EB832 Death Screen?

[Chris155hp]

I’ve had 3/3 eb832 die in the last few years. They are horribly unreliable. I just had the new one they sent me die not even a month after use. I still have an original eb8 that’s going strong without issue that’s over 10 years old. The eb832 must use cheap cheap crappy components

 

[roman1]

I just had 2 of mine repaired from a friend of mine. He said that the fan pulls in salt residue causing the 12v power supply to fail. The power supply is a relatively cheap part that is only a couple of bucks. He replaced it with a better power supply which was only 10 bucks more than the cheaper version. I plugged it in and everything works perfectly.

 

[rkpetersen]

I just had 2 of mine repaired from a friend of mine. He said that the fan pulls in salt residue causing the 12v power supply to fail. The power supply is a relatively cheap part that is only a couple of bucks. He replaced it with a better power supply which was only 10 bucks more than the cheaper version. I plugged it in and everything works perfectly.

Another reason why it's a good idea to have your electrical equipment in a different compartment than the sump.

 

[rkpetersen]

I just had 2 of mine repaired from a friend of mine. He said that the fan pulls in salt residue causing the 12v power supply to fail. The power supply is a relatively cheap part that is only a couple of bucks. He replaced it with a better power supply which was only 10 bucks more than the cheaper version. I plugged it in and everything works perfectly.

I'd love to have a friend who can do this stuff easily.

 

[laverda]

Oh, I don't know let me try and help you out.

Do you own a car? Do you have a spare tire? Do you carry jumper cables?
Do you scuba dive? Do you have a secondary regulator? Spare air? Whistle? Flag?
Do you rent a home? Own a house? If do, do you keep spare lightbulbs? Toilet paper?
Do you sky dive? Have an emergency chute?
Heard of NASA? Yeah, they are big on redundancy.
Aircraft? Yeah - takes two engines to cross the Pacific or Atlantic with passengers.
Military? Yeah, we love spares too. Things like WRISK kits fundamental and I won't even go into air frames or personal gear.

So to your point about not understanding how anyone can have a system that you "have" to keep a spare is rather silly. A properly designed system will have some form of spare parts or redundancy built in. It can be in they system but not in use as a hot spare or it can be in a box for hot swap. If you don't I'd wager your chances of a failure are 75% if not higher and a total loss.

C19 alone should have made people pay attention due to supply chain difficulties, transportation priority changes, and various levels of lock down / shelter in place making overnight replacements scarce.

Note: This does not mean double of everything. What it does mean is that critical components be it a heater, pump, light, water, salt, or a container large enough to hold live stock should a tank fail be considered in case the hobbyist not being able to replace it in due time.

Don't take this the wrong way but this is pretty much common sense to me.

Sorry, but you don't keep a spare engine in the trunk for your car! Some spares like spar tire make sense. Having a spare car or all the components for it does not!
It would be different if these were sold at a bargain basement price, but they are sold at a premium! Way more then the cost of the cheap components involved. The cost of using decent capacitors instead of the lowest quality available is very little.
I consider my apex my back up to let me know when things are going wrong. and it has failed me too many times.

 

[laverda]

Another reason why it's a good idea to have your electrical equipment in a different compartment than the sump.

Yes it should not be to close to water and another compartment is idea. My apex equipment is in a area under my tank, yet I have had too many failures. However something designed for use around an aquarium should take moisture into account. Coatings on PC boards and electrical connections should be the norm! Housings can easily be designed to help keep moisture out. They don't have to be water proof, but some thought should be put into their purpose and be designed accordingly.

 

[_AV]

I have not seen a lot of EB832s failing due to moisture or salt (there are some no doubt, primarily related to aquabus ports rusting).

However, I get a lot (and I mean a whole lot) of EB832s that are failing due to low quality components inside. I'm working on a couple more repair articles which will continue to discuss these issues.

Original EB8s were built using much higher quality brand name parts. They were also simpler compared to EB832. Those are big factors in the overall stability of the product. Which the EB832 sorely lacks unfortunately.

 

[minus9]

I thought I would have time to repair mine, but I’m too busy with work and I’m not going to have much time off until July. I might have someone repair mine, but there may be another issue besides the PS?

 

[_AV]

I might have someone repair mine, but there may be another issue besides the PS?

Yes, there are other problems. Hold on a couple of weeks. I'll have another thread with some details.

 

[joshwaggs]

Did Neptune ever fix this or announce anything about it?

 

[_AV]

Did Neptune ever fix this or announce anything about it?

No official acknowledgements or announcements as far as I'm aware.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Hey, just wanted to take a moment and say thanks to @_AV for the repair videos. I finally got around to fixing my dead EB832 and your video was very helpful. One interesting thing that did occur is I had the small white relays chatter right after the repair was completed but before putting it all back together. After it was reassembled that chatter went away...?

 

[_AV]

Hey, just wanted to take a moment and say thanks to @_AV for the repair videos. I finally got around to fixing my dead EB832 and your video was very helpful. One interesting thing that did occur is I had the small white relays chatter right after the repair was completed but before putting it all back together. After it was reassembled that chatter went away...?

Thank you. Happy to hear you got it fixed.

The relay noise like this is common. Usually this happens when the control signal voltage drops below a threshold. I suspect that there is an external electromagnetic influence on the control circuit somewhere, which goes away once the unit is enclosed. Most of EB832s I repair exhibit this.

 

[minus9]

Did Neptune ever fix this or announce anything about it?

Neptune Systems will never openly or publicly admit to any failures in their products. They're not wired that way....see what I did there? It's too bad though, I think they would gain some needed respect in that department, but this is just my observation. As of right now, I have no future plans of owning/purchasing any Neptune gear.

 

[joshwaggs]

Neptune Systems will never openly or publicly admit to any failures in their products. They're not wired that way....see what I did there? It's too bad though, I think they would gain some needed respect in that department, but this is just my observation. As of right now, I have no future plans of owning/purchasing any Neptune gear

Lol

If they would at least say they are aware and working on a way to fix, that would help. Or even, just say they are aware.

it has been over a year. Maybe BRS will change it.

 

[minus9]

Lol

If they would at least say they are aware and working on a way to fix, that would help. Or even, just say they are aware.

it has been over a year. Maybe BRS will change it.

I doubt it, but one can only hope.

 

[I.AM.MR.MIKE]

I just had 2 of mine repaired from a friend of mine. He said that the fan pulls in salt residue causing the 12v power supply to fail. The power supply is a relatively cheap part that is only a couple of bucks. He replaced it with a better power supply which was only 10 bucks more than the cheaper version. I plugged it in and everything works perfectly.

How is this energy bar working? I like the idea of swapping in the meanwell part. It looks like the meanwell part is .85amp vs .5amp which is probably fine. If this is working good I will order a couple of these meanwell parts.