How many Kessils for an sps dominate tank?
OP
OP
Peter K
Active Member
That's rough that has been your experience with them 
I've had 2 360's since there were released back in 2013 I believe and they still work like they are brand new. Only issue I've ever had with Kessil was a faulty spectral controller but the customer service was awesome and thery even let us have firmware that hadn't been released yet to see if it would fix it, they ended up replacing it and shipping us a new one even before they received our faulty one.
I've had 2 360's since there were released back in 2013 I believe and they still work like they are brand new. Only issue I've ever had with Kessil was a faulty spectral controller but the customer service was awesome and thery even let us have firmware that hadn't been released yet to see if it would fix it, they ended up replacing it and shipping us a new one even before they received our faulty one.
BoomCorals
2500 Club Member
Both set to about the same color best I could match visually. Depth is 5" under the water. 48" x 24" tank.
I have personally had 8 kessils. 5 kessil a360s,and 2 160 amazon sun's. All have burnt out except one amazon sun and even that Amazon sun flickers now and then. I was a huge fan of kessils, now I think they are a massive waste of money. They aren't that powerful and they burn out steadily. I have moved to radion G4s and have been way happier!That's rough that has been your experience with them
To have that many different kessils burn out that soon for you seems statistically improbable. I would definitely be talking with Kessil. Even being outside their warranty period, you should not experience this type of issue on virtually every unit. There is either some type of lapse in quality control or bad batch for certain production periods or other explanation. I don't think there is a design flaw, as I think we'd here more of this type of issue from other Kessil owners. I wonder if there are mitigating factors, such as possibly never cleaning them with compressed air or exposure to water splashing?
I've owned 8 kessils, consisting of A360s, A160s, and H380 for multiple years. I've never had any issue with mine, although they will build up dust and need to be blown out periodically.
I agree, though, that Kessil A360s are not as powerful compared to a radion xr15w pro, but it's not really comparing apples to apples. The Kessil A360 is several years old while the radion G4 is their newer release. Comparing the AP700 to a XR30w pro would be a more apples to apples comparison on par. For the record. I own radions also. I love them as well, but for different reasons. The Kessil shimmer wins hands down. The simplicity to control is attractive to those who want simpler solutions...two knobs...pretty simple and not as intimidating. Radions are sleek, customizable, and powerful. Much love for both!
Sorry if I got off topic from the original post.
I have 4 360s and 3 160s on several tanks, actually bought them all gently used except for 1. No issue with any of them. I also run the 360s inside a canopy only about 6 inches off the water. So i would assume that would put some extra stress on the lights. But they continue to work well for me. Not sure how long I've had them but probably less than a year at this point.
K100286
Active Member
Have owned 2 350; 2 360 and 3 ap700. One 350 stopped working after a couple of years and Kessil replaced it even though it was out of warranty. After 5 yrs I have been able to grow every type coral with them.
I never gave a time span on previous posts. All of mine have burnt out between 2 and 3 years from the time of purchase .
I have a 200g display and I kept 3 a360s over it. They were controlling via my apex and were at 100% for 8hrs a day. After 2 years 2 of those lights burnt out and a year after that the 3rd one burnt out. Of course all of those lights were past warranty, which is one year in Canada. But kessil did give me a discount on new lights and were very good about it. A while later one of the new a360s burnt out so I bought 3 g4 radions. And moved the other 2 a360 onto my frag system. When the last time a 360s burnt out I put 3 hydra 52s on the frag system.
I also had 2 amazon sun a160s over my 100g planted tank. And after a couple years one of them burnt out and currently the other one is flickering. I will not waste more money on kessils. Don't get me wrong they are a beautiful light but they just don't last. I'm also friends with and lfs. And they have had lots of costomers kessils fail.
I just took apart one of my a360 and found that they are using very poor thermal paste. It is very dry and actually cracked. It comes off the heat sink as more of a dust than a paste. low quality thermal paste for sure, which could definitely be part of the issue! I almost forgot to mention I always blow out my lights monthly with canned air.
Interesting. It would seem to be a design flaw or craftmanship issue based on what you are saying.
Did you keep them blown out every month like they recommend?
Did you keep them blown out every month like they recommend?
Yeah I blew them out with canned air. I might have missed a month here and there because some times life happens or go away for work. But part of the reason most people switch to led is because LEDs are supposed to have a 50, 000 hr life span and be awesome and low maintenance, yay happy feeling! But I think kessil falls short of that. They aren't that bright compared to other lights, and don't pop corals colors as much if you compare them to a hydra or a radion. The shimmer is great but that is also one of its greatest flaws because it causes lots of shadowing and Sps colonys expecially end up shadowing them selfs and dieing from the inside out, unless you do a hybrid system and also use t5 to help even out the light.
I used to love kessil thought they were the coolest light. Now after having them and having soo many failures there is no way I could recommend them to anyone. I find they also ran a lot hotter then my radions and hyrda also which is probably problem.
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