Skimmer pump current draw?

[coweyes298]

I have a Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer for a year and a half now. Recently I upgrade my controller and I can check the actual current drawn from socket. My skimmer shows the current is at 0.75 A! If just do the math that means 120V * 0.75A = 90 W

The Nyos 160 spec. has listed the pump is 18W...
Is my math wrong or is the pump not acting as spec. listed?

The last time I cleaned the skimmer pump is about 6 months ago, is it possible lack of cleaning will cause the pump efficiency to decrease?

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[coweyes298]

I took my skimmer out for a deep clean. Venturi intake has lots of white build up (calcium?) and causing it not self primed everytime it restarts.

But after cleaning the skimmer current draw is still 0.75 A. Even my Abyzz A200 return pump is drawing less current than my skimmer (I ran my Abyzz at 53W, the 0.4 A drawn is correct from both calculation and real practice).

Unless Nyos mis-stated their skimmer pump wattage I couldn't figure out why @@

 

[Mandelstam]

Is it possible that the pump runs on 24V? Because then 18W would be correct.

 

[coweyes298]

Pump is a AC one, with rated wattage of 18W and 120V. Its like regular AC pump with cord out directly to the outlet. I don't think it is a 24V .

 

[Mandelstam]

Just googled a pic of the pump and it says 230V/18W... So unless they lower the voltage internally it is a bit weird..

 

[coweyes298]

I took a glance while cleaning yesterday and it should be 120V. Maybe it is 120V ~ 240V which I weren't paying much attention. But in States the wall plug is 120V so it doesn't matter... And most device are now having a wide range of voltage input.

 

[JoshH]

Maybe have a look at the power supply and see what it's putting out for power? It should say if it's putting out 12 or 24V

 

[Mandelstam]

Probably depends on where it's sold.

https://reefs.com/2016/12/16/product-review-nyos-quantum-160-skimmer/

 

[coweyes298]

Probably depends on where it's sold.

https://reefs.com/2016/12/16/product-review-nyos-quantum-160-skimmer/

Yes. That picture is from reefs review website in UK. 240v.

 

[Mandelstam]

Yes. That picture is from reefs review website in UK. 240v.

My guess is that it has an internal voltage regulator so it can take 110-230V or something and then they just change the labels depending on where it's sold.

But either way the wattage should be the same wherever it's being measured right? So if you measure 90W at the plug it can't draw 18W in the pump...

 

[coweyes298]

I remember @Broadfield has the same Nyos 160 with APEX 2016. I use GHL Profilux 4 but it shouldn't matter. I pm'ed him about the issue I have and let's see if he has some feedback about this.

 

[emvanburen]

I have this skimmer and per my apex it is running at 53w. It is showing .7A which with a .7 power factor would be 58w so pretty close to the wattage reading.

 

[coweyes298]

I have this skimmer and per my apex it is running at 53w. It is showing .7A which with a .7 power factor would be 58w so pretty close to the wattage reading.

Hmm. So it seems like 18 W is not idle...Power factor is playing a role in there....

Man maybe I will need to change skimmer someday. It is just ridiculous that skimmer is using more energy than my other device by a lot...