Re: Diatoms -- System 1

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Penny Crowley said, in response to my discontent with the System 1:
 
> hmmm.....well, mine works wonderfully, and is easy to use, which was
> a
> biggie for me. If something is inconvenient to use, it will end up
> collecting dust in the basement. As far as service, I had a question
> once
> and they were all over it.

To be clear, my gripes were these:  The instructions and the folks on
the phone said the motor cannot be run continuously for more than four
hours at a time -- the motor was not designed to do more and if you do
run it for more, that voids the waranty.  If they are telling the
truth, then I think they should use a different motor.  I don't think
this restriction was in the old instructions. Some folks have never
observed the 4 hour limit and had no motor failures.  But I was assured
that any use of 4 hours continuous voided the warranty and that I
couldn't expect the motor to hold up if used beyond its design limits.

For one comparison, the Vortex can be run non-stop, 7-24, even if the
media totally clogs and that won't overwork the motor.

Can anyone say whether the Whisper has a continuous-use warning?

My Sys. 1 was very noisy after the first couple of uses.  The belt
drive assembly sings like a son of a gun.  I have heard this complaint
form others -- it seems to happen to some but not all units off the
line.  When I wrote Aq. Sys about the noise problem, I got a response
saying that they would get back to me, but they then didn't.  So after
a few weeks I would send a reminder and get another assurance that they
would get back to me, and then nothing.  This repeated several times
over several months.  I'm still hoping to hear from them so I can get
the noise problem taken care of.  

The way the Sys 1 is supposed to work, my own gripes notwithstanding,
is very clever and addresses the most common complaints I have seen
about the Vortex, which is a much older design: the Vortex's relatively
complicated charging procedure, the need for the recharge valve, which
must be purchased as an option, and the long tubes that attend any
canister filter.

The Whisper Diatom is also a hang-on filter, like the Sys 1, and
although it needs to be charged (i.e., the media holder must be loaded
with diatoms before it can filter the aquarium), this is done by
dumping the diatoms in the filter, rotating the output tube over the
filter box until the media is charged, then move the output tube back
over the aquarium.  Is it quiet?  Is it durable?  Dunno.

Scott H.

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