Bluez_01
Registered
This is my review of the Hinfeld 5-way doser pump, I would like to say that my review will be as honest and independent, both good and bad points will be stated as I believe that having genuine honest opinions in this hobby is extremely important with the amount of money this hobby costs us.
So today 18th Oct 16 the dose arrived, I did not finish work until 6pm so I had little time to sort anything out, however like most of us with new toys to play with, I decided to make a start on things.
Firstly before I did anything, I took pictures of the box and the parts within it as I opened it, first impressions always last, so I thought this would be a good place to start, on opening the box, the first thing I saw to my relief was instructions in English, I have purchased a few dosers in the past and most of the instructions are in Chinese and very limited pictures to help you set up the unit, so this was a huge relief to see that I can at least see what I am suppose to do with the settings.
Next under the instructions was the guarantee card, again in English, again reassurance that the product is supported by the manufacturer if anything should go wrong, a blue display stood out on the unit and looked professional enough to state that the product is of a quality build, if the doser is on show where your tank is, then I think its important to have equipment that looks professional and can do something you want it to do.
Next I opened the white box behind the main unit to see what parts I was given with the device, there is 5 good built pumping heads with medical grade tubing, I have in the past had dosers that run on a metal motor spindles and these over time begin to slip and dose less, the ones in this package are square plastic that fit in to a square hole within the motor unit, again a relief to see that this should give an accurate dose over time without missing/slipping on the pump motor.
I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 non-return plastic valves in the parts as well, often is the case that these are not supplied with some dosers, and therefore you are left waiting to use the device because of these parts that are often not included.
There is also 5 small medical grade tubes around 4"-5" in length that is supplied with the kit to attach the non-return valves to the pump heads, so you have pretty much everything you need to get you started.
In the pack there is a 3 pin adaptor in English for power, again I have had dosers that have 2 pins and needed an adaptor to use on the adaptor, so again it shows that the manufacture has thought things through for the UK market, the label on the adaptor is upside down on mine, and this in all honesty is the only bad point I can state about the initial opening and inspection of the box contents.
After attaching the pump heads to the pump, I attached the valves to the medical tubing I was supplied with, however this is where I would state there is a down side, there is no indication on the pump head, or in the instructions to state which is the "inlet" and which is the "outlet".
So I turned on pump 1 and stuck my tongue on the end of the pipe to see which is sucking and which is pushing, it turns out that the left side of the tubes/pump heads are the "intakes" and the right side is "outlets", this is the same for all the pumps, to make sure I remembered this, I marked arrows on the left side with arrows to remind me if I ever needed to swap out pipes at any point in the future.
Setting up was easy enough after playing around for a while, I, like most of us, wanted to test and see what things do without reverting to the instructions every second, so after reading the instructions to figure out how to set the clock, I found the easiest way to get on with things was to use the diagram called "Working Interface" and having the button layout sheet next to that.
This doser has quiet a few settings, though the display is clear and has a nice blue background light, it makes things easy to see.
After setting up the clock, the next thing you will notice is the pump number and "set-up" will say 000, this seems a little confusing at the start but once you work out what this "000" stands for its very easy, these numbers stand for seconds that the pump will run at, so for example: 001 = 1 second and 010 = 10 seconds and finally 100 = 100 seconds, each "0" can be changed individually from 0-9 for more accurate timing, the pump heads are set to one speed and therefore can not be adjusted to slow down the dose or increase it in a given time frame, however, saying that, this doser unit can run 24 times in one day (or once an hour if you like) on EACH of the pump heads, therefore you can dose for 1 second every hour, 24 times a day on each pump head. Or you can set it up to dose for 24 seconds once per day which will be the same amount of time.
You can of course alter this and change this to however you want to have the dosing set up, If we work on the basis of the main 3 chems we dose (Alk,Cal,Mag) for now, then we can have Alk dosing at 6am for 30 seconds, we can have Mag dosing at 1pm for 30 seconds, and finally Cal at 11pm for 30 seconds, or we can split these times up further by doing something like Alk at 6am for 10 seconds, and again at 3pm for 10 seconds, and again at 9pm for 10 seconds, which is the same amount but over a longer period of time, as stated above you can have 24 time frames on one pump head in 24 hours, so you can set up the dosing pumps however you like really.
Lastly on the set up side of things, there is a "line" under each of the 24 hours numbers, (0-24) the line indicates that this is "active" and will run at this hourly time, to disable this hour, you remove the "line" from under the number you do not want it to run at, for example: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. this will state that the pump number will run only at 7:00 hrs and 17:00 hrs the rest will be ignored.
Accuracy is key when it comes to dosing anything in our tanks, more so if you keep sps`s or corals that are sensitive to sudden or large changes, this is where any doser will shine or fall by the way side depending on how well it does on this part, for my testing purposes I will do the following to see how accurate the doser is.
I propose to measure out with the pump head 1 mil of liquid per 12 hours, therefore over 24 hours I expect to see 2 mil of liquid on a timed basis, now I should state 2 things before I undertake this test, firstly we need to take in to account that the pump heads/tubes are new, and therefore it is expected that over a period of a week, these will "bed in" and become slightly faster as they settle, the tubes will swell a little as fluids are pumped through them over this period of time as well, so this will probably increase the flow rates through the pump heads over this time, and thus in return I would not expect to see an "exact amount" of 2 mil per 24 hours each day, we also need to take in to account any evaporation that will take place of the fluid over 24 hours as well, however with that all said and done, I intend to run pure r/o water through pump number 5 and have it pump in to an empty syringe so I can see at a glance how well the doser is doing each day.
By the 5th day I should expect to see somewhere between 9mil and 11 mil in total, this sounds like a large swing, but with everything above stated, I will be happy to see this amount of fluid in the syringe after 5 days.
After this test has completed and things have settled in, I will then put the doser through a more accurate test of once every 2 hours and again I will have this set up to achieve the total amount of 6 mil over 24 hours, therefore the doser will need to accurately put 0.5mil in each and every time to achieve this goal.
This is my first testing phase, presently I have not run any liquid through the doser at all, so I can not state currently what the lowest amount of liquid is dispense at 1 second or 10 seconds, once I have conducted this testing part, I will be able to update the figures above to what the intended amount of liquid should be over a given time frame.
I will update once I have some more info on the above liquid amounts, when I get chance to do something hopefully this week.
So today 18th Oct 16 the dose arrived, I did not finish work until 6pm so I had little time to sort anything out, however like most of us with new toys to play with, I decided to make a start on things.
Firstly before I did anything, I took pictures of the box and the parts within it as I opened it, first impressions always last, so I thought this would be a good place to start, on opening the box, the first thing I saw to my relief was instructions in English, I have purchased a few dosers in the past and most of the instructions are in Chinese and very limited pictures to help you set up the unit, so this was a huge relief to see that I can at least see what I am suppose to do with the settings.
Next under the instructions was the guarantee card, again in English, again reassurance that the product is supported by the manufacturer if anything should go wrong, a blue display stood out on the unit and looked professional enough to state that the product is of a quality build, if the doser is on show where your tank is, then I think its important to have equipment that looks professional and can do something you want it to do.
Next I opened the white box behind the main unit to see what parts I was given with the device, there is 5 good built pumping heads with medical grade tubing, I have in the past had dosers that run on a metal motor spindles and these over time begin to slip and dose less, the ones in this package are square plastic that fit in to a square hole within the motor unit, again a relief to see that this should give an accurate dose over time without missing/slipping on the pump motor.
I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 non-return plastic valves in the parts as well, often is the case that these are not supplied with some dosers, and therefore you are left waiting to use the device because of these parts that are often not included.
There is also 5 small medical grade tubes around 4"-5" in length that is supplied with the kit to attach the non-return valves to the pump heads, so you have pretty much everything you need to get you started.
In the pack there is a 3 pin adaptor in English for power, again I have had dosers that have 2 pins and needed an adaptor to use on the adaptor, so again it shows that the manufacture has thought things through for the UK market, the label on the adaptor is upside down on mine, and this in all honesty is the only bad point I can state about the initial opening and inspection of the box contents.
After attaching the pump heads to the pump, I attached the valves to the medical tubing I was supplied with, however this is where I would state there is a down side, there is no indication on the pump head, or in the instructions to state which is the "inlet" and which is the "outlet".
So I turned on pump 1 and stuck my tongue on the end of the pipe to see which is sucking and which is pushing, it turns out that the left side of the tubes/pump heads are the "intakes" and the right side is "outlets", this is the same for all the pumps, to make sure I remembered this, I marked arrows on the left side with arrows to remind me if I ever needed to swap out pipes at any point in the future.
Setting up was easy enough after playing around for a while, I, like most of us, wanted to test and see what things do without reverting to the instructions every second, so after reading the instructions to figure out how to set the clock, I found the easiest way to get on with things was to use the diagram called "Working Interface" and having the button layout sheet next to that.
This doser has quiet a few settings, though the display is clear and has a nice blue background light, it makes things easy to see.
After setting up the clock, the next thing you will notice is the pump number and "set-up" will say 000, this seems a little confusing at the start but once you work out what this "000" stands for its very easy, these numbers stand for seconds that the pump will run at, so for example: 001 = 1 second and 010 = 10 seconds and finally 100 = 100 seconds, each "0" can be changed individually from 0-9 for more accurate timing, the pump heads are set to one speed and therefore can not be adjusted to slow down the dose or increase it in a given time frame, however, saying that, this doser unit can run 24 times in one day (or once an hour if you like) on EACH of the pump heads, therefore you can dose for 1 second every hour, 24 times a day on each pump head. Or you can set it up to dose for 24 seconds once per day which will be the same amount of time.
You can of course alter this and change this to however you want to have the dosing set up, If we work on the basis of the main 3 chems we dose (Alk,Cal,Mag) for now, then we can have Alk dosing at 6am for 30 seconds, we can have Mag dosing at 1pm for 30 seconds, and finally Cal at 11pm for 30 seconds, or we can split these times up further by doing something like Alk at 6am for 10 seconds, and again at 3pm for 10 seconds, and again at 9pm for 10 seconds, which is the same amount but over a longer period of time, as stated above you can have 24 time frames on one pump head in 24 hours, so you can set up the dosing pumps however you like really.
Lastly on the set up side of things, there is a "line" under each of the 24 hours numbers, (0-24) the line indicates that this is "active" and will run at this hourly time, to disable this hour, you remove the "line" from under the number you do not want it to run at, for example: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. this will state that the pump number will run only at 7:00 hrs and 17:00 hrs the rest will be ignored.
Accuracy is key when it comes to dosing anything in our tanks, more so if you keep sps`s or corals that are sensitive to sudden or large changes, this is where any doser will shine or fall by the way side depending on how well it does on this part, for my testing purposes I will do the following to see how accurate the doser is.
I propose to measure out with the pump head 1 mil of liquid per 12 hours, therefore over 24 hours I expect to see 2 mil of liquid on a timed basis, now I should state 2 things before I undertake this test, firstly we need to take in to account that the pump heads/tubes are new, and therefore it is expected that over a period of a week, these will "bed in" and become slightly faster as they settle, the tubes will swell a little as fluids are pumped through them over this period of time as well, so this will probably increase the flow rates through the pump heads over this time, and thus in return I would not expect to see an "exact amount" of 2 mil per 24 hours each day, we also need to take in to account any evaporation that will take place of the fluid over 24 hours as well, however with that all said and done, I intend to run pure r/o water through pump number 5 and have it pump in to an empty syringe so I can see at a glance how well the doser is doing each day.
By the 5th day I should expect to see somewhere between 9mil and 11 mil in total, this sounds like a large swing, but with everything above stated, I will be happy to see this amount of fluid in the syringe after 5 days.
After this test has completed and things have settled in, I will then put the doser through a more accurate test of once every 2 hours and again I will have this set up to achieve the total amount of 6 mil over 24 hours, therefore the doser will need to accurately put 0.5mil in each and every time to achieve this goal.
This is my first testing phase, presently I have not run any liquid through the doser at all, so I can not state currently what the lowest amount of liquid is dispense at 1 second or 10 seconds, once I have conducted this testing part, I will be able to update the figures above to what the intended amount of liquid should be over a given time frame.
I will update once I have some more info on the above liquid amounts, when I get chance to do something hopefully this week.
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