Why? WHY??!!

Jedi1199 · Jul 11, 2022

Ok, one thing I have noticed for decades in aquarium keeping... WHY are the power cords on equipment so darn short!!!!

Tanks sit on stands that are at eye level for the most part... Not everyone has the luxury of an outlet directly behind, or next to a tank.

Even with a power strip, I have found that a number of items that need to be in the display, wavemakers and such, have such a short power cord that I still need an extension cord in order to plug them in. What a pain!!!

AydenLincoln · Jul 11, 2022

Jedi1199 said:
Ok, one thing I have noticed for decades in aquarium keeping... WHY are the power cords on equipment so darn short!!!!

Tanks sit on stands that are at eye level for the most part... Not everyone has the luxury of an outlet directly behind, or next to a tank.

Even with a power strip, I have found that a number of items that need to be in the display, wavemakers and such, have such a short power cord that I still need an extension cord in order to plug them in. What a pain!!!

FACTS! Especially the Waterbox pump ugh.

Jedi1199 · Jul 11, 2022

Here is a prime example!!... This is a Flexzion WaveMaker. It is sittling on top of my old tank stand which is 48 inches across...

WHO designed this cord for an item that is obviously meant for a larger tank????

blaxsun · Jul 11, 2022

Short?! I have the exact opposite scenario - everything is too darned long! I'd actually prefer shorter cords - because then I could just wire in a break point with a 1-3' extension without having to bundle everything up.

Jedi1199 · Jul 11, 2022

blaxsun said:
Short?! I have the exact opposite scenario - everything is too darned long! I'd actually prefer shorter cords - because then I could just wire in a break point with a 1-3' extension without having to bundle everything up.

LOL.. I'll trade ya!!

Sean Clark · Jul 11, 2022

I particularly like when Waterbox did a video on one of their new tanks showcasing their integrated control board and the cord to one of their mp40 or mp60 pumps wasn't long enough to reach the control board so they just mounted the controller on the back of the tank.

Epic fail. Get a Tunze and be done with it.

Koh23 · Jul 11, 2022

Power cord are so cheap, so there really isnt impact on cost of product, 0.5m cord or 5m price is the same....

But....extension cables is the name of the game.... Why sell equipment with long cords, when you can sell it separately, and charge one meter of cord 20$....

I recently buy some unbranded no name very cheap chinese pump, i needed something powerfull but cheap, my main return pump was on repair.... 15m of high quality soft rubber cable, i snapped it at 3m (long enough for everyrhing) and voila...

maroun.c · Jul 11, 2022

Some quality pumps allow you 2 choices of cords lengths.

Sean Clark · Jul 11, 2022

maroun.c said:
Some quality pumps allow you 2 choices of cords lengths.

Abyz comes to mind but what in tank pumps offer two cord lengths?

maroun.c · Jul 11, 2022

Abyzz was the one I mentioned as I had an issue with extended distance between controller and pump and abyzz had the option. For in tank wavemakers I get enough cable length with vortechs and tunze that I use and believe maxspect sells a cable extension.

blaxsun · Jul 11, 2022

I like the cables on my Red Sea ReefWaves. They have a break near the gyre (for removal, cleaning and maintenance) and then you can attach any number of cable lengths (I think they have 2-3 sizes) to get it to fit better.

This allowed me to have a have a longer left than the right one, as the mounting point for the controllers is all the way over to the right.

BaliReefBox · Jul 30, 2022

Koh23 said:
Power cord are so cheap, so there really isnt impact on cost of product, 0.5m cord or 5m price is the same....

Um not true....the old story of american airlines reducing thier first class olive portion from 5 to 3...saved them over a million dollars a year.... so 4.5mtr of power cord by 500,000 units how many times is that around the world