Review of the Maxspect Advanced Gyre Controller

[Clr]

They replace power cables splitting still , even if it's a first gen 150 ?

 

[reeftank220master]

They replace power cables splitting still , even if it's a first gen 150 ?

They have to its a safety issue

 

[jason2459]

My mind is not "set" it just wants the product to last more than 3 months without breaking as it has done since it was brand new..I'm happy that your unit is perfect but mine is not..Do you work first the company or do you just enjoy adding your 2 cents in how this is not something that "everyone" has experienced! I did not ask you to speak for "everyone" and I am simply sharing what has happened to my unit..

Again this is one side to the story. I'm far from an employee or associated to the company. I try to be as unbiased as possible and when I believe my personal opinion doesn't meet the general consensus I say so and give alternative points of view that I know about. I certainly didn't give the icecap reefcam a glaring review. If you read my review above of the gyre you'll see I stated that the gyre is for me because of xyz but may not be for everyone.

You seem to have come into this thread expecting to bash the Maxspect gyre. Which is fine but don't get upset when someone says they have had no issues as there's more people that have had no issues then there are those that have had persistent issues. All products will have issues and each person will have a different experience with support. It sucks you have such a negative experience with all of it.

 

[jason2459]

They have to its a safety issue

There is no requirement that they have to that I'm aware of. But they are because Maxspect says to do so.

 

[reeftank220master]

There is no requirement that they have to that I'm aware of. But they are because Maxspect says to do so.

Actually your wrong.If they said no to replacing the splitting power cord then they open themselves up to a recall

 

[jason2459]

Actually your wrong.If they said no to replacing the splitting power cord then they open themselves up to a recall

Maybe, that's not guaranteed. As of right now they have no requirement to do the swap that I'm aware of.

 

[klp]

I have been leery of getting one because I have heard they are hard to take apart and reassemble. How often does yours have to be taken apart and cleaned. Have the fins ever been upgraded to be stronger. I hear the fins break easily.

 

[reeftank220master]

I have been leery of getting one because I have heard they are hard to take apart and reassemble. How often does yours have to be taken apart and cleaned. Have the fins ever been upgraded to be stronger. I hear the fins break easily.

Let me tell you brother it's not fun taking it apart to clean and in my case the rotors I replace them and in about 4 weeks there making noise.8 weeks it sounds really bad..I understand pumps need to be properly maintenanced and clean off the gook and calcium that will build up..It's having to keep replacing the "SAME" PARTS over and over and thats where I draw the line

 

[shred5]

I have been leery of getting one because I have heard they are hard to take apart and reassemble. How often does yours have to be taken apart and cleaned. Have the fins ever been upgraded to be stronger. I hear the fins break easily.

The fins were upgraded long ago to heavy duty... They are a little complicated to take apart and assemble but Carlos from Coralvue did a video and if you follow it aint to bad and after a while you learn its not to bad at all. They have pretty many parts.

 

[malacoda]

Let me tell you brother it's not fun taking it apart to clean

This is s bit subjective; it all depends what you consider 'hard' to be...

I have been leery of getting one because I have heard they are hard to take apart and reassemble. How often does yours have to be taken apart and cleaned. Have the fins ever been upgraded to be stronger. I hear the fins break easily.

I've been running an xf130 with 2nd generation rotors for 14 months. (I believe there is an even beefier 3rd gen. rotor now but am honestly not sure.)

I take it apart and clean it every 4 to 5 months. The first time, it took me about 30 minutes. I had never taken it, or any other powerhead apart before ... so I took my time, had the manual in front of me, and spent 5-10 minutes of that time watching the Coralvue video right before disassembling just to be sure I wouldn't break anything or muck it up.

All the other cleanings have taken me 10, maybe 15 minutes tops: a minute or two to take it apart ... 5-10 minutes to give everything a thorough scrub with a bottle brush ... then another 2-3 minutes to put it back together.

None of my rotors have broken.

And only once - after the last cleaning (which was just two weeks ago) - did either of the rotors make a rattling noise. I took it out of the tank, popped the cage off and rotor off of the noisy side, gave a little push on the bushing to make sure it was seated all the way down (it wasn't), popped the rotor and cage back on, and wallah - no more rattle.

Since getting the gyre, I've also dabbled with an mp10 in my tank a bit.

As a point of comparison, would I say the gyre take longer to clean? Sure, you have to disassemble, clean, and reassemble two rotors and cages instead of one. Took me about 5-10 minutes to clean the mp10 wetside compared to 10-15 for the gyre. (If I had 2 mp10s to clean it would take me just as long as the gyre.)

Would I say the gyre is 'harder' to take apart or reassemble than the mp10? Nope. While it has a few more parts than an mp10, I really don't think it's at all complicated. It's still just a motor in the middle with ... a snap ring ... a bushing ... the rotor and cage ... a bushing ... a rubber washer ... and end cap on each side. That's really all there is.

I prefer the flow of the gyre over the flow of the mp10 in my tank. So, for me, the extra 5 minutes of cleaning every 4 months with gyre is well worth the trade off.

Just my humble opinion and my personal experience though...

The gyre manual is downloadable from CoralVue's website. Your best bet would be to take a look at it and/or their videos to see if it's something you find difficult to do for yourself.

BTW - Also recently purchased the new xf230 controller for it. IMHO shred5 is right, it is a pretty sweet upgrade.

 

[tvu]

Well I bought the icecap 3k version since I only needed 1 to go along with 2 MP40wes. Just because it's more affordable I hope quality isn't less because of it.

Love the flow when it worked. Love how quiet it was when it worked. Loved it more than the MP40wes when it worked.

Hate how it suddenly stopped working before 2 months(luckily still within 60 day period from Marine depot). I asked for an exchange to give it another chance but wondering if that was a mistake. Hopefully I'll get a replacement within a week from now.

I wasted over an hr messing with cleaning it(though it looked clean) and not getting it to work properly. PITA!

I got the blades to spin when the cages were off but any little pressure on the ceramic shaft would stop the spinning. Seems they could tweak it to design it better. Appears to be built not for longevity. I'd be very furious if I had to pay the price of the maxspect branding ones with same quality issues.

 

[Reigun]

I have a pair of Gyre 230 on a 4 feet wide tank mounted horizontally on each side at 30% pulsing 10 sec anti-sync with the controller. They are positioned 2" below the water line slightly angled upwards and provide plenty of flow.

I have not had any problems with the Gyre yet and they do run silent (was a bit loud for first 2 weeks while breaking it in). It's been 6 months since I've installed these and it sounds like I'm over due for a cleanup which I am dreading!

 

[BAngieB]

I love my Gyre's. And I don't mind having to clean them every once in a while to keep them in good shape. To me they are easier to clean than any other powerhead that I've ever had. Sure it takes a minute to figure out how to disassemble them and then reassemble them the first time you do it but once you have that down it's a snap. The polyp extension I have on my coral is noticeably better now that I've installed my Gyres and as far as the controller; that thing is pretty bad*** as far as all the different functions and options.
As far as them breaking or parts needing to be replaced; anything you have running in saltwater on a continuous basis 24/7, 365 days a year is bound to wear down and break sooner or later. If your gyre is out of warranty just purchase replacement parts to keep on hand in case something happens. And just like anything you buy with moving parts some are going to be duds and have problems but I don't think it's fair to bash the brand as a whole because a few pumps are duds or have issues, that's why they give you a warranty. When you buy a car do you get mad and complain when the tires need replacing?

 

[jason2459]

...
When you buy a car do you get mad and complain when the tires need replacing?

I do. I hate having to spend money on replacing tires. Luckily Coralvue has all the spare parts and they are cheap.

 

[tvu]

I love my Gyre's. And I don't mind having to clean them every once in a while to keep them in good shape. To me they are easier to clean than any other powerhead that I've ever had. Sure it takes a minute to figure out how to disassemble them and then reassemble them the first time you do it but once you have that down it's a snap. The polyp extension I have on my coral is noticeably better now that I've installed my Gyres and as far as the controller; that thing is pretty bad*** as far as all the different functions and options.
As far as them breaking or parts needing to be replaced; anything you have running in saltwater on a continuous basis 24/7, 365 days a year is bound to wear down and break sooner or later. If your gyre is out of warranty just purchase replacement parts to keep on hand in case something happens. And just like anything you buy with moving parts some are going to be duds and have problems but I don't think it's fair to bash the brand as a whole because a few pumps are duds or have issues, that's why they give you a warranty. When you buy a car do you get mad and complain when the tires need replacing?

Well the vortechs don't seem to require as much cleaning. In fact I have 3 tanks and 6 vortechs that I never clean. The oldest 2 have been running in my oldest tank for about 4 years now without any cleaning.

I also have a couple cheapo JBJ wave pumps that I've never cleaned in 8 years running behind the rocks supplementing as detritus kick up pumps running 24/7.

I've also run seio 820 pumps in the past and still have them From just my experience alone with various pumps I'd have to say the gyres seem to have the most maintenance of all the pumps I've used.

Maybe I'm lucky with the other pumps than gyre but I think it's more that those pumps are engineered to last longer with less parts to break down.

Like I said when the gyres function, hands down one of the best I've experienced but the experience is too short lived.

 

[tvu]

Also a car can have performance low profile tires that last only 15k miles vs. an all around tire that lasts 75k miles will require more replacement.

 

[BoomCorals]

Actually your wrong.If they said no to replacing the splitting power cord then they open themselves up to a recall

Ecotech doesn't replace frayed dry side cables if out of warranty. Better go let the government know they have to force a recall.

 

[BoomCorals]

Let me tell you brother it's not fun taking it apart to clean and in my case the rotors I replace them and in about 4 weeks there making noise.8 weeks it sounds really bad..I understand pumps need to be properly maintenanced and clean off the gook and calcium that will build up..It's having to keep replacing the "SAME" PARTS over and over and thats where I draw the line

We get it. You hate the gyre. Can you move on please so we can have other discussions that aren't about how you hate gyre? This thread was helpful to me but I don't need to read one person's opinion for two full pages.

 

[BoomCorals]

On the topic, I picked up two xf250s with the controller. I have been using ecotech for years but they currently don't fit my needs. I was considering getting icecaps so I can connect to my apex but I've heard you don't get as many control options that way?

 

[reeftank220master]

We get it. You hate the gyre. Can you move on please so we can have other discussions that aren't about how you hate gyre? This thread was helpful to me but I don't need to read one person's opinion for two full pages.

Ok so we'll just listen to your opinions! write