True? - EcoTech Marine Price increase

[Sarah24!]

They already have by charging their customers for parts rather than fix them unlike Neptune who focuses on customer satisfaction for customer retention. I will NEVER ever forgive Ecotech for the recent and ultimate slap in the face refusing to repair or replace my MP40QD that was shy of 8 months old and implying that it fell into the tank although it looked like new and is a DRY side (duh) and sent it back to me in pieces rather than re-assembling it the way they received it. I then attempted to call a customer relation mgr and left both email and phone message and it has been 9 days without courtesy of a reply. This IS the Service and support they furnish. Just a word of caution.
They lost an 11 year customer and former pet store owner for Life

Hello,

I’m sorry this happened to you and it’s not fair to anybody. Yes I’m hearing one side of the story, but your like (take a number), of them doing this. People laugh at me or think I’m insane for buying current usa products and I get what I paid for. The mp40 is twice what my current usa was, and I had a power supply problem one time. Current usa sent me a new one and another power supply. They sent it 3 day us priority and didn’t even hassle me. When I asked for the information to send my old one back they said no worries keep it just in case you need a spare.

If you need a wave maker until you figure what your going to do I’m open to letting you use the spare one. I run four of them in my 240 and they move some water. Again sorry you have had to go through this.

(No, for all those I’m not trying to compare them, or make others not use Ecotech). I just think for the price paid this person should not have to go through any of that. It’s like taking your Ferrari into the shop to have it fixed. Then the mechanic isn’t sure what’s wrong and says come tow your car to someone else. Oh all the parts we took off are in plastic bags on the floor on the passenger side, oh and their are some others here in the box. All the screws are here in a ziplock bag good luck lol). Sorry (true story from a patient that I had to help while in school).

 

[WWIII]

I'm glad that I was able to snag my xr15s on bf for $340 each. Now $445.19. Yikes! Ecotech makes nice gear, but this price increase and the sales tax enforcement will take some getting used to.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,

I’m sorry this happened to you and it’s not fair to anybody. Yes I’m hearing one side of the story, but your like (take a number), of them doing this. People laugh at me or think I’m insane for buying current usa products and I get what I paid for. The mp40 is twice what my current usa was, and I had a power supply problem one time. Current usa sent me a new one and another power supply. They sent it 3 day us priority and didn’t even hassle me. When I asked for the information to send my old one back they said no worries keep it just in case you need a spare.

If you need a wave maker until you figure what your going to do I’m open to letting you use the spare one. I run four of them in my 240 and they move some water. Again sorry you have had to go through this.

(No, for all those I’m not trying to compare them, or make others not use Ecotech). I just think for the price paid this person should not have to go through any of that. It’s like taking your Ferrari into the shop to have it fixed. Then the mechanic isn’t sure what’s wrong and says come tow your car to someone else. Oh all the parts we took off are in plastic bags on the floor on the passenger side, oh and their are some others here in the box. All the screws are here in a ziplock bag good luck lol). Sorry (true story from a patient that I had to help while in school).

Thanks k for kind words. This has become very typical of them and bottom line is we have Choices when it comes to Any consumer products. In time, people will see their direction and True color !!

 

[ReefWithCare]

Hello,

I’m sorry this happened to you and it’s not fair to anybody. Yes I’m hearing one side of the story, but your like (take a number), of them doing this. People laugh at me or think I’m insane for buying current usa products and I get what I paid for. The mp40 is twice what my current usa was, and I had a power supply problem one time. Current usa sent me a new one and another power supply. They sent it 3 day us priority and didn’t even hassle me. When I asked for the information to send my old one back they said no worries keep it just in case you need a spare.

If you need a wave maker until you figure what your going to do I’m open to letting you use the spare one. I run four of them in my 240 and they move some water. Again sorry you have had to go through this.

(No, for all those I’m not trying to compare them, or make others not use Ecotech). I just think for the price paid this person should not have to go through any of that. It’s like taking your Ferrari into the shop to have it fixed. Then the mechanic isn’t sure what’s wrong and says come tow your car to someone else. Oh all the parts we took off are in plastic bags on the floor on the passenger side, oh and their are some others here in the box. All the screws are here in a ziplock bag good luck lol). Sorry (true story from a patient that I had to help while in school).

I love my loop LEDs and EFlux wavemakers [emoji106]

 

[Sarah24!]

I love my loop LEDs and EFlux wavemakers [emoji106]

Hello,

I must say that they have definitely proven themselves to me and they are dead silent and move quite a bit of water. I do clean them every 3-6 months, and I should really clean my return pumps since I haven’t in 14 months. But they work amazing and have not failed me yet.

Like I posted earlier I did have one of the power supplies fail on me, and currrent USA sent me a whole new wavemaker everything plus an extra power supply. They wanted to make sure that something else didn’t cause the power supply to go bad. I still have the new one in the box, and using the extra power supply. Haven’t had any issues and I can say if you put these things on stream at 100% they definitely move some water. For 179 for the largest one, and three warranty it’s amazing quality and the service is exceptional. The leds are very bright I do wish we could dim them just a tad lol specially four in a row.

 

[BigJohnny]

Worst business decision ever

 

[Ashley Kekua]

Thanks k for kind words. This has become very typical of them and bottom line is we have Choices when it comes to Any consumer products. In time, people will see their direction and True color !!

were you the one that dropped the dry side in water?

 

[Rakie]

Ecotech has been the industry standard for how a company should treat their customers. They have the hands down best customer service in the hobby.

Man, I disagree with this heavily. Tunze set that bar and has maintained it long before EcoTech ever existed, and probably after EcoTech is long gone. Tunze still has the best warranties, products made with quality parts that aren't from the cheapest bidder, ALL parts are replaceable opposed to just some parts, or buying a whole new wet side, much more durable, much longer lasting.

In my experience, EcoTech has among the worst customer service in the hobby. The worst warranty. Heavily overpriced. Made of cheap components. Cannot replace several components.

 

[vetteguy53081]

were you the one that dropped the dry side in water?

Im the one they claim looks like it ended up in water. Not sure how a dry side held outside via magnets can fall into a tank especially since i have a 16” canopy on top of tank Plus glass covers???

 

[Ashley Kekua]

Im the one they claim looks like it ended up in water. Not sure how a dry side held outside via magnets can fall into a tank especially since i have a 16” canopy on top of tank Plus glass covers???

Ah sorry to hear your situation hope you can still try to gain positive outcome of it all

 

[Kengar]

WRT ecotech’s patents, there is a substantial amount of prior art that dates back to the 60’s for use in nuclear and chemical tank applications. Also there patent expires around 2026!

Earliest issued EcoTech patent I see, U.S. 7,393,188, should expire 124 days after March 16, 2026 (20 years from the non-provisional filing date, plus 124 days of term adjustment due to PTO delays during prosecution). There are a number of continuation applications claiming priority back to this patent, and they should all expire at about the same time (give or take depending on whether things called terminal disclaimers were filed (to make sure they co-terminate) or whether there is different term adjustment afforded to the other patents).

There is another family of ET patents I see, starting with U.S. 8,708,672 filed February 28, 2011. That patent should expire 539 days after February 28, 2031 (20 years from the non-provisional filing date, plus 539 days of term adjustment due to PTO delays during prosecution). There are continuations of this patent, too, and theses continuations should all expire at about the same time (give or take, as above) as the '672 patent expires.

There is nothing untoward about this, and it simply reflects the fact that ETM has an active program to protect its intellectual property.

 

[gobble]

I’ve had good luck with Ecotech’s service and have a lot of their stuff in my systems, but wow their pricing is making it pretty impossible to keep buying their stuff. It always seemed like they set pricing just outside the upper end of what people were willing to tolerate and have now jumped beyond that.

The Wayfair case and having to pay sales tax now makes that even worse (and eliminates the reason to buy online).

I just evaluated their returns pumps and ended up going with the Sicce ADV. It was half the price and probably more reliable.

 

[Joel Franco]

I currently do not own or use any Ecotech products but have used almost the entire product line excluding the return pumps in the past. In my opinion the prices reflect how much people are willing to spend on their product. If people were to stop buying their now $850 light that would force them to lower their prices so that they could meet their sales goal. I believe that most consumers are purchasing their overpriced products because they see all of the YouTubers, high end coral vendors and people like the guy from ReefBuilders using Ecotech products. Sure their products are well thought out but are they really worth what they are asking us to pay? The answer is NO. Look at the Radions for instance. How long have we been waiting for a built in WiFi, RF, or Bluetooth receiver built into the lights like AI? At $850 for an XR30 Gen 4 Pro it should come with a lot more bells and whistles. You have to spend another $99 plus tax to control their products with a ReefLink. I know that there I will get some backlash for saying this but I believe that Ecotech should have eaten the new tariff cost to keep consumers from paying even more for their already overpriced product line.

 

[Joel Franco]

.

 

[gobble]

I just went back and looked and I paid $666 each for 3 brand new XR30 Gen 4 pros from one of the stores that will quietly discount them. Decent price but that's still $2,000. If I bought those same lights today at MAP, I'm up to $2,661 with sales tax ($2,990 with the mounts). There's just no way I would pay that.

I have over $6,000 of Ecotech stuff in my two tanks at today's MAP. That's insane for a few lights and underwater fans.

I wonder if the tariffs were the reason the Black Friday deals were so nonexistent last year?

 

[Marineman90]

Per the title, is this true? Across the product line?

That’s why you don’t buy echo Tec over rated product. A lot more control with the ice cap gyre or maxspect

 

[adam finley]

People can blame tariffs all they want for the increase but let’s be honest that’s not the true reason for the increase. Why you may ask. If that was the true reason how come all the other electronics coming from there hasn’t increased that much? Actually a lot has still decreased coming from there. A few years ago before the “new tariffs”flat screen tv were easily over a grand. Now you can get better flats screens for 500 sometimes less. The only difference between jebao and ecotech is ecotech has a few more bells and whistles and cost 5x the amount. Oh I forgot the other difference ones American owned and the other Chinese. My jebao pump I own that comes China actually cost less now with the new tariffs then when I purchased pre tariffs. And no I’m not saying Jebao is better just a lot cheaper and the price hasn’t increased even though IMO you get more bang for your buck.

 

[bpseal]

Definitely,
How many testimonials have you read where Ecotech honored the warranty well past the 12 month period? Personally, I can't count the number of times. I know that we're comparing apples to oranges but how many of those Chinese companies are reinvesting their profits into R&D? I'd venture to say, "None". Although we don't hear about it, Ecotech is constantly improving their product line and it's safe to say they are working on new ideas everyday.

As for the honoring a wet dryside, that's user error. A few years ago, I dropped a brand new mp60 and shattered the casing, who's fault is that? Definitely not Ecotechs. I guess I can complain that the plastic used should've been shatter proof or that the weight of the dryside should've been lighter and adhered to the glass a little better, or I can just take it on the chin and learn from it. I can't speculate what happened in @vetteguy53071 case, but there had to have been irrefutable evidence that the wetside got wet for them to make such an accusation. For me it was a very expensive lesson with no one to blame but myself.

I wouldn't want to live in a world without companies like Ecotech, They're devotion to create a quality product and stand by it is second to none. One can argue that our hobby wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for the innovation of Ecotech.

How in the heck are they "constantly improving their product line and it's safe to say they are working on new ideas everyday"? G4's are over 4 years old now. MPXX's are 5 years old with QD. They aren't doing anything for innovation.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

A close friend of mine reached out to them and asked if they would allow her to demo their lights, wave makers, returns etc to show the difference between them and any brand they could think of. Their response was (well not surprising to me), they would provide all products at normal pricing (meaning the new price point), and said they would offer any assistance setting their products up. She was trying to use four g4 pros, 4 mp40 and 2 mp10 and one return pump. Including the battery backups, and reef link and stands. They were super thrilled to have one spend the money and do the work but wouldn’t help on price and or even donate ones that were used and fixed etc.

However, she asked a newer Chinese company (I have no idea who they are), but they offered almost everything as a donation and some items half off. She still is in school and would be a lab or at an aquarium location. On both companies she confirmed she would return all items and share all results.

It makes me sad and it’s depressing that even in our limited hobby (because not many do it), there are still ways society or business just can’t get away from the thought of money. No innovation no service, but they want the money. This isn’t just about Ecotech but as a whole. Insurance companies want your money but most of the time deny your claim. Toys are cheaply made but super costly, and I (probably sound long winded and ranting).

Could I afford their products yes, but i don’t want to be known for using Ecotech. I want to be known because I have an amazing tank, even with cheap equipment.

 

[jsvand5]

Hello,

A close friend of mine reached out to them and asked if they would allow her to demo their lights, wave makers, returns etc to show the difference between them and any brand they could think of. Their response was (well not surprising to me), they would provide all products at normal pricing (meaning the new price point), and said they would offer any assistance setting their products up. She was trying to use four g4 pros, 4 mp40 and 2 mp10 and one return pump. Including the battery backups, and reef link and stands. They were super thrilled to have one spend the money and do the work but wouldn’t help on price and or even donate ones that were used and fixed etc.

However, she asked a newer Chinese company (I have no idea who they are), but they offered almost everything as a donation and some items half off. She still is in school and would be a lab or at an aquarium location. On both companies she confirmed she would return all items and share all results.

It makes me sad and it’s depressing that even in our limited hobby (because not many do it), there are still ways society or business just can’t get away from the thought of money. No innovation no service, but they want the money. This isn’t just about Ecotech but as a whole. Insurance companies want your money but most of the time deny your claim. Toys are cheaply made but super costly, and I (probably sound long winded and ranting).

Could I afford their products yes, but i don’t want to be known for using Ecotech. I want to be known because I have an amazing tank, even with cheap equipment.

I’m not exactly a fan of ecotech, but I can’t think of any possible reason they would be willing to give, or even discount their products in the way your friend was hoping? What would stop everyone from telling them a similar story just to get discounts.
I’m also not sure they would love someone comparing their products that they either gave away or discounted with competitors products while having no idea on the methods of testing. What if this persons tests came out in favor of the competition? Then you gave away/discounted equipment for what basically becomes a commercial for your competition. I just think their risks far outweigh the possible benefits.