My experience with RLSS and the new DB6i

[60squared]

Just wanted to weigh in on this company/product before you went out and purchased it like I did. Fist of all its probably my fault for not waiting untill this product was out for awhile but i figured i would be the guinea pig and give them a chance. I purchased the the skimmer from Aquatic Warehouse in San Diego online and they took excellent care of me even sent me a new skimmer pump/controller at no cost and let me keep the old one they were very easy to deal with and very nice which brings me to the skimmer. its advertised as scilent and has the new around the neck air scilencer...well its not, in fact its significantly louder than my drain with over 1000gph. the new Waveline dc2700s pump puts out good power...when its running. both pumps I have sometimes run like an engine with a bad spark plug or fuel injector if that makes any sence on startup usually and sometimes after it has been running for an extended period of time they both spit and sputter and the second pump does not like to run on full power sometimes my protein head will go almost all the way back down the skimmer body before the pump catches back up/starts running again and starts a sucking noise like mad untill the pump catches back up, it is extremely inconsistent. I wanted to hold off on giving this although honest negative review for the sake of a newer company but I have emailed them about the problem more than once and they dont even respond if the word warranty comes up, they are very responsive with questions about new products of if your a potential customer. thought I would be very happy as I was switching from a cheap SCA 302 skimmer but so far this thing makes that skimmer look like an angel. I've dealt with many faulty products and warrantys not only in aquarium related goods and this is one of the worst ive ever had to try to deal with and ive just given up on that. my advice would be although some of the appear to be good skimmers I hope you never have warranty issues with it and have to deal with the company directly because you'll just be out. thanks for reading and hope you all avoid bad purchases

 

[onecansay]

Hello 60. I have purchased the same unit and yes it is noisy. Not the air intake but the pump.
I have the fortunate situation that I am only 1 hour away from the actual "patent" holders' location here in Ontario Canada.
What I have learned so far is that the six speed controller DOES NOT work with this pump orientation.
Just got back home after hearing the skimmer set up in their tank. Yes it was quiet BUT it was running on their 11 speed APEX ready controller.
Got home and set up, same NOISE/GRINDING problem.
I spoke with Daniel, whom is the owner of RLSS and I will be going down AGAIN to get the APEX ready controller.
In Canada this unit cost $550.00, so be patient,
I was told that it was the way I installed the pump. BS.
Then it was that the pump o-ring may have been not properly installed!
Daniel also said to me on phone that he had drilled out a hole on the pump 1 millimeter larger. I will be asking what the heck on that one.
As it stands on April 9/2016 I have yet give this version of skimmer a full review BUT within the next 96 hours the full monty will come down.
I AM CANADIAN and as such will give a Canadian product its' due.
Stay tuned.

 

[60squared]

Good luck dealing with Daniel the pumps just a cheap Chinese point of sale period I've been through 2 alreasy.

 

[60squared]

And fyi my pump is also loud

 

[MRRBW]

Interesting reviews. They are hard to come by for this company. I've emailed them several times asking where these can be bought in Canada and simply never get a response. I've seen excellent reviews of their original skimmers, and some from tanks/reefers I looked up to, so still thinking of giving them a try, but they really need to work on their customer service.

 

[60squared]

What customer service? Like I said if I wouldn't have bought from aquatic warehouse I'd have been out 400 dollars. They are very responsive if your looking to buy won't respond if it's a warranty claim.

 

[60squared]

I tried everything with this company before I gave them a bad review I even made it clear I intended on posting reviews about the skimmer. Save yourself the headache and get a similar priced reef octopus or vertex

 

[60squared]

Aaaaaannnnnd it's dead.

 

[SlvrZ]

what all happened to it before it died? that wasnt a very long service life for such an expensive unit!

 

[60squared]

You think a year was a long service life for a 400 dollar skimmer? That I went through two pumps in? Must be a rich man.

 

[60squared]

My apologies I misread what you wrote. It's just been an unreliable unpredictable unit live and learn I guess

 

[SlvrZ]

My apologies I misread what you wrote. It's just been an unreliable unpredictable unit live and learn I guess

lol yeah I was wondering if you read someone else and commented on me. well that sucks, i'm approaching the one year mark on mine and my pump speeds up for a few seconds, then slows down to a "normal" spin for an hour or so then will speed up again. it's very inconsistent and i was wondering if yours was doing that before it kicked the bucket. i'm probably going to pull out my lifereef skimmer and get it ready for when this one kicks out

 

[Staggs]

I got mine from aquatics warehouse January 2016....so far I haven't had any issue with the waveline.....but the neck skimmer is loud on mine.

I went back and forth with Daniel for awhile and he finally sent me a external silencer.....I just use it and pretend the neck skimmer doesn't exist. I have mine hooked up via apex and run it at 90%. If I try to run it on max with the waveline controller the speed will go in and out.

The skimmer does skim good, but it's not the quietest and I feel like they really missed the mark on the neck silencer . I wouldn't spend $400 on the skimmer again.

I occasionally look at skimmers and if I ever find a good deal I will replace it.

Also for what it's worth coralvue now handles customer support for rlss.

 

[SlvrZ]

i got mine June of last year and that was the exact same problem i had/have with mine. i contacted aquariumspecialty and talked to Michael, Scott, and Jacki and they couldnt figure out the noise. they then forwarded me to Daniel Nguyen for their engineer/techs to come up with an issue. nothing really got resolved and i just had to live with a super loud skimmer. that was one problem, now the pump going out is another problem. should have just bought a vertex or RO at the same price level. i had to just have a "latest and greatest" BS lol