Well, after loosing my second mag in 2 weeks, I decided I was pissed enough to tear the bastards apart and show everyone what I saw, as to recommend AGAINST buying these, and doing yourselves a big favor and get a Laing DDC or D5 instead.
For those who are impatient, both pumps succome to fatal corrosion of the internal motor assembly. So far my only conclusion is that a little bit of water got inside through the opening where the wires come out of the base. I seem to remember an article very close to the release of these pumps that stated the real pumps had a coating on the inside, and the review version on hand did not have this feature so it could be taken apart for review purposes (if i find where I read that I will post it). But guess what, it is very much untrue. There is only a couple of blobs of epoxy on the bottom and
that's it. That is all that is protecting the whole motor from the environment. Nothing in the way of that small hole on the bottom whatsoever.
Now I will just say that I could be writing this out of spite, and my views might be scewed a bit because I basically threw money away on them. But I must ask
why are these not waterproofed? If anyone can tell me that they've set up a liquid cooling system without spilling or loosing trace of some liquid I would call you a liar. I am sure all that caused this kind of failure is only a few drops, just enough to coat a few electrical contacts and start to react. This is just bad, bad design. Seems obvious to me that these were designed to move liquid, and is very likely they will be exposed to some liquid on the outside as well. These were not designed for submerged use, but just a couple of drops? Im sorry, but that just sucks.
The first sign of this failure is when the pump can no longer kickstart itself when power is applied. The second pump would turn if you gave the impeller a little nudge. But not from a cold start.
Some pics of the damage-
The first pump-
Pump housing with 2 white epoxy blobs holding the motor in place. Note the very large and unplugged hole where the power cord come in.
Corrosion and damage to the bottom PCB
You can see the green oxidization and rust all over the magnets
Pump 2-
Where the corroded metals contacted the white plastic housing.
So what more can I say. These pumps are crap. Not only from this bad design, but one of mine had that famous *click*click* sound from day 1 and never really nulled itself out. Come to think about it more, both pumps were a little differant than one another. Im fairly sure the second one ran hotter than the first, at least it felt that way to my hands.
I appologize for anything said that seems like a rant or out of anger, but im not really sure how else to feel about it. Ive lost both of my pumps for what I feel is a pretty stupid reason, and there is nothing I can do to replace or save them. Guess there is a DDC in my future.
-Breach
