Neptune APEX Reliability (Shocking in my experience!)

[psumms]

Anyone else concerned by what seems to be horrendous Neptune Apex reliability? My Apex unit has died for the second time in 8 months, last time it took them two weeks to replace, doesn't seem like its going to be any quicker this time! Last time I was too happy that they warranty replaced my sparkling new weeks old unit with a scratched and dirty reconditioned box. They've already had to replace two optical sensors that went rusty in the sump. My Neptune experience to date gives me little confidence, both hardware and support have been very poor.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Bought my stuff used. so don’t know. Display died after 2 months though.....

 

[James Tucker]

I'm very concerned, so I keep an eye on it. I'm in IT and my experience with purpose built technology like Apex has been all over the place. It will break eventually. I suspect I'll be in Europe when it does. I've been keeping my unit as far away from the water as possible to maybe extend its life.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Been using my apex for almost a year, no issues whatsoever. Picked up the EL when they went on sale last november. So far it's been great.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Been using my apex for almost a year, no issues whatsoever. Picked up the EL when they went on sale last november. So far it's been great.

I have to admit, it’s kinda neat..... I have an EB8 with NOTHING connected though. I guess I need to figure out what/how to connect something to it and add it to my phone app.

I did have a PMUP fail also. Forgot about that!

It has been a long 2 months.

I may add the fish feeder though. And I want a Doser

 

[User1]

Anyone else concerned by what seems to be horrendous Neptune Apex reliability? My Apex unit has died for the second time in 8 months, last time it took them two weeks to replace, doesn't seem like its going to be any quicker this time! Last time I was too happy that they warranty replaced my sparkling new weeks old unit with a scratched and dirty reconditioned box. They've already had to replace two optical sensors that went rusty in the sump. My Neptune experience to date gives me little confidence, both hardware and support have been very poor.

No, not in the least. I've had my Apex up for about 18 months now and no issues what so ever. Works has advertised. Same with my ATO, Cor 15 pumps x 2, Cor 20 pump, and Trident.

Heck, even in 2000 when I was using the original Neptune controller with the X10's. dang thing was near indestructible. I left the head unit on the ground and my young GSD at the time thought it was a chew toy. Still worked perfectly. I placed a call into support asking what I could check for and the lad on the phone at the time said he made the same mistake and his Great Dane also chewed on it.

Every time I call support it has been most excellent. Even received a call over the weekend when I did not expect to get a response until Monday the next business day.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I have to admit, it’s kinda neat..... I have an EB8 with NOTHING connected though. I guess I need to figure out what/how to connect something to it and add it to my phone app.

I did have a PMUP fail also. Forgot about that!

It has been a long 2 months.

I may add the fish feeder though. And I want a Doser

I've got the DOS as well, and the ease of running it all through fusion works great for me

 

[SteveySingle]

display died supppppppper quickly...and my ATK is way too hit or miss to trust so it's collecting dust.. I don't think i personally do enough maintenance on my stuff tho, like cleaning out the dust and salt, so i don't complain to anyone. no experience w/any other controllers tho, so not sure what the others are like in regard to this kind of stuff

 

[James Tucker]

No, not in the least. I've had my Apex up for about 18 months now and no issues what so ever. Works has advertised. Same with my ATO, Cor 15 pumps x 2, Cor 20 pump, and Trident.
....
Every time I call support it has been most excellent. Even received a call over the weekend when I did not expect to get a response until Monday the next business day.

That is comforting. I was going to pickup a second Apex pre-configured with my running config to have on standby for this spring when I leave the country for a few weeks. Maybe I don't need to?

 

[smartwater101]

Neptune has absolutely horrid reliably. The build quality is laughable. Price/performance is horrendous and if anyone read reviews from people WHO HAVE ACTUALLY USED MORE THAN ONE BRAND OF CONTROLLER, they would never go near Neptune.

After power-bar failures (which ended up dumping entire ATO) modules constantly going offline, pH that would shift .2 within a couple days after calibration, Flow Sensors randomly resetting to 0, constant disconnects from the web, man... the list goes on and on. At one point I had a chat support rep leave me hanging for about 20 min. I check in to see if hes still there and he says "on a support call." I was confused and asked if it was related to the issue he was helping me with... nope. He just took a support call and I sat there like an idiot for an hour.

On top of MANY MANY issues I had the last and final straw happen today. : I'm currently upgrading to GHL and decided to downgrade the 2016 to Apex Classic while I sell the other stuff. Fusion was working but the Apex Classic Dashboard wouldn't show up. So on a phone support the guy deleted some programming to resend it to basically reset the unit. HE BRICKED THE ENTIRE THING. I kid you not. And now, in typical Neptune fusion, I'm expected to pay for shipping and repair. I actually considered keeping the Classic for Radion control but I'm finally fed up. I can't believe I even considered holding on to one of their products. But now I guess I'm free. Good riddance.

This company will make you jump through hoops in order to avoid taking responsibility for their shoddy products. Of all the software/hardware companies I've worked with in the last 30+ years, even outside the hobby, Neptune has been the worst in terms of their products/support/warranty-policies/snide PR reps.

I could rant about this company and their anti-consumer behavior all day. So frustrating. There is no way they would be where they are, if they weren't such good bedfellows with BRS. Not a chance.

 

[Urtoo]

For the price I have seen, I would expect it to be like a white glove support system.
Time to try Reef-pi?

 

[TheHarold]

Mine work great. Literally never had a failure even with ~7 year old used apex LITE units. I recently got an ATK just to see what people were complaining about, and haven’t seen a single issue either.

I have:
apex lite
3x apex DOS
2x apex 2016 kits
Extra EB8s and EB832s

and a variety of modules, and have never needed to use the warranty. Customer service has been awesome, with their screen sharing to diagnose some of my weird router settings.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Quick question while I have the audience for it:

My screen died.... is there something else I can connect/replace it with that is better? I like walking by and seeing the temp/pH and just knowing the tank is “good”. I Can’t justify spending $100 just to see the temp though, and my ink-bird or whatever is ugly and is inder the stand (and dead out of the box, or maybe it is my heater. either way, I have awful luck!)

Can I set an iPad etc up to it as the display, and have it on 24/7 if left plugged in?

 

[User1]

That is comforting. I was going to pickup a second Apex pre-configured with my running config to have on standby for this spring when I leave the country for a few weeks. Maybe I don't need to?

Last year was a heavy year of traveling for me to include long haul putting me half way around the world several times. Always had the Apex to do its daily task. No issues. In fact probably the biggest thing it did was alert me when my top off container was low. Quick text to my daughter and it was taken care of in case someone forgot to add more to it.

Life is busy. For me personally what helped more than the Apex is a list of things I needed done daily (feed fish) and things to check (top off water). It also helped by providing a brief instruction set on what to do if by chance the lights didn't come on, etc. Fusion is fine and all but I know how I think and communicate vs that of other people. The whole men are from mars or women are from Venus. Whatever that is - we think differently and what may make sense to me won't to them.

So Apex and Fusion helps. It is a presentation display. It controls things and we all control differently. I could use mine differently thank you for example. I control:

Lights
Heater
Cor 15 & 20 (virtual outlet for tide then alternate pumps left/right)
Cor 15 skimmer
ATO
Recent: Trident, DOS

Also note that @Thales uses it at his work and that is a pretty big deal. I do not believe he is too worried about it. Others here use it more complicated, or advanced, than I do. Just like many use GHL. I am biased, I like Neptune and have had great success with it. So I'm being honest here when I say no, I don't worry. But I also like the product and have had good success with it.

 

[foxt]

I have been running an Apex Jr with many extras like power bars, PM1 and PM2s, FMM, etc, and it has been rock solid for three years. I also have two other Apex Classics that are less extensively connected, but also no issues. Bought everything used at the time, no idea how much use they had before me.

I see these complaints about reliability now and then, and wonder if they are tied to the more recent editions? I also have mine wired to ethernet, wonder if that makes a difference?

 

[TheHarold]

Quick question while I have the audience for it:

My screen died.... is there something else I can connect/replace it with that is better? I like walking by and seeing the temp/pH and just knowing the tank is “good”. I Can’t justify spending $100 just to see the temp though, and my ink-bird or whatever is ugly and is inder the stand (and dead out of the box, or maybe it is my heater. either way, I have awful luck!)

Can I set an iPad etc up to it as the display, and have it on 24/7 if left plugged in?

yeah you can use an iPad or something for sure. I prefer to just set a lot of alarms, so I don’t need to check the display. If there is an issue, I’ll know.

 

[smartwater101]

I also have mine wired to ethernet, wonder if that makes a difference?

I had to get a wifi extender that had a port on it so I could plug the Apex directly to it. Kind of ridiculous that we have to "trick" the unit into staying connected. And of course, if you talk to Neptune about it, its always user error. They take zero responsibility for things going wrong.

 

[foxt]

Quick question while I have the audience for it:

My screen died.... is there something else I can connect/replace it with that is better? I like walking by and seeing the temp/pH and just knowing the tank is “good”. I Can’t justify spending $100 just to see the temp though, and my ink-bird or whatever is ugly and is inder the stand (and dead out of the box, or maybe it is my heater. either way, I have awful luck!)

Can I set an iPad etc up to it as the display, and have it on 24/7 if left plugged in?

You can use anything that will connect to the internet to browse either the fusion interface, or the classic. You may need to wake the display up to see the screen, unless you can configure the device to never sleep.

 

[James Tucker]

Last year was a heavy year of traveling for me to include long haul putting me half way around the world several times. Always had the Apex to do its daily task. No issues. ...

I've been putting more an more on my Apex. A few weeks ago, I added my two Octopulses. I am thinking about DOS and an ATO monitor, but I am running out of room. I just don't trust tech. I have it fail on me at the worst time lol.

I love how all the ads around this posting swapped to Neptune ads for me. =\

 

[Thales]

For the price I have seen, I would expect it to be like a white glove support system.
Time to try Reef-pi?

I don't know man, I think the apex stuff is inexpensive. Compare it to more 'professional' controls for aquariums, and it is mega inexpensive.