Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep - realise that just unpugging or turning off at wall will test battery - was just interested in the correct mode. I'll work it out when charged though.

Says on the unit that it is 60 watts when on AC. I'm not good with power - but that seems a lot and I would have thought that uness it kicks down a gear when on DC, ti would use the battery a bit quicker than stated. What am I missing.

so are jims specs and your different?

VB you should know by now that it will either be busted or mis-represented (becasue u bought it)

Jim and I have the same one. The S-30. FYI - the dimensions are about 26cm x 20cm x 16cm. I was a little shocked when I openned it . It is not overly powerfull though. Says 40 litres per minute.

so i'm confused with the 18W 60W?

Me too - to make it a little more confusing, on the box, as opposed to the unit itself, it says that the power is 28 watts. So maybe it is 28watts at 220 volts and 60 (or 56) at 110 watts???

watts should really be the same at different voltages. if it is a switchmode supply capable of running from 90V-260V then only the current draw changes. watts stays the same.

Good logic Veebs, but thats not the answer. UNLESS it states that it pumps twice the air at 240V..........ahhhhhhh its too late, brain hurts.

Buy a multi-meter and try not to electrocute yourself

Just on the SLA lead batteries and the draining them down.................

Aren't SLA's considered deep-cycle?

It definately states 28 watts in the ebay description.

Could it be a typo on the unit? meant to say 50-60Hz not watts.

Eitherway ,you definately should check how long it runs foron that battery,,if it's runningthe full 28 watts onthe 7AH battery ,then you're looking at lessthan 3 hours run time.

Must be made in china. They always have had labels and info in their manuals and on the boxes because they cant understand English much less the technical aspects..

True,,but I guess from their perspective ,they shake their heads that we can'r read Chinese!!!

Yes, but be can hire people that can understand both.

I tested the unit with this power meter
http://shop.ata.org.au/cart.php?target= ... ory_id=322
I must admit I was surprised that it seemed to be only drawing such a small current. However I am reasonably confident that the meter is accurate. It seems so with other known marked and rated appliances. Admittedly this is a low current item and the meter might(?) be less accurate at that end of the scale?

Chappo,
My take on the running load of 18 watts is that as the unit draws 8 watts when the pump is not running then that 8 watts is probably charging the battery and the other 10 watts is used by the pump itself.
If pump draws 10 watts @12Volts that is about 0.8 amps so the 7AH battery should last for perhaps 8 hours or so. Having said that I probably should run the battery flat and see how long that takes. However I still would rather not run any lead acid battery flat because that is the quickest way to kill them.

I did a search on ebay for this unit but none were available. Do you know if its tough enough to be kept outside? My tank isn't undercover.

Here you go Gemmel..... this user (same as VB purchased from) seems to have one or two listed constantly ....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Microcomputerise ... m153.l1262

Well I'll be: I did a search for "Boyu S-30" and nothing came up. Maybe it interpreted the -30 as a "must not contain 30 in search results" or something.

Yeh, I just ran the same search again, no results. Heh.