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Hello,
UV has become very popular over the past few years with Pentair being one of the top brands. This thread pertains only to pentair but may include other brands**
I have had two pentair 40 watt UV systems running for almost 3 years now. I recently was around my tanks in complete darkness and noticed that I could see the UV light coming through the housing.
Obviously this is not good, the plastic is degrading to the point of light leaching out, this will eventually fail. I dug around and found several reports of this happening to others.
www.reef2reef.com
I believe that these units are only now starting to fail in numbers and it becoming apparent because users now have units that are 3-4-5+ years old, giving time for the UV light to crack the housing.
I called Pentair and my units were 1 day within the 3 year warranty on the housing. They are replacing the housing but due to an EPA issue they are not shipping anything until further notice.
500$+ units should not have plastic degradation problems. There was a time when people said not to use Jebao UVs because of this same issue, well now it’s in the “top tier” units as well.
*I would highly recommend anyone running these units check them out in complete darkness. If you are in warranty get them replaced before damage occurs*
I for one do not want their housing so I made my own.
1. Use a heat gun to remove the two end fittings which are needed for the UV to work at all. There are several you tube videos on how to do this. Works great , do this outside.
2. Sand the inside of the fitting so it’s smooth. Remove the plastic carefully in step 1, soften pvc lightly and put back in place if damage occurs
3. Make the body section using 3” standard PVC. Only part not proprietary :/
Do not use the ground to hammer the pvc into place :( good thing I had double of all parts
And all done. You can see how different the wall thickness is of the standard PVC, will work much better. Obviously paint the pvc if you wish, I actually like the white and black look.
UV has become very popular over the past few years with Pentair being one of the top brands. This thread pertains only to pentair but may include other brands**
I have had two pentair 40 watt UV systems running for almost 3 years now. I recently was around my tanks in complete darkness and noticed that I could see the UV light coming through the housing.
Obviously this is not good, the plastic is degrading to the point of light leaching out, this will eventually fail. I dug around and found several reports of this happening to others.
UV light penetrating casing
Hi All, I have a pentair smart uv 40w running about 600GPH flow for a 220 gallon plus reef tank. Ive owned the unit for about 3 years now and have changed the bulb and glass sleeve twice. It seems to work with out issue until month week when i walked into my garage and saw that it was...
www.reef2reef.com
I believe that these units are only now starting to fail in numbers and it becoming apparent because users now have units that are 3-4-5+ years old, giving time for the UV light to crack the housing.
I called Pentair and my units were 1 day within the 3 year warranty on the housing. They are replacing the housing but due to an EPA issue they are not shipping anything until further notice.
500$+ units should not have plastic degradation problems. There was a time when people said not to use Jebao UVs because of this same issue, well now it’s in the “top tier” units as well.
*I would highly recommend anyone running these units check them out in complete darkness. If you are in warranty get them replaced before damage occurs*
I for one do not want their housing so I made my own.
1. Use a heat gun to remove the two end fittings which are needed for the UV to work at all. There are several you tube videos on how to do this. Works great , do this outside.
2. Sand the inside of the fitting so it’s smooth. Remove the plastic carefully in step 1, soften pvc lightly and put back in place if damage occurs
3. Make the body section using 3” standard PVC. Only part not proprietary :/
Do not use the ground to hammer the pvc into place :( good thing I had double of all parts
And all done. You can see how different the wall thickness is of the standard PVC, will work much better. Obviously paint the pvc if you wish, I actually like the white and black look.
