Answer me this
 

Why do powerhead manufacturers not put a quick disconnect a couple feet from the pump?
To clean my Tunze or Jebao pumps, I have to fish up to 15' of cord through a rats nest to get the pump away from the tank. Sheesh

Great idea! Is this something that can be added? I guess just splice in a plug and socket...

I thought I was the only one who wondered this. The jebao's aren't so bad, at least they have a quick connect at the controller, but my hydors need to be unplugged at my apex, which is inside a separate cabinet, etc. makes maintaining them much harder and that means my laziness usually wins. With all the recent advancements in power head tech, how is this still an issue?

Brad,

One of the reasons I am so happy with my Jebaos is that I can detach the powerhead from the controller at the quick connect and its only 6' of cable.

My HK pumps were always a pain to unplug and replug.

Anthony

Probably price and it adds another place for mechanical failure.

Buy a Jebao :mrgreen:

Jebao are a bit better, but the 6' still runs behind the tank. Tunze is about 15' of cable. They all need a quick connect 2' from the pump

2' of cable and if your powerhead is over a foot down, a little mishap while its disconnected and into the sw that open end goes. Then you're sitting there cursing and wondering why they make them with such short quick connect wires :wink::lol:

Ok, 2.5. 3. Whatever, just a connection somewhere before the controller plug in :)

Just wrap the first 4' around a cord wrap. Now it is 2' to the quick connect.

No, Apex is 6 feet away. Just doing anything doesn't make the fact that a quick connect wouldn't be a good idea.

Oh, I thought this thread started about wanting a quick disconnect.

Right. Not sure what you're reading that goes away from that :razz:

Assuming a quick disconnect and a quick connect are the same things, the thread started with you wanting it and then saying that it is not a good idea?

My English may be off, not enough coffee. connect, disconnect, same thing, opposite ends. Good idea.

Ok, yeah, I misread that. You put in a double negative. So like I said, use a cord wrap and you got yourself a 2' quick disconnect instead of a 6' quick disconnect. You can then disconnect the pump from 2' away (The nice thing is that this is configurable so you can make it 3', 4' or 5' away). You can then clean the pump (the cord wrap follows the pump of course) and reconnect it afterwards.

That makes no sense. Pump is at A. Controller is at B. Distance from A to B is 6' that travels behind tank through all the other poorly designed cords. I still have to unplug from controller and fish it back and forth regardless of how tidy the pump end is.
What I want is to unplug at the pump, leave other end hanging, clean pump and hook back up without fishing it through the back of the tank.

Isn't this what you want?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...49e0f84fe2d74d

Sure. But I don't need to wrap cord. As your diagram suggests, all I need is a quick disconnect 2 feet before the pump. Surplus wire can hang out with it's buddy Mr Apex.

So given what is available in this world, you would rather go with no quick disconnects rather than wrap a little bit of cord.

Sam, you're not paying attention :) The wrap does me no good. I still have to fish the end of the cord behind my tank. I need a connection right before the pump

The wrap brings the quick disconnect to 2' to the pump which is what you want. It turns a 6' cord into a 2' cord. So that's what you want. So now, you don't need to fish for the end of the cord because the cord is only 2' long.

Holee crap Sam :rolleyes:
You're missing the point that he needs the 6' cord to remain 6' long as his Apex is that far away from the point where his pump cord leaves the water

He cannot shorten the 6 foot length by winding it up

Just cut the cord where it is convenient and put in a male and female plug. The kind you plug into the wall. Easy peasy

I'm not sure how many wires are inside. I suppose I could check, eh? Ya, I can rig something, just wondering why pump builders haven't thought of it.

I feel your pain with my hydors I have to usually float a bucket in my tank to clean them but I am going to design a bucket out of acrylic that hangs off the front of the tank soon then I can plop them in to soak in magic clean by hydor for easier maintenance. The gyre has doesn't have a quick connect either so this may help me there as well.

Before you slice a cord open to see how many wires are in see if you can find someone with a fried one to tear apart and show you via pic just to be on the safe side

haha. Someone draw me a picture. He said he wanted a 2' quick disconnect so that's what I thought he needed. Someone said Jebao was 6' but he needs it to be 2' so I don't understand why the extra 4' was a problem. Yeah, I must be missing something.

Ok, so if he needs a 6' from pump to the disconnect, then the Jebao does the trick since it has a 6' cable? What was the talk about 2' cable all about? I thought his pump was external so I guess that was the first mistake.

Cable is 6 feet. I need disconnect 2 feet from pump end. This isn't that hard :)

Tunze cable is 15 feet. I need disconnect 2 feet from pump end.

Well, it is hard for me apparently. :)

Let me see if I even get what you are starting out with. Does this diagram represent your current configuration? It is supposed to be a powerhead inside a fish tank. The powerhead has a 15' cord that plugs into the controller's powerbar.

https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...f6&oe=554D8C42

Ok, my mistake was that I thought you wanted a quick disconnect for the power cord. But somehow I still think there is an easy solution to your problem even if I don't know what your problem really is as I don't use controllable pumps with controllers.

This whole conversation reminds me of who's on first scenario

Yeah, I am lost. From the first post, it sounded like a simple problem. There's a pump with a 15' powercord that runs behind a tank to the power outlet. To clean the pump, he has to unplug the pump and drag the cord through a nest of other cords. Instead, he wants to get a pump that has quick disconnect (2' would be ideal) so he can easily remove the pump for cleaning and re-install it. The problem sounded simple enough given the 2 sentence description in the first post. Then someone said that the Jebao pump comes with a quick disconnect which was 6' from the pump instead of 2' that Brad prefers. But I thought Brad could just use that one since 6' is better than nothing. Obviously, I misunderstood the problem completely and will exit from the conversation now. :)

Yes, this is what I have. See where the line is broken a bit just before the pump? I need a connection right there.

Oh OK. So that's what I thought. Weird that my idea wouldn't work unless there's another variable. Anyways, I won't try to dig any further since I said I would exit the conversation (originally I planned to keep drawing pictures to explain things but it seems like everyone else gets it already and I am only being annoying. :) ).

Relax, Sam, it's tough to pull lots of details together trying to type it out. Nobody is annoying (well, maybe me!)

quick disconnects are available from places like EB-Horseman wholesaler or similar places.

Nope, not annoying Sam. It's kinda comical
A+ for effort bud

What we need is cordless pumps!!! Eureka!!!

Bingo!

Vortech?