Tunze ato alternative replacement pump

spsick · Oct 12, 2022

Oops I have ran mine dry at least 50 times in 4years still going strong primes up fine. Tunze quality is just unmatched.

Mjl714 · Oct 12, 2022

Montiman said:
I know this is an old thread but I thought I would give my experience with these. I have had at least 4 osmolators over the years and I used to work at an LFS where we installed/sold nearly 100.

I have had pretty good luck with the pumps. My current pump is at least 6 years old as I haven't replaced it since my last tank move. On the other hand, I had multiple customers who seemed to replace the pump every 3-6 months. I never understood what was going wrong until it finally clicked. My current osmolator pump is in a container with a spectrapure dual float level controller. In other words the container never runs empty it runs to the last 3 in and then the spectrapure system turns on refilling it to the top. All of the customers who burned through pumps were commercial installs where a service technician would only stop by every 1-2 weeks to refill the top-off container. These pumps ran dry every 1-2 weeks for a strait 10 minutes before the osmolator safety timer turned off the pump. This is really bad for the pump.

As long as you don't let the pump run dry it should last a long time. It is best to top off your reservoir before it is close to 0, add a level sensor to your container to notify you that the level is low, or invest in an auto-filling system like the spectrapure one I have.

My experience is similar to yours, I find these ATO pumps are lasting for years, the only one I ever lost was subject to fully saturated kalk and still survived for years. Like you, I don’t let these pumps run dry, good point.

Montiman · Oct 12, 2022

afrokobe said:
I have had two nano units for longer than 2 years now. I have run them dry numerous times, but they still work for me. One of them is extremely loud, but I haven't felt the need to replace it. Are the pumps different from the nano and the normal?

Same Pump. I know tunze chose these pumps because they are supposed to be able to run dry but that doesn't mean that running them dry is good. Same thing with LED lights. I have had multiple kessil lights over the years that all have "waterproofing" but the one A360 Non WE that I have been running since 2012 is the light that is 14in off the surface. the other 3 lights that I purchased at that time that were 8in off the water's surface have died. We all love durable equipment but it is best to be as kind to our equipment as we can be.