Via Aqua 1300 a good pump?
 

Is this a good pump to use for watercooling?
what are the pros and cons for this pump?

IMHO:

1) They run hot and are rated at 28W
EDIT: pointed out by Cova below, pump is rated at 28W, NOT 20Amps.
2) 1 in 2 is a rattler (impeller makes annoying noise).
3) Cheap and powerful; 370gph at 0'.
4) Yes, I bought two of them.

You can usually find them in pairs for +-US$ 14.00 ea. at the aquarium section of ebay.com

1) rattle can be cured... superglue the impellor to the shaft. Amazing how much more quiet my pump is after doing this (note quieter than my Hydor L30)

2) It does run slightly hotter than say a Hydor

3) be careful of overtightening non Via barbs... The casing appears to be not as sturdy as other pumps. I accidentally cracked the front intake around the barb. Since then, I've sealed the entire front of the pump with jb weld (cold weld) to prevent future cracks/leaks.

hands down one of the best pumps in terms of price/performance, but would be curious to hear long term reliability reports from people who have been running this particular pump for 1yr+.

I had bought the Via Aqua 1300 as a temp solution while waiting for a replacement Hydor L30 under warranty (too much rattling). I got a new replacement Hydor this week, but I am happy to keep running with the Aqua.

running my via aqua 24/7 for maybe 2 months now, it is warm to the touch, but its silent!, no rattles or anything,

I've got two of them. The first one's impeller was mysteriously chipped during normal use and thus was unbearably loud, it lased about 7 months. The one I'm using now has been going strong with no problems for about equal time. The pump does produce more heat than Hydor, but if you have a decent radiator or heatercore it won't be a big deal.
I DEFINATELY prefer the VA1300 over all of the EHEIM pumps because of size/performance, and I have never tried a Hydor personally so I can't really judge.
-Zoson

I've been running a ViaAqua 1300 continuously for close to 1.5 years now (well, it just had a couple weeks to relax as I upgraded and rebuilt pretty much my entire system, but its back running again now). It never made any noise at all before, but after the rebuild it rattles a bit. After Fragapalooza I'm going to open it up and try the superglue trick, but I don't want to risk anything causing my computer to not be functioning for Frag so i will just live with the noise till the end of this week. I think the first poster made a rather large typo though giving it a rating of 20A - 20A at 110V would be a DAMN lot of electricity. It is however rated at 23W, which is what I think he meant. I used to have a thermistor taped to the side of it from a digidoc-type device, and the pump would max out sometimes near 70C (thats running the pump 24/7 even if the computer (and rad-fan) are off - once the rad-fan is spinning it would cool back down a bunch.

I'm planning on upgrading it to a Hydor L30 in the next while though, because I don't think the Via has the power to keep my system cool anymore when I add the GPU and northbridge WB's (currently just a Maze-2 and rad, no res, in the loop).

My (big) mistake, thanks for pointing it out.

Hmm.. Reading the specs in the booklet that came with the pump, it rates the 1300 at 31.5W, and the sticker on the pump rates it at 28W, what gives?... No harm done anyway.

I was just going from memory about mine being 23W - 8's look like 3's so you could be right there. And I never got a book with mine, so I am going by the sticker. But today when I get home I will double-check it and correct myself if needed. Not that 5W really matters that much anyways.