Second Apex unit failure in about a year. Unit 3 on it's way. What is going on here?

[Gut Pile]

heck of a first post. I normally just lurk and post on ask brs. However they refuse to post any discussion about this and are taking the red sea stance on problems with Neptune products. Bought first unit for new tank build in May 22. Had zero issues/problems with it. Did what I was supposed to do. Happy custom. Then suddenly without warning 6 months later it began losing programming on ports and stopped showing graphs. No config changes could be saved. I still had control over the EB832 but I couldn't change anything. RMA'd the unit with the $200 temp hold charge. New unit worked as it should but of course had to rebuild from scratch. Barely 6 months later I go down to the tank and realize it's 10PM and the lights are still on. Look at my Apex fusion and the graphs are gone. EB832 would not turn off ports. Luckily I have an inkbird in front of my heaters so the tank was not cooking itself. On to Apex #3 in a day or 2. Is this a systemic problem with these things? I know SD cards have a finite read/write lifespan but come on man I have yet to see one of these last a year so far. Really barely 6 months and this has the potential to destroy your tank heck even your house if someone is willing to trust everything from pumps, heaters and auto top off. Or do i just have crap luck?

 

[All_talk]

I haven't read about others having repeated failures and I think some people have had memory card issue after a power outage. How clean is your power?

I hope you get it sorted out, changing out controllers every six months would be miserable, warranty or not.

 

[Dburr1014]

Anyone else in your grid having problems?
Might want to look into a surge protector.

 

[LRT]

Discouraging to see this. Just had to replace my base unit a little under 9 months.

 

[Gut Pile]

Anyone else in your grid having problems?
Might want to look into a surge protector.

Have a whole house surge protector. The eb832 is on a gfci circuit as well. We have power outages from time to time. Have not had any false GFCI trips. Last actual outage we had everything came back up before the heartbeat alarm tripped.

 

[Gut Pile]

I haven't read about others having repeated failures and I think some people have had memory card issue after a power outage. How clean is your power?

I hope you get it sorted out, changing out controllers every six months would be miserable, warranty or not.

whole house surge protector. I have a fair amount of gear in the house. Apex is the only repeat failure. I ran multiple tanks for a long time without controllers so this whole experience is new to me.

 

[EugeneVan]

Anyone else in your grid having problems?
Might want to look into a surge protector.

I am about to ask the same question. Do you hook it up with surge protector? Or better connect to a proper sized UPS device for both surge protection and backup power. Users need to treat the Apex unit like a computer device (it is by the way)

 

[Gut Pile]

I am about to ask the same question. Do you hook it up with surge protector? Or better connect to a proper sized UPS device for both surge protection and backup power. Users need to treat the Apex unit like a computer device (it is by the way)

Goes into a surge protector on the wall. pumps go onto ups and i remove from the apex when on vacation. If this thing is truly that fragile i has no business being within a mile of a reef tank.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Seemes to be an at large issue with the A3's for sure. I'm at 6 months with an A2 and so far so good. The black labeled A1 apex I have wont die, lol and it will stay in service until it eventually does.

GL OP, hope you will get it figured out!

 

[rtparty]

Going on 8 years with Neptune stuff. Had an Apex Jr for more than 5 years and it was 2 years old when I got it. Not a single issue. My ApexEL is 3-4 years old. My buddy has it now. Not a single issue. The EB8 I used with the EL is now 8 years old. Not a single issue.

Got the A3 Pro last July. Not a single issue to date with any of it including the EB832.

Could it be something with your power? Maybe. Could it be really bad luck? Maybe. Could Neptune up their quality? Absolutely, but I could say this about every piece of equipment in this hobby

 

[14 foot reef]

Most of these types of complaints lead back to dirty power. The above advice is very solid, plug it into a properly sized and quality UPS. Every Apex I have seen act in this manor is directly related to the house power being very unstable and dirty. I'm truly sorry your having these issues. Neptune is working with you and replacing your units. THat is a stand up warranty when most likely they know its a power problem, not their equipment failing on its own.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Luckily nothing bad happened! I think this is a bigger issue than let on. I had a classic for many years without issue. I upgraded to an a3 around xmas so I could run a trident. The memory failed within four months. It’s not a power issue for me or several others. It was a sd card issue that is hopefully fixed now. I ask everyone that’s had this problem to hassle Neptune for an additional heartbeat type notification for memory failures. All the outlets can lock in whatever state they were in when the memory failed. When mine happened, my afs, heaters and chiller were stuck off. Co2 solenoid, lights, return pump stuck on. All alarm notifications were erased so no alarms were sent out. The head continues to communicate with fusion so there’s no heartbeat alarm. I added a dry switch contact that plugs into an outlet on the energy bar. The outlet is programmed to alternate on and off every four hours which opens or closes the switch. I have the switch monitored by my smart home. So now, if the memory fails and the outlets lock up again I’ll be notified within four hours. We shouldn’t have to come up with this solution it should be built in to the apex!

RT Series - Remote Power Control - AC Power Distribtion, Conditioning, and Control at JuiceGoose

AC power distribution, surge protection, battery backup, power conditioning and remote control for commercial AV, audio video and security.

www.juicegoose.com

 

[Gut Pile]

Luckily nothing bad happened! I think this is a bigger issue than let on. I had a classic for many years without issue. I upgraded to an a3 around xmas so I could run a trident. The memory failed within four months. It’s not a power issue for me or several others. It was a sd card issue that is hopefully fixed now. I ask everyone that’s had this problem to hassle Neptune for an additional heartbeat type notification for memory failures. All the outlets can lock in whatever state they were in when the memory failed. When mine happened, my afs, heaters and chiller were stuck off. Co2 solenoid, lights, return pump stuck on. All alarm notifications were erased so no alarms were sent out. The head continues to communicate with fusion so there’s no heartbeat alarm. I added a dry switch contact that plugs into an outlet on the energy bar. The outlet is programmed to alternate on and off every four hours which opens or closes the switch. I have the switch monitored by my smart home. So now, if the memory fails and the outlets lock up again I’ll be notified within four hours. We shouldn’t have to come up with this solution it should be built in to the apex!

RT Series - Remote Power Control - AC Power Distribtion, Conditioning, and Control at JuiceGoose

AC power distribution, surge protection, battery backup, power conditioning and remote control for commercial AV, audio video and security.

www.juicegoose.com

What would not suck - put the SD card in user removable slot. Have firmware download and more important - configuration download to re-apply. If this thing is so fragile that when a bird farts on the wire it causes the memory to corrupt then make it simple to fix. I'm probably going to test out the DIY fix on the old unit before sending back. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...-fix-with-preservation-of-programming.980165/

 

[EugeneVan]

Goes into a surge protector on the wall. pumps go onto ups and i remove from the apex when on vacation. If this thing is truly that fragile i has no business being within a mile of a reef tank.

May be they are not build like a few years back. I have 2 units running. One will be 8 year and the other will be close to 6 years old. Both are working really well and never has any issues. One thing you can try is plug the unit into another surge protector and see how it go. No all surge protectors are build the same.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

What would not suck - put the SD card in user removable slot. Have firmware download and more important - configuration download to re-apply. If this thing is so fragile that when a bird farts on the wire it causes the memory to corrupt then make it simple to fix. I'm probably going to test out the DIY fix on the old unit before sending back. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...-fix-with-preservation-of-programming.980165/

From what I understand it’s not the unit that’s fragile, they’ve been in service since 2016. It was a faulty batch of sd cards on a recent run of units. I think they’ve got it sorted out but I’m still nervous. There were a couple more people like you that had a unit warrantied and the replacement failed within months and needed another replacement…ugh.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I've had a really good run - I always have an aux P/S connected to all the APEX units used...

... if you can plug that aux P/S into an UPS, all the better.

I have some brains/eb8 with black label going back 16 years.

 

[Gut Pile]

From what I understand it’s not the unit that’s fragile, they’ve been in service since 2016. It was a faulty batch of sd cards on a recent run of units. I think they’ve got it sorted out but I’m still nervous. There were a couple more people like you that had a unit warrantied and the replacement failed within months and needed another replacement…ugh.

That's what it smells like to me.

 

[KENNETH COMBS]

Going on 8 years with Neptune stuff. Had an Apex Jr for more than 5 years and it was 2 years old when I got it. Not a single issue. My ApexEL is 3-4 years old. My buddy has it now. Not a single issue. The EB8 I used with the EL is now 8 years old. Not a single issue.

Got the A3 Pro last July. Not a single issue to date with any of it including the EB832.

Could it be something with your power? Maybe. Could it be really bad luck? Maybe. Could Neptune up their quality? Absolutely, but I could say this about every piece of equipment in this hobby

just adding sample…..My black labeled Jr is still ticking whereas my New A3 is flaking out on me already

 

[Gut Pile]

Did the SD card swap while waiting for the replacement. Card was definitely jacked. Was not able to copy everything but gave it a shot anyway. Lots of read timeouts on a few diff devices I tried. Popped in the half done copy and it worked. Everything came back to life and seems to be behaving normally. So the first thing I'm going to do once I get the new unit up and configured is back up. Sad that this is also the only way I know of to actually backup an Apex.

 

[Gut Pile]

Just had our first power outage of the summer. When it came backonline the new apex could not find the lights (2 Skys), trident or LFS. I had to redo the setup process. So that's weird.