Neptune APEX Reliability (Shocking in my experience!)

[Amado]

I have been slowly moving away from Neptune products. I had my head unit replace and my tank was down. They replaced it but I couldn’t use the wav pumps.
I had two ATK go bad and the auto feeder I had two also and they work some times.
I think more companies kessil / eco tech are moving away from apex and looks like they are going to have their own controller.
I think the only product that I can say is good is the dos. I can’t trust the probes I have to always check it against some thing else. Once the apex dies I won’t replace it.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

Same boat my energy bar says outlets are on and they are not i have had so many issues with my apex and of course it was just when the warranty was up. It's all bs my apex I have is the newest model is the biggest lemon I have ever owned. I'm going to a different controller.. I think some are great and have no issues while others are just complete trash

 

[AquAttila]

Welcome to the wonderful crap products produced in the fish keeping hobby! I have had so many failed equipment ... things hardly last a year. As for apex, same issues ... many problems and unreliable equipment. The one thing I will say is they have good customer service... unlike some others.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I have an ehiem auto feeder that is 5 years old no issues my neptune feeder lasted about 9 months. Amd it was loud. I took it apart it looks cheap.

 

[Jdubyo]

No! I was just about to set up my first Apex! This is not something that has improved over the years?

 

[DHill6]

No! I was just about to set up my first Apex! This is not something that has improved over the years?

I haven’t had any problems with mine except the salitinty probe only lasts so long.

 

[Doctorgori]

Same boat my energy bar says outlets are on and they are not i have had so many issues with my apex and of course it was just when the warranty was up. It's all crap my apex I have is the newest model is the biggest lemon I have ever owned. I'm going to a different controller.. I think some are great and have no issues while others are just complete trash

I’ve had no issues with the head units, for me its the peripheral add on that go awry

Welcome to the wonderful crap products produced in the fish keeping hobby! I have had so many failed equipment ... things hardly last a year. As for apex, same issues ... many problems and unreliable equipment. The one thing I will say is they have good customer service... unlike some others.

I’m gonna say excellent, I’m sure they spend a lot of salary on phone support. IME its a mixed bag: some products seem reliable, others like their AFS, not so much.

I have an ehiem auto feeder that is 5 years old no issues my neptune feeder lasted about 9 months. Amd it was loud. I took it apart it looks cheap.

same, exactly

No! I was just about to set up my first Apex! This is not something that has improved over the years?

Currently & unfortunately Neptune has provided the biggest suite of interoperability gear and solves a myriad of reefing task and problems. Problem is a few key manufacturers jumped ship and went the proprietary route, not a good trend.

 

[PurpleMonsterSlayer]

No! I was just about to set up my first Apex! This is not something that has improved over the years?

In my opinion none of the problems have actually been fixed. A couple of years ago I picked up two Apex units and I GHL to run different tanks. One of my Apex units I had the base unit replaced five times within the warranty. And two times after the warranty. The other Apex base unit has worked good for the most part with out problems. I’ve had all kinds of other Apex gear fail me though out the years and have come to the conclusion that a certain percent of their products are just faulty and if you go through them in the warranty to get it replaced they will just send you another faulty part. So if something happens to break you’re better off just replacing it with something brand new instead of going through the warranty at least this way you’ll have a chance of getting a product that will work.

Good news is I have found out you can dismantle the apex base unit and replace the usb WiFi dongle if your running into internet connect issues and you can also add a usb bluetooth dongle to connect but you’ll have to remove the micro usb card and do a little configuration on your computer to make it connect to your phone tablet thru usb instead. I haven’t perfected it yet but I’m in the process of try to configure Bluetooth outlets to work thru apex instead of using the energy bar.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

Richardg how is the ghl unit thats the replacement im leaning towards

 

[PurpleMonsterSlayer]

Richardg how is the ghl unit thats the replacement im leaning towards

I haven’t had any problems with it since I’ve had it it’s run flawlessly

 

[Kershaw]

I’m in the process of a new build also and was so looking forward getting Apex and trident. Being color blind testing mag and cal is difficult.
I had a apex jr since 2012 and I have always struggled to keep it online but other then that has worked flawlessly.
GHL really dose not appeal to me, so maybe hydros...
I wish we could see real failure rate numbers.

 

[PurpleMonsterSlayer]

I’m in the process of a new build also and was so looking forward getting Apex and trident. Being color blind testing mag and cal is difficult.
I had a apex jr since 2012 and I have always struggled to keep it online but other then that has worked flawlessly.
GHL really dose not appeal to me, so maybe hydros...
I wish we could see real failure rate numbers.

I think there are more out there that work correctly then systems that have failures but I have always struggled to get anything apex to work properly for longer then a week. With the trident one set of reagents will read properly and the next set will be off. Here’s a picture of the Alk the dip to 8.1 was when I ran the calibration and testing the alk with Hanna checker and Red Sea both red in the 8.3-8.7 range and trident reads 14.