Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got home tonight and found one feeble air stone working. Looks like my pond one 4000 lasted 12 months to the day - well 5 days short of a year.

now in the process of getting replacement parts. $25 for a diaphragm and 2 flappers and I may need 2 sets. That's $50 to fix for a pump I paid $104. High maintenance

On the other hand Blagdon air pumps recommend yearly replacement of the diaphragms and flappers so perhaps the Pond ones are not so bad. But then the Blagdon diaphragm kit is only $15 (not sure if that is for 2 sets or not)

Now I'm looking at a Blagdon Koi Air 25 as that has similar specs to the pond one. At $162 what I save in diaphragms I pay on the pump - I guess I can't win.

A friend of mine has just endured about a 6 month dispute with aquaone and finally got his money back after 2 failed 4000's in the space of a few months... but only after getting the Umbudsman involved.

What air pump do you have Charlie?

Just down the page a bit on my system thread here

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11492&start=60

I have doggedly stuck by my AquaOne/PondOne O2 4000. Diaphrams and flappers are a consumable product and easy to replace. The Blagdon Koi Air recommend yearly replacement of the diaphragms and flappers. I can live with that. What I cant live with is paying good money for a product where diaphrams are hard but not impossible to come by but the flapper housing (which you need to replace to fix the flappers) are impossible to find. I have searched the world looking for them. The few that sell them (usually in the UK) are out of stock and have been for some time.

So, as many before me have said stay away from the AquaOne/PondOne O2 4000 the consumables will fail and you will be lucky to find replacements. On the other hand my Blagdon Koi Air is doing great, I have 3 complete service kits so I know I will be able to fix the consumables when they fail.

Agreed will not be buying any more due to lack/overpriced replacement parts.