Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

WARNING WARNING those mechanical timers from bunnings arent that good [2 for $10.00]
I got 2 and put them in my system and one failed after 2 1/2 years 50% failure rate the other is still going strong
The one that failed is was running the glasshouse system the reason i noticed it the water started getting warmer

2 1/2 years, that is pretty good for one of them $5 cheap mechanical timers, and you say the other is still working. Actually, that almost sounds like a pretty good review for some of the really cheepy timers. I've had some that quit working after only a month or two.

But knock on wood, so far I think all the cheap timers I've gotten that do 15 minute increments are still functioning. The ones that seem to give up on me first are either the ones with the removable pins that it's impossible to get replacements so you can only do like two on/off programs a day or I've had a few of the 1/2 hour increment timers quit working in the past two years.

Now if only I can figure out how the guy is modifying the 24 hour 1/2 hour increment timers to do the 40 minute 50 second increments, I would be happy. Saddly I've not been able to get the one I bought open!!!!! I think they must have glued it to keep anyone from doing exactly what I'm trying to do. (I believe they probably modify the gear box by removing a couple gears and spacing things differently but I've not managed to get the one timer I can open up to line up properly when I remove gears.

I was having trouble getting a siphon to work and decided to try a timer.
unfortunately the first one failed after 1 day
the replacement [ a different brand ] also failed after 1 day.
at only $5.20 I guess you get what you pay for.
the switch part works OK but after a while the time doesn`t advance.

have gone back to siphon which is now working OK

trev

Well FF I think you got a good run, but the recent batch of cheap mechanical timers I got (2 for about $10 pack) are similar to what hewitt described.

I recently went on holidays and decided that we should have some timers set inside the house to make the house look occupied. Anyways, bought 3 pack of the 2 value pack, so 6 timers in total... set the time and let them operate a few days in advance before we left...

Well what I found out was that, they are not 24hour timer... you can set them for 12 noon today, and tomorrow 12 noon, the timer could be still at 12 midnight or 3am or something many hours apart from what it is meant to be... and that is just one day of operation... and this is indoors.
I never got these cheapies to work well outdoors.

Out of the 6, I returned 4 because they were working in this manner. Not really good for AP I would say since their 1hr time is like 3-5hrs real time... poor fishes aren't getting regular filtration....

I decided to buy an outdoor rated timer (I think the brand was Excalibur or something).. black plastic... for just about $10 each... it has been working like clock work... like how it should... just waiting for test this for summer...

The mechanical timers used to be good, but the quality of the new hpm ones has really dropped. Loosing time, getting stuck either on or off, I now no longer use mechanical timers at all.

My timers have been working (outside) for about 2 1/2 years as well F&F..... only had one failure...

By the sounds of it though.... they must now be making them in China....

Sadly, as long as we're prepared to buy on price, rather than demanding some basic quality... we'll keep getting crap....

Sadly, as well, the gutlessness of local business who see manufacturing stuff in China, where they can pay labour with a rice bowl and a pair of chopsticks... as a way of making their bottom line look good and recive their performance bonuses...

Means we'll not only keep getting crap... because that's all that's available.... but also that we'll have no manufacturing industry... or jobs for our kids....

I reckon put a carbon tax on everything.... and a parity labour rate tarriff on imported crap....

We are currently trialling some new timers. The HPM times have gone a bit like Ebara pumps, were good, but they must have changed the recipe.

First HPM timer I ever installed was at Fayes place, thats still going strong, then for the first two years of the shop being open we sold and installed hundreds of them with only 1 or 2 dodgy ones. Now suddenly in the last 2-3 months there have been a stack of dud ones.

I've been liking the GE outdoor 15 minute increment timers here, so far they have been pretty good even when I don't keep some of them perfectly protected from sun. the time keeping was working fairly good for a mechanical timer in my experience. Though a particular increment of the hour might not be as exact as it was supposed to be, it did seem to make it up so the next cycle started an hour after the previous cycle started so it worked out well for me.

I've seen lots of the cheap indoor timers get stuck or hung up don't ya hate it when they start building things to fail. (or changing the recipe.)

As with most things in life, you pay for what you get, IMO too many people skimp on the most important part of their AP system, the electrics.

I bought a pack of those, only tried one so far, it wokrs but the 15 minutes is more like 25minutes and it looses time all the time.
Dale

I had reason to to remove the bung from my 3000 L fish tank and replace it with a tap. I had a roof penetration flashing in the shed and gave it a go for sealing the hole from the inside, tank is full.

It worked perfectly. I had my wife hold a stick over it so it didn't move and I lost no water at all. The first pic of it is blurry and the second pic shows the side I had against the tank.

My HPM timer has cacked it -it stops going round sporadically, either staying on or worse - off.

What timers are other people using - don't have any confidence to go away for a week with an HPM timer running the show. I see Jaycar do an electronic timer has any one used that? Just looking to spend a bit more coin than an HPM one and get a suitably reliable component...

My second one has started loosing a few hours a day now so I'm not sure how much cycling it is missing. This one is only two months old! Has anyone tried spraying the mechanical mechanism with silicon lubricant to see if that helps?

I'd really like to find a reliable timer - can anyone recommend one - happy to spend a bit on it as so far the cheap HPM types are just too much of a concern when I go away for the weekend.

I dont use anything but this timer these days:
http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_pro ... e=products

I dont know why they say $20 on the site, i only ever paid $10 each for mine,

How do you set yours - the website says 16 on/off setting - does that mean you run yours for several hours at a time (either on or off) as its not posible to do 15 mins on every hour for 24 hours?