ACO heaters gone for good?

[HoosierJeff]

Greetings, folks.

just looked on the ACO site and don’t see their heaters for sale anymore? Anyone know if this is for good or a temporary thing?

Thanks!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Unfortunately, they are gone for good. The lights will be too, so pick those up now if you’ve had your eyes on them!

[ange]

On 9/15/2024 at 7:57 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Unfortunately, they are gone for good. The lights will be too, so pick those up now if you’ve had your eyes on them!

Would you happen to know where this was said? I'm curious because I liked their lights as a good step between Finnex and Fluval 3.0. I didn't hear about them having quality issues the way that the heaters did.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@ange Cory has talked about both in many livestreams. 
 

Heaters have been discontinued for quite some time. While the defect rates were actually pretty decent and below their threshold of 5%, when you sell thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of them, and people get to talking, it becomes a bigger problem. Essentially, Cory wasn’t willing to tarnish the Coop image and reputation over heaters. Heaters will always give out at some point, and he couldn’t risk the reputation. Also, the EL (end of life) flashing light probably didn’t help them out in the sense that they tried to be helpful saying “hey, this heater is now 14 months old and you should probably think about replacing it”. People were losing their minds, even though the heater was functioning perfectly. In trying to get people to be proactive about replacing a part that will ultimately fail, it caused a massive headache for the consumer and customer service. 
 

For the lights, their manufacturer is no longer making aquarium lights to instead focus on aquaponics style lighting. They offered one additional run of Coop lights at like a 15% additional charge and Cory declined. What they have on hand is what they have. Until they can hopefully find a different manufacturer that is equal to or better than the old manufacturer. As of the latest livestream last Sunday, Cory stated they still had about 2.5k lights to sell. 
 

I bought a 48” light when they were first released. When he announced they were going to be discontinued, at least for now, I picked up a 20” and 30”. Cory has said he can’t even imagine setting up a tank and not having his own light to put on it, but that will eventually happen if they can’t find a new manufacturer. 

Edited Monday at 03:10 AM by AllFishNoBrakes

[ange]

Great info about the lights, even if bittersweet. I have a 30" and was considering purchasing another one that is 20". May need to expedite that now.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@ange for sure. Get it now while you can! While I didn’t necessarily need the 20” and 30” I bought, I had been thinking about it for a while and didn’t want to lose my opportunity to have them. And now I just have additional back up lights for a 10 gallon and 29 gallon should any of my existing lights go out. Figured I should get it while the gettin was good, and create some back ups of a different brand of light. 

[TAB]

That's one of the problems of having a 3rd party make your stuff.   If they can make more building something else they will do that.

 

 

Many, many years ago I built several aquarium products.  It was a side gig for my down time on my cnc router.  About 6 years ago I built a product that I ended up selling off the design for as I got tired of seeing them sold in China for less than my material  cost.   They were even using my pic to sell them.

 

Heaters are one of those things, we can very easily build high quality heaters that will last a decade or more.  The problem is no one wants to pay for them.  Even if it was cheaper in the long haul.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@TAB If you’re willing to tell us, I’m super curious what you were making?!
 

Pretty lame that a manufacturer was using your photos to sell the product they made, but at least you were able to sell off the design, I guess. It’s a shame, but I’m trying to find the silver lining. 

[TAB]

Mainly stuff for reefs  skimmers, calcium reactors, kalk, ats....

 

I do know one thing, Aquarius in the United States are cheap.  

[Retrophyllum_minus]

On 9/15/2024 at 11:07 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

picked up a 20” and

Yeah I snagged a 36", 30", and 12" recently. 

[HoosierJeff]

Oh, yikes. Good to know on the lights. I am going to get one now for my next tank.

And, bummer that both light and heater production is done/wrapping up.

I appreciate how Cory does business and respect the decision, even if it is an unfortunate one.

[Retrophyllum_minus]

Yeah hopefully the lights will come back in the future before too many years have passed. 

[HoosierJeff]

On 9/16/2024 at 10:48 AM, Retrophyllum_minus said:

Yeah hopefully the lights will come back in the future before too many years have passed. 

I love their simplicity. I manage my aquarium lights with smart switches, and as I've looked at other options with timer settings, etc, I am always unsure if they'll work well with smart switches or not.