Let's Count the Broken RIOs

[mopecula]

Wouldn't peoples experience with these pump (fires,melt downs, etc) show a good track record as to how defective these pumps really are? And how can this company keep ignoring all of these incidents? Over all I am amazed how so many have had an issue with these pumps compared to all the other pumps on the market. But yet people will continue to buy these and use them with suck a bad track record. This company should have been out of business a long time ago. I am in the process of researching for a new pump to replace my two Rio 2500 before I lose my tank due to some meltdown or worse my life. Take care

[DgenR8]

Originally posted by mopecula
And how can this company keep ignoring all of these incidents?

I believe that they have at least started to address the issue. The new line of SEIO pumps do seem to have a MUCH better track record for the short time they have been on the market. Time will tell, but so far, so good.

[mopecula]

"The new line of SEIO pumps do seem to have a MUCH better track record for the short time they have been on the market. Time will tell, but so far, so good."

I know of one person who has had problems with his seio leaking current into his tank but thats only one that I know of so far. Maybe just maybe they have improved their product. I am running two Rio+2500 as return pumps and once I had trouble getting them to start up once they were shut down but I have also had this problem with the maxi jets and the mags due to the build of from the stuff in the aquarium.

[coralnut99]

11 Rios of all shapes and sizes
0 failures of any other brand
dropped Rios about three years ago. that means no maxijet, 402, powersweep, or magdrive falures in over 6 years.

[cyan0069]

Lost 2 (one large 2500?, and one small skimmer inlet pump), and have since sworn off of them. Replaced with Mag-Drive (Awesome, no problems) and a Quiet One pump (Really like this one!)

[physicslord]

This thread made me finally decide to replace my 6 mo. old RIO 400 which was working fine. I replaced it with a Maxijet 400, and as soon as I turned it on I noticed a sound I have never heard - the hum of the fans in my hood! If for no other reason, the noise reduction alone was worth getting rid of my p.o.s. RIO.

[mfd78]

Wow - long thread!

I had to chuckle...after reading all the problems, I went to the Taam website www.riopump.net.

Go to the "resources" section and select "troubleshooting" and see what happens...nothing.

[jarhed]

Threads like this are going to ensure that Rio spirals toward death quickly. I certainly hope they are reading this. Time to address these issues.

[The Grim Reefer]

This thread is like 3 years old. I still see a whole lot of Rios being offered by online vendors.

[Sparkss]

I replaced all of my RIOs a couple of months back.. problems ranging from not inconsistent performance to shocking the crap out of me.. all good reasons for replacing.. the larger ones are now Mag Drives and the smaller Maxi-Jets

[Putawaywet]

Originally posted by The Grim Reefer
This thread is like 3 years old. I still see a whole lot of Rios being offered by online vendors.

As well as the same old horror stories. Sadly, it appears little has changed.

Brett

[CB1]

Never a problem with my RIO's 2 years now!!

[The Grim Reefer]

I ended up with one of thier Hyperflow pumps by mistake and it locked up for about 6 hours after a power flash one night. The pump wasn't even warm when I pulled it out of the sump so there is no issue with a meltdown with them. I now run it on my skimmer and it works great. We get too many power flashes to take a chance on shutting down my sump pump so I will stick to Mag drives for that but for a skimmer the Rio works great.

Funny thing is my Tunze Stream has locked up 3 times after power outtages. The Rio did it once and didn't try to beat itself to death when the power came back on like the Tunze did. I run a Seio 1500 that seems to work pretty good although it is a lot larger than the Tunze.

[rhiggsbear]

Well, I just read a thread where someone's Rio blew up and did a number on his tank. Then there was the usually Rios bad postings.

Not that I am defending the Rio pumps but I have to say I had the same pump running my BakPak skimmer for 13 years without a problem. It was running fine up until I took the tank down a couple months ago because I moved. My other Rio was on a CPR Refug and it ran fine for the 7 years I had it installed (again took it down with the tank).

Am I the exception or does CPR gets a better grade of pump? By the way, as I stated in an earlier post, I really didn't mess with them much (cleaning, etc). I did clean it after the shutdown - last time must of been a couple years ago.

[jpslickorocks]

ok forgive me for not reading the whole thread (17 pages of kinda boring reading to be honest) Has anyone totaled it up or run a tally?

[maddyfish]

+1 one of the "newer" ones melted and polluted my tank, and stunk up my house. That was last fall when it was about 6 months old.

[Ne0eN]

Had one Rio2100 blow-up on me while mixing salt in a 32g bin. It was about 2 yrs old.

-- Rob

[melev]

Add one more that burned up, added smoke and excitement. I was there as it occured and got very lucky.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...11#post8392011

Even if you've run a RIO pump in your tank for years without issue, take it out now and thank your lucky stars. You got your money's worth. Get a safe pump now that you know better.

[coralnut99]

Very good advice from a well respected member of the RC community. I'm just glad to read you didn't lose anything. It's scary to thinkm what would've happened if you weren't there at that exact moment. As I was cleaning up some clutter a while back, I threw away the last few smaller rios I had. I gave a away a couple of non-restarting seios earlier this year. In good conscience I couldn't sell them.

Not very long ago, I posed the question to a RC sponsor: You know the track record Taam products have. Why do you still carry them and risk having someone blame you for not telling them about them?
The response I got was about what I expected. Volume driven business. People want them because of the price, so we carry them.
It's the kind of stuff that truly makes me wish this hobby wasn't such a money pit, that people (myself included) will cut corners on some things.

[melev]

I talked to my closest LFS today, and asked if he was still carrying RIO pumps in his store. He told me no, but will only get them if a customer asks for it specifically. Hopefully I can convince him to convince his customers to swap it out for something safer.

[ericwebster]

I got a rio and read the horror stories. I then removed it from my tank to mix water .. never had a problem.

I have had a problem with a mag 12 ..

[The Grim Reefer]

Melev,

Was that a UL listed Rio that smoked or the old style?

[melev]

Three pictures, now that everything has been transferred over. The only bad thing was the new saltwater was relatively cold compared to the water that the rock was in.

You can see how the water looks a little smokey in this picture. I swished out the LR before transferring it, so this could be a little misleading.

The Grim Reefer, I've had it for a few years now. I can't tell. There is still a label on the cord that states to not run it dry, and to plug it into a GFCI, but doesn't mention the UL listing whatsoever.

The inside of the motor's coverplate isn't misleading.


And the motor itself, before it had a chance to full discharge its guts into the water.

[The Grim Reefer]

If the coil melted down you probably have copper in the water, have you checked for that yet?

What a drag

[melev]

It just happened while I was standing nearby, and it was in a live rock holding container. I set up a new container with new saltwater and transferred everything over. I think it'll be fine, but I will test for copper.