Mission critical accesories

[MartinM]

I'm fully aware that the Hydros is designed to be the most budget-friendly controller out there. However, since its inception, I've noticed the hydros computers themselves are fantastic, IME/O suitable for mission critical monitoring applications in commercial life support situations. The accessories (sensors, solenoids, etc), however, are resoundingly not. CoralVue could potentially gain the support of commercial hatcheries, aquariums, and aquaculture facilities if there were options to purchase high quality accessories for the Hydros. The current offerings, while certainly budet-friendly, come with budget-friendly problems: high failure rate and low reliability. I definitely hope high quality sensors and other accessories come along!

 

[Danny]

I'm fully aware that the Hydros is designed to be the most budget-friendly controller out there. However, since its inception, I've noticed the hydros computers themselves are fantastic, IME/O suitable for mission critical monitoring applications in commercial life support situations. The accessories (sensors, solenoids, etc), however, are resoundingly not. CoralVue could potentially gain the support of commercial hatcheries, aquariums, and aquaculture facilities if there were options to purchase high quality accessories for the Hydros. The current offerings, while certainly budet-friendly, come with budget-friendly problems: high failure rate and low reliability. I definitely hope high quality sensors and other accessories come along!

I have not had any failures with my Hydros sensors or solenoids and I have had some of them for over 3 years without any issues.

 

[thom_smith]

I'd suggest a case with CoralVue Support Portal to understand/review your use case and determine source of your issues. I've got a very large Hydros setup with multuples of just about every control anf several sensor and solenoid accessories--both Hydros and DIY--and have not experienced such issues. Not disputing your experience but definitely saying support or engineering may suggest a different configuration or different tool for your use case.

 

[MartinM]

We have three facilities and several dozen hydros devices and multiple collectives, and some very intelligent people on our team. The main issues we have are the water sensor and solenoid failures. We have to replace an optical water sensory nearly every week at this point, and a few solenoids fail every year. Thankfully, we don't (and definitely won't) rely solely on Hydros, but it is a shame that sensors fail so readily.

FWIW, we've used Hydros since they came out (3+ years). The sensor failures are all newer sensors (purchased in the last year). Perhaps something changed with QA or manufacturing them? Solenoids have always failed after about a year, even the first ones we purchased.

Use case is extremely basic. Is the sensor wet, or dry? Nothing complex.

Support just offers to replace the sensors. While the gesture is appreciated, a new $30 retail sensor isn't the solution we're hoping for: we're hoping for improved reliability.

 

[MartinM]

Btw we're using optical water level. We'll try changing to float switch, at this point we're considering just trashing all the optical sensors.

 

[MartinM]

An online search seems to confirm that optical sensors have a high failure rate as compared to the float switches. We'll give those a try.

 

[Danny]

I use float switches but I was using them with my old controller. I had several failures with them until I got some schedule 80 1/4 PVC and threaded the end so the area where the wires enter the switch cannot get wet. I have not had any failures since then. I added som silicone RTV around the area where the wires enter the optical sensor on the sensors I have. I have 2 of the Hydros solenoids for over 3 years without any failures. They are normally off and only turn on when DI is needed from the RODI unit. If they are normally on they will fail. Any of those types of solenoids will if kept on.