Neptune AFS Experienes

[dangles]

What's everybody's experience with the AFS?

I bought a used one and a new one. The used one works fine. The new one would extend, rotate once, then rotate in reverse a half turn and try to retract, getting stuck in the process, but it only did it when there was food in it! It works fine when empty (super useful, right?). If I don't exceed about 20% capacity it seems to work ok. BRS sent me a replacement anyway, so now I have three.

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However, they're ALL noisy as HELL. All 3 sound like the gears are grinding. The $30 Chinese one I bought from Amazon is MUCH MUCH quieter. I'm pretty disappointed with them tbh. For the price, and the reputation of Neptune, they're kinda junk. But I want my feeders integrated into my Apex system so.....

I have a couple of engineer friends who love to tinker. I may see if they can replace the motor/gears with something quieter and stronger.

 

[dangles]

Ugh. Misspelled the thread title

Can a mod help me out?

 

[NotoriousDMC]

Have one. It’s fine and I certainly wouldn’t want to go without some auto-feeder at this point. That said, IMHO, Apex needs a serious refresh. See, for example, Red Sea’s ATO.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Common issue. The internal gears have a white grease that over time gets on the position sensor and causes that problem. Take it apart, clean the sensor, put it back together and you’re good. If I remember correctly there is a how to guide on here somewhere if you need a pictorial on how to do it

Edit. I didn’t notice it was new and you had it replaced already. Normally they work great, but yes are noisy but nothing in comparison to the dos ha

 

[nezw0001]

Noisy, tough to adjust correctly (the slide is not precise enough) and the worst part is that the front often times pops off while trying to remove the drum.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Junk, utter junk. Hard pass for 100 bucks new. Will buy the cheap chinese ones first. Between the noise and removing the drum, never again.

 

[slythy]

Mines been going well for over a year. I did have it stop working at one point. All i did was disassemble it, clean and light grease and it has been fine since. Im happy with it

 

[blaxsun]

They work good, but they need a "refresh"/redesign, ie:

• Higher reliability (these should last more than 1-2 years)
• Redesigned feed slider to allow for more than "starve" or "glutton" settings
• New feed drum design where you don't dump the whole thing in the tank when the lid comes off trying to pull the drum out.

 

[davidrod8]

I'm on my third one, honestly don't know why I bother. They keep getting stuck, not going all the way around. Hard to depend on this product. Plenty of other cheaper options in the market.