Tunze ATO Screwed Me Up

[wiselyy73]

We had many short power outages in our neighborhood today due to some repairs in the community. Every time when the power back up the ATO pumped water into the sump. It almost emptied out my 5g reservoir. Are there any other reliable ATO that doesn’t goes on every time when power on?

 

[CMO]

Is this the version with the redundant float? If so does the float not stop the initial fill if already tripped?

 

[CMO]

Also, with something as critical as ATO I like to have two independent devices managing max fill. I run a sump high optical sensor on my Apex that would shut down the ATO outlet in this case after the initial overfill. So if you already have an apex and open FMM slot maybe that's an easy option.

 

[Hemmdog]

We had many short power outages in our neighborhood today due to some repairs in the community. Every time when the power back up the ATO pumped water into the sump. It almost emptied out my 5g reservoir. Are there any other reliable ATO that doesn’t goes on every time when power on?

If you open up the controller you can disable the auto fill on power up. Saw someone with a similar problem on here and they talked to Tunze and that’s what they said to do.

 

[User]

If you open up the controller you can disable the auto fill on power up. Saw someone with a similar problem on here and they talked to Tunze and that’s what they said to do.

Why is that even a ‘feature’?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I had a tunze ATO for 6-7 years. I always unplugged when doing a water change or I was doing something else. It did that to me too. Glad hemmdog said that.

Why would they design the pump to turn on just because the power went out?

 

[Hemmdog]

Why is that even a ‘feature’?

Not sure lol. Maybe to clear the line assuming your power never goes out and it really is the initial power up. I think Germany has a pretty reliable power infrastructure compared to other places.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Not sure lol. Maybe to clear the line assuming your power never goes out and it really is the initial power up.

Good point, or maybe to avoid/stop a siphon that started when the power went out. But that is why they say to run a vent in the instructions.

 

[User]

Good point, or maybe to avoid/stop a siphon that started when the power went out. But that is why they say to run a vent in the instructions.

An air gap works for that.

You should never submerge a tube if the other end is below the water level, for exactly that reason

Besides- that would only work if the power outage is a blip. Having a ‘siphon break’ that only works once the power resumes leaves you totally screwed if the power goes out for more than 15 minutes...