Yeah, it happened, dosing pump kept running and running

Harold999 · Jun 25, 2022

One and a half year old Jebao 3.4

Channel 3 kept running. Luckily the channel is connected to a jerrycan of saltwater which i use to keep salinity up, and the jerrycan was as good as empty. So no damage.
All other channels and my tank could have been gone now.

Pulled the plug of the Jebao and put it back in, but channel 3 keeps running. Tried resetting, keeps running.

So owners of the 3.4, be aware. Can't trust it.

P-Dub · Jun 25, 2022

Harold999 said:
One and a half year old Jebao 3.4

Channel 3 kept running. Luckily the channel is connected to a jerrycan of saltwater which i use to keep salinity up, and the jerrycan was as good as empty. So no damage.
All other channels and my tank could have been gone now.

Pulled the plug of the Jebao and put it back in, but channel 3 keeps running. Tried resetting, keeps running.

So owners of the 3.4, be aware. Can't trust it.

1.5 years is not that bad for a Jebao doser. Fortunately, no problems for 3 years for me. All things break, some sooner than others. An apex Eb8 of mine died after only 9 months... Equipment fails in this hobby regardless of the manufacturer.

Harold999 · Jun 25, 2022

P-Dub said:
1.5 years is not that bad for a Jebao doser. Fortunately, no problems for 3 years for me. All things break, some sooner than others. An apex Eb8 of mine died after only 9 months... Equipment fails in this hobby regardless of the manufacturer.

A doser that doesn't dose anymore is fine by me. Replace it and move on. However, a doser that gets stuck in the on position is unacceptable, it can wipe out your tank. I was extremely lucky with this one.

P-Dub · Jun 25, 2022

Harold999 said:
A doser that doesn't dose anymore is fine by me. Replace it and move on. However, a doser that gets stuck in the on position is unacceptable, it can wipe out your tank. I was extremely lucky with this one.

Yup. Do you use a controller such as Apex? That's one way to deal with unacceptable failures.... until it fails as well...
One reason to design your system is to have backups and methods to prevent catastrophes, such as limiting the volume to dose or top-off at any one time.

Harold999 · Jun 25, 2022

P-Dub said:
Yup. Do you use a controller such as Apex? That's one way to deal with unacceptable failures.... until it fails as well...
One reason to design your system is to have backups and methods to prevent catastrophes, such as limiting the volume to dose or top-off at any one time.

Not easy to limit particular dosing elements, unless you're wanting to refill the container every couple of days or so.
Few people do that.

P-Dub · Jun 25, 2022

Harold999 said:
Not easy to limit particular dosing elements, unless you're wanting to refill the container every couple of days or so.
Few people do that.

OK.

Spare time · Jun 25, 2022

Harold999 said:
One and a half year old Jebao 3.4

Channel 3 kept running. Luckily the channel is connected to a jerrycan of saltwater which i use to keep salinity up, and the jerrycan was as good as empty. So no damage.
All other channels and my tank could have been gone now.

Pulled the plug of the Jebao and put it back in, but channel 3 keeps running. Tried resetting, keeps running.

So owners of the 3.4, be aware. Can't trust it.

Auto dosing gives me anxiety. I really don't care about spending 30 seconds of my life each day dosing lol

Harold999 · Jun 25, 2022

Spare time said:
Auto dosing gives me anxiety. I really don't care about spending 30 seconds of my life each day dosing lol

Do you dose Ca/KH/Mg etcetera once a day or?

Harold999 · Jun 25, 2022

I opened the doser and looked if i could find something, maybe the manual button stuck or something (never used that but anyways). I changed the wiring (put the wiring to pump C to D) and then pump D was stuck in the on position, so it looks like it's the chip on the board.

I'll bet this same chip is also used in much more expensive dosers so it's Russian roulette, it can happen to any brand.

Harold999 · Jun 26, 2022

P-Dub said:
...such as limiting the volume to dose or top-off at any one time.

Think i'm going for this: Just pull the hose in the container up and lower it a little every couple of days. It's the easiest quick fix i could think of.

exnisstech · Jun 26, 2022

Harold999 said:
Do you dose Ca/KH/Mg etcetera once a day or?

I do Ca and KH manually once a day. 2 part sits on the toilet tank so I remember. I only dose 10ml as it's a small tank. Alk goes into the overflow cal in the display where the return flow is. I do it back to back and have been for over a year. I'm a manual kind of guy. I guess I'm lucky to have time to for tinkering with the tanks.

Paleozoic_reefer · Jun 26, 2022

Harold999 said:
Think i'm going for this: Just pull the hose in the container up and lower it a little every couple of days. It's the easiest quick fix i could think of.

This is a great idea! I have the same doser and I’m also worried this will happen in time.

Harold999 · Jun 26, 2022

Paleozoic_reefer said:
This is a great idea! I have the same doser and I’m also worried this will happen in time.

Yeah, still more convenient than manual dosing. Just lower the hose little by little let's say once or twice a week.

GarrettT · Jun 26, 2022

Have you looked into a calcium reactor? It is certainly the safer option. If no, you could always manually add the daily limit to the bottle and just have it dosed multiple times per day without worrying about a catastrophe if it were to fail.

TooTall · Jun 26, 2022

Dose your dosing..! Most of the time people only use the first two heads on their Jabao…use two heads to dose from gallon jugs into smaller containers, then dose tank from smaller containers. Offset dosing time a few mins….now the worst thing to happen….a gallon of esv on the floor but a grin on your face knowing what you avoided ..!

ZombieEngineer · Jun 26, 2022

This is a common problem with jebaos. I got one of the early generations in like 2013 I think and it lasted a whole 6 months before one channel stuck on and I trashed it and switched to kalkwasser in my ATO. Thank goodness it was the magnesium that stuck on and not my Alkalinity. Only got up to 1500 ppm cause the container was almost maybe 1/4 full when it happened.

Harold999 · Jun 27, 2022

ZombieEngineer said:
This is a common problem with jebaos.

I think it can happen with all brands. The chip on the pcb that switches the pumps on/off isn't Jebao but from a generic chipmaker. Dosing pump manufacturers don't have a lot of options here i guess.

InactiveAcct · Jun 27, 2022

Wow yeah I’m paranoid about dosing and auto top offs. It’s harder to design a fail safe for a dosing pump than an ATO. I have an ATO, but as far as dosing goes I decided to do All For Reef by hand once a day, don’t foresee any accidents lol

Was curious about why you’re dosing saltwater? Is that part of an automatic water change system? It sounded like it wasn’t

Harold999 · Jun 27, 2022

DanTheReefer said:
Wow yeah I’m paranoid about dosing and auto top offs. It’s harder to design a fail safe for a dosing pump than an ATO. I have an ATO, but as far as dosing goes I decided to do All For Reef by hand once a day, don’t foresee any accidents lol

Was curious about why you’re dosing saltwater? Is that part of an automatic water change system? It sounded like it wasn’t

I dose saltwater because if i only top off with rodi my salinity goes down, because when you do tests or take out your filterfloss, you're taking salt water out of the system. If you replace that with just rodi salinity goes down.

Harold999 · Jul 8, 2022

Paleozoic_reefer said:
This is a great idea! I have the same doser and I’m also worried this will happen in time.

Found an issue though with this method of pulling the dosing line up.
Looks like the fluid will drop back a little towards the dosing container during the day, so not the right amount will be dosed.