Mastertronic Honest Review.
- Thread starter fuxs
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elcapitan1993
Well-Known Member
How do I get one of these? I can’t find them anywhere at all
Mywifeisgunnakillme
Valuable Member
ditto
elcapitan1993
Well-Known Member
At least this one tests phosphates lol
elcapitan1993
Well-Known Member
They are in stock in Europe and Australia but not in the USA I guess the company dosent care about US sales
Joepie
New Member
Mastertronic is easy available in Europe. Since almost one year. The reason why not in the USA is unknown for me.
elcapitan1993
Well-Known Member
Is there a Europe website that will ship to the USA?
andrecr
Active Member
Talk with Paulo from www.topcorals.pt he is an amazing guy who selled mine and did the installation process.
I'm sure if he can he will send you one.
andrecr
Active Member
I don't if what I heard is true but the same company that does the distribution of Mastertronic also does of the Apex. They preffer to sell the apex in the US rather than the MT.
Yet again i don't know if it is true, but someone told me this.
I am from Germany and I had to wait six month until Mastertronic was in stock again so there has been some issues to get that machine here as well. At the moment its easy to get one. Overall I have mine now for 2 month and it changed the game because I get daily alk, phoshphate tests as well as regular nitrate test out of it 
. It is not perfect though, bushings broke once and i have a leakage of one of the Kamoer pumps. Support is very good though and they were able to help me quite fast.
. It is not perfect though, bushings broke once and i have a leakage of one of the Kamoer pumps. Support is very good though and they were able to help me quite fast.paul01609
Active Member
Would you by any chance have to model number for the pump heads just incaseI am from Germany and I had to wait six month until Mastertronic was in stock again so there has been some issues to get that machine here as well. At the moment its easy to get one. Overall I have mine now for 2 month and it changed the game because I get daily alk, phoshphate tests as well as regular nitrate test out of it
thanks
Superlightman
Valuable Member
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has someone compare it too the reef boot v2?
There is no Model number on the head, sorry! Replacement is Easy and took 20 seconds
n2585722
2500 Club Member
I believe CoralVue is the US distributer and also the owner of Hydros. The Hydros will interface with the Mastertronic via wifi so I don't think that the controller is the issue. More likely it is the same issue all manufacturers are having. That is getting enough parts and even packaging.
I’m gonna weigh in on this and put another experience forward. Focustronic HAVE to sort out their support and customer care. I run multiple tanks and have 2 x Alkatronic, 2 x Dosetronic and I’m running 4 x Mastertronic, so I’ve dropped ALOT of cash on FT devices this year.
The first 3 MTs to arrive - great, all work fine. The 4th arrived late due to a shipping mix up around 27-28 October. I was away on vacation for a few days so didn’t get a chance to set it up. Set it up on 5th of November took 2 days to complete updates. Once updated it would do 2 things - turn the carousel and unlock, that was it - no calibration, no testing no nothing else. (In the UK you have 14 days to tell a manufacturer something is faulty and provided you do you can get a refund no questions asked under consumer law, so I was comfortably within that)
Contacted support and initially they were very good - Jonas and Eric, I agreed we would try and trouble shoot and so I’ve spent a lot of time and emails working with them dismantling it, trying things etc etc. Late last week Eric agreed to a swap out and I was waiting for UK disti to provide details, then another update pushed over the weekend (took 36-48 hours to complete again which is unusually long), it then started to calibrate - took 10 attempts to get either pump to calibrate (even then doing a test after the measurements weren’t perfect like they are meant to be (and they are on the others)).
Finally got it sort of calibrated on Monday and started testing. KH was way out - I knew it was about 6.2, MT said 12, no matter what I did it wouldn’t change. Tested NO3 and PO4 - they came back correct, I cross checked with manual Testing (different test kits and the reagents in the vials to confirm). Messaged support again, got agreement KH was out. Next day tested again - this time KH, Mg and Ca are fine, NO3 and PO4 are reading pretty much zero which is wrong - NO3 is about 6 and PO4 0.11. Cross checked manually again (using reagents in vials, Hanna checkers and other Red Sea tests) MT is definitely out
Finally got fed up day before yesterday and said right - enough, I dropped over £8000 on your kit in the last 9 months, this clearly isn’t right, I can’t troubleshoot constantly and can’t have it that it isn’t working properly, I’ve been really flexible working with you to try and get it fixed - It needs to be swapped out at this stage.
They’ve come back and said they want it back for diagnostics despite multiple videos, photos and my working with them for the last 3 weeks or so. To add insult to injury THEY WANT ME to pay the shipping! (So I’ll be another chunk of money out of pocket). And I’m going to be without a working device for even longer. If they treat someone who invests this heavily in their kit this badly then I would advise anyone To think long and hard before ploughing cash in……
I’ve had problems with Neptune, D-D, Reef Factory, Nyos and Red Sea kit in the past (it happens - as with any equipment in Life) - if this was any of them it would have been a straight swap on day 1 (in almost all cases it was), and even several months later when faults developed with all of the above swap outs or refunds have been offered very very quickly.
Until support is fixed I refuse to invest any more money in Focustronic - I’ll be shifting to a Reefbot and KH Keeper plus on this tank instead. People need to be aware that support is not always brilliant - and good customer service is key to a successful business.
The first 3 MTs to arrive - great, all work fine. The 4th arrived late due to a shipping mix up around 27-28 October. I was away on vacation for a few days so didn’t get a chance to set it up. Set it up on 5th of November took 2 days to complete updates. Once updated it would do 2 things - turn the carousel and unlock, that was it - no calibration, no testing no nothing else. (In the UK you have 14 days to tell a manufacturer something is faulty and provided you do you can get a refund no questions asked under consumer law, so I was comfortably within that)
Contacted support and initially they were very good - Jonas and Eric, I agreed we would try and trouble shoot and so I’ve spent a lot of time and emails working with them dismantling it, trying things etc etc. Late last week Eric agreed to a swap out and I was waiting for UK disti to provide details, then another update pushed over the weekend (took 36-48 hours to complete again which is unusually long), it then started to calibrate - took 10 attempts to get either pump to calibrate (even then doing a test after the measurements weren’t perfect like they are meant to be (and they are on the others)).
Finally got it sort of calibrated on Monday and started testing. KH was way out - I knew it was about 6.2, MT said 12, no matter what I did it wouldn’t change. Tested NO3 and PO4 - they came back correct, I cross checked with manual Testing (different test kits and the reagents in the vials to confirm). Messaged support again, got agreement KH was out. Next day tested again - this time KH, Mg and Ca are fine, NO3 and PO4 are reading pretty much zero which is wrong - NO3 is about 6 and PO4 0.11. Cross checked manually again (using reagents in vials, Hanna checkers and other Red Sea tests) MT is definitely out
Finally got fed up day before yesterday and said right - enough, I dropped over £8000 on your kit in the last 9 months, this clearly isn’t right, I can’t troubleshoot constantly and can’t have it that it isn’t working properly, I’ve been really flexible working with you to try and get it fixed - It needs to be swapped out at this stage.
They’ve come back and said they want it back for diagnostics despite multiple videos, photos and my working with them for the last 3 weeks or so. To add insult to injury THEY WANT ME to pay the shipping! (So I’ll be another chunk of money out of pocket). And I’m going to be without a working device for even longer. If they treat someone who invests this heavily in their kit this badly then I would advise anyone To think long and hard before ploughing cash in……
I’ve had problems with Neptune, D-D, Reef Factory, Nyos and Red Sea kit in the past (it happens - as with any equipment in Life) - if this was any of them it would have been a straight swap on day 1 (in almost all cases it was), and even several months later when faults developed with all of the above swap outs or refunds have been offered very very quickly.
Until support is fixed I refuse to invest any more money in Focustronic - I’ll be shifting to a Reefbot and KH Keeper plus on this tank instead. People need to be aware that support is not always brilliant - and good customer service is key to a successful business.
davbenav
Community Member
Just received by Mastertronic from the Netherlands through Seaflower to the US. It ended up being cheaper than buying here in the U.S. if you also purchase your reagents in Europe. I did a video with the breakdown of the cost on youtube if you are interested. Just type in YouTube search "Mastertronic Purchased From the EU to US."
I would be happy to share more details if anyone is interested.
I would be happy to share more details if anyone is interested.
Super helpful. I’ve been looking and just couldn’t get it here. How long did it take for you to get yours?
davbenav
Community Member
It took 1 month in total. Ordered it Nov 1st and arrived Dec 1st. It was held up her on the US end for almost 2 weeks. Was nervous as hell. Did not pay any taxes on it.
Where are you trying to get it to and where from?
Seaflo
Seaflower to Utah. My only concern is warranty. They said I’d have to ship it back there and pay for it. Also, I’m concerned that it might be difficult to sell if I ever change my mind.
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