Problems with Bubble Kings
 

http://www.reefcentral.org/forums/sh....php?t=1897436

Anybody come across this issue on this thread? My Bubble King Mini 200 just died. Had it for two years, paid almost a grand for it, and its now dead. Motor pulses 3-4 times then dies. Worst investment in my life so far if I will need to buy a new skimmer...... thats about $500 per year or a cup of starbucks grande coffee a day I had to pay for this skimmer to skim my tank.
Just want to see if anybody else is coming across the same problem and if any resolutions are known locally.

I don't have time to go thru the whole thread right now, I will tonight when I get home.

I am running 2 bubble king 180's. I've had them both for about 1.5 years and so far they are flawless. Mine are Gen.2... Is it both generations that's experiance pump problems, or just the gen 1?

Well, you could always buy that pond pump for the motor block

Had a client with a BK300 SM and the main pump died after about 6 months or so. Talked to someone at Pro-line and they walked me through some diagnostics and eventually ended up replacing the pump. So no complaints from me. My personal BK has worked flawlessly without problems, so far anyway.

You're suppose to maintain the pump regularly by cleaning the shaft and the ceramic bearing at the back of the pump (most don't know about the bearing maintenance). Not doing so can result in premature failure. Also if the shaft and impeller are not perfectly aligned the pump will shut off. In order for the pump to achieve it's high efficiency it has a very low tolerance system. I'd suggest cleaning the rear bearing so it can spin freely on the shaft and seeing if that fixes the problem. To remove it you have to pull it out with a pair of long needle nose pliers. Push it back in place with the appropriate size socket. If this doesn't fix the problem contact Pro-line directly.

Not really :rolleyes:

That's what I've been using for my skimmer purchasing a laguna pump (powerjet) instead of a red dragon

And why not?
Did you read the posts on RC?

I wonder how often if at all the OP of the RC thread cleaned the pump.......I get it at work all the time...."my pump died"...."my vortech died".....you look at it and there is soooo much crud caked on it there is no wondering why it failed.....it doesnt take much build up to throw something that's spinning a million times per second out of balance.....

Thanks Doug... Now I feel guilty, and now I have to go clean everything.

:lol:.....as well you should!!!!:razz:

I have to say a mesh mod laguna - askol is not that bad, it is in fact working super for me, and in case it fails, I can buy several new once for the price of a new RD pump

I have my mesh mod running now, and found out that as I have a1/2 inch air feed when trimming it a bit with a valve, I get even more air, way, way more.

I now have the skimmer outlet 10 inches lower than the skimmer nek (before I had the water in the skimmer at the neck level)

meaning if you really are pump down on your BBK, it is something to consider (where I also have to agree that for a skimmer with this price tag, it should not have to be)

se link below for my mesh mod

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70820

I just wanted to post an update to this. It was actually a friend of mine (whom I had set up his tank) who had the issue with the skimmer. He called and spoke to Proline and received exceptional service in dealing with the problem.

Hats off to Proline stepping up to the plate on this issue.
Thank you

There must be 2 different Proline's I'm thinking. The Proline company I am presently dealing with don't return calls and lie. Never again will I buy any product that Proline sells!

If you're talking about Proline Aquatics in BC you'll have a hard time avoiding their products, they are the main Canadian distributor for the stuff we use. If you use good salt, it likely comes from them. They've always been good to deal with in my experience and I haven't heard of any problems but they are a distributor so you might have better luck working through your retailer.

Yes the Proline in BC. In the future I will try to avoid their products as best I can. My next skimmer is definately going to be a ATB or Deltec which I should of bought in the first place as I did read lots on RC about ATB's excellent customer service. I also read about Proline's very poor customer service and now I am experiencing it myself.

I wasn't aware you could order direct from proline! Did you not go thru a retailer?

My experience has been different.

When I first got my Bubble King skimmer I had some questions re the instructions and maintenance, and Proline answered calls/e-mails and PM's promptly.

After the skimmer went out of warranty, the Red Dragon pump died. In retrospect I am guilty of underservicing the pump. Work and family means my equipment gets neglected. This may have been a factor in the premature failure of the pump, I am not sure. Regardless, Proline gave me a new pump body at no charge.

Who is this and what's this about???

You can't order direct, I would assume bad service is a result from not following proper procedure as you need to deal through your retailer unless Proline specifically asks you to deal with them directly. As a distributor I would assume they don't want to deal with every Joe that has a product they distribute. Same goes for virtually every distributor out there.

I don't buy it. Proline was extremely quick to respond to any of my problems/concerns and took really good care of me.

+1 I have had a few questions for Albert @ proline and he helped me out super fast. He also gave me his home phone number to help me solve a problem on a friends ro unit after hours. Had a bad impeller on my bubble king, messaged proline and the new impeller was sent in 2 days no questions asked on warranty. Had a outlet issue with my house causing no ground on my led fixture and proline set by step helped me solve it.

Red Dragon Pumps
 

When I had to deal with proline on my BK mini 200 they were helpful for the most part, They did get me a new impeller free of charge but it did take them 2 weeks to get it to me. Thankfully Daniel from Wai's lent me one of his skimmers.

They did admit to me that there is an issue with some of the impellers on the Bubble kings. If you have the impeller out of the pump and you hold the impeller the magnet is supposed to be fixed to the shaft. If the magnet spins on the shaft it can cause the pump to slip on startup and not operate.

just something to try. with the volute casing off, If the motor is trying to start and the impeller is not spinning it most likely is the impeller or impeller bearing, if the motor does not even try to start then the pump is dead.

I have to give Albert a thumbs up for service as well. When the light I ordered from turned out to be slightly longer then the published dimensions, he offered to do whatever it took to make me happy. Even phoned me late on a Friday night just to talk me through it. I ended up cutting a hole in my canopy to fit the light, but the point is they were willing to fully refund without argument.