't had occasion to do much with the apex programming yet, but the programming seems to be more intuitive than a standard DC pump. Reliability is yet to be determined. The beta testers gave good reports, but I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear any bad reports from them if there were issues. Still, they did a fair amount of beta testing, which is always a good thing.
