| mike31154 |
07-09-2012 04:57 PM |
Just had a little look around the net to find out more about these lights. Not difficult to understand what makes them so costly. The Aquatop is clearly something that the company put a lot of design effort into. Very high quality materials including curved glass covers. Sure there are plenty of other options out there with similar or perhaps more features, but I haven't seen too many that are this well designed. Like a Ferrari, also made in Italy, maniacal attention to detail. Flexible mounting options appear to be included, top mount as well as hanging kit. I haven't seen many fixtures that look so good over a tank & don't have to search long to find threads with AI Sol or Radion owners lamenting over a solution to hang or mount their lights. Orphek & one or two other obscure companies also make sleek a LED fixture, somewhat more pleasing to the eye than a painted steel box.
Being of European manufacture, labour costs will be significantly higher than asian products or companies that use asian parts but design & partially assemble their product in house. Not a great advantage in North America, but the Elos is designed under DIN so you know the components are of the highest quality & designed to strict standards. The electrical connectors appear to be at least moisture resistant if not completely waterproof. The fixture also has DIN rails so any DIN component can be easily added or removed as the need arises. The modularity is definitely a plus. Strips are easily changed out should you decide to change the look of your tank or if one of them fails.
It's unfortunate that the Tempo controller with it's simple interface makes the programming somewhat clunky. Looks like there's a better solution in the works in that regard though.
So yeah, I can understand why these things cost plenty of $$$s, but I can also see the legitimacy of someone asking what makes them so costly with the title & info provided in post #1 of your thread here. It is a forum after all & not uncommon for people ask the OP for info rather than spend too much time searching elsewhere on the interweb.
http://www.danireef.com/2012/01/10/l...mplete-review/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=bVxf1QQ-Va0
You've got a fine piece of kit there, be happy (sounds like your wife is & that means a lot). It should serve you well for many years & looks better than most any other LED fixture I've seen. It will keep its value for resale should that ever be on the horizon. As for the programming, once you find what works for your system, you shouldn't need to mess with the Tempo too much. |
