Exo Terra Monsoon review needed !

[Philsuma]

Anyone have one of these and can review it here FIRSTHAND ?

I love the design and look of it, but it has not gotten good reviews elsewhere....

[Venutus1]

Ok, I'll bite.
It was easy to set up and had no leaks.
The fit and finish looked good out of the box and it does have a very sleek design.
It is light weight, small motor and kind of "plasticky".
Not bad, that was just my impression.
*Seemed* perfect for those who want a little, easy mist/rain system for say 1 - 4 vivs.
It was a holiday gift and I was pleased.
It worked well for a month or so.
The mist was more like a cross between a fine spray from a spray bottle and your car windshield washer spray.
Still ok.
But it went slowly downhill from there.
Now it is June.
The electronic controls went on the fritz at about month 2.5.
And first it was just the timing and duration that went wrong.
It would spray to short, like 2 seconds, or spray too long like min.s
Then, the day timing went.
It would spray at any time for any duration. Sometimes until it emptied itself.
My fix:
Because it "re-sets" and sprays after power being cut, I now have it on a timer to turn it on 5 min. at a whack, 4 x a day.
It sprays intermittently throughout those 5 min. it is on.
That is working for now, so I am running it that way until it dies out.
My end thought:
Pass it over until Hagen (Exo-Terra) stops using such faulty (cheap) electronics in the unit.
Todd

[areenders]

My end thought:
Pass it over until Hagen (Exo-Terra) stops using such faulty (cheap) electronics in the unit.
Todd

agreed, Mine died after a few weeks, won't mist at all. not sure if mine is the new model or not. I like the look of it. and when it was working it was a great mister. I did the similar thing with the timer. when the power was given to it from the timer it would start it's first cycle. Hagen is going to repair it or ship me a new one. still waiting on the shipping label though.

[Venutus1]

My end thought:
Pass it over until Hagen (Exo-Terra) stops using such faulty (cheap) electronics in the unit.
Todd

agreed, Mine died after a few weeks, won't mist at all. not sure if mine is the new model or not. I like the look of it. and when it was working it was a great mister. I did the similar thing with the timer. when the power was given to it from the timer it would start it's first cycle. Hagen is going to repair it or ship me a new one. still waiting on the shipping label though.

Hey, I just sent mine off to Hagen to get a new one...

How long did it take you to get your replacement??

I was just wondering.
Thanks.

I am not expecting much from the new one though... maybe I will have to just keep sending them in once they break every 6 or so months! hock:

BTW, I was thinking about opening it up and coating all electronics inside with clear silicone... to make water proof.

[Philsuma]

http://www.amazon.com/Terra-Monsoon-RS4 ... B004G62868

$60.00 some odd ducats.....wow ~! Can it go lower ?

[Venutus1]

The new version works much better.
The one Hagen sent as a replacement.

I think because they got such a bad name, sales died to nothing.

So now they gotta move them however they can.

60 bucks seems real low. They must be hard up.

[Philsuma]

Is there a way to visually tell if they are 2.0 ?

[Venomos]

I seen something about this from Mike at NEHerp. He had stated products sold after June 2011 were V2.0. But that might just be his stock...Not sure if everyone else who had older stock would have had a recall and had them upgraded? I bought one but it has just been sitting for 2 months. It was purchased to run on my 36x18x24 Exo for a display tank. Otherwise all my breeder tanks in the frog room will be on an Ultimate from Marty at Mistking. I will try mine out here really soon and let you guys know how mine pans out for me. Supposedly mine is a V2.0 since I purchased it from Mike at NEHerp.

[Djpaulys]

I just set one up a week ago and have no problems yet
All hoses were connected for me so no leaks
The mist is heavy I would say but short misting times helps that

[joneill809]

I seen something about this from Mike at NEHerp. He had stated products sold after June 2011 were V2.0.

I purchased a unit from Josh back in Febrauary - it's stamped 6/11 and 2 weeks ago it emptied it's tank overnight in the viv so it looks like I just missed the cut off . I was able to drain the false bottom quickly and recover.

My fix:
Because it "re-sets" and sprays after power being cut, I now have it on a timer to turn it on 5 min. at a whack, 4 x a day

I ended up doing something similar using an external timer set to 1 minute cycles every 6 hours that starts up the Monsoon. It runs at it's timed rate and everything is ok. I'm wondering if it's worth the hassel of taking it down and shipping it back (I need to bug Hagen about a return label). Anyone encountered issues with the replacement or newer units?

[Philsuma]

I would ask Josh if he would take it back and replace it with the 2.0 version.

[affliction]

i have gone through 2 of these units, both worked great for the first few weeks and then all the sudden they just stopped working. the unit worked great when it worked lol. great idea shitty design, when i returned my units the manager of the store told me he has been getting a lot of them back for the same reasons. apparently the motors burn up very easily even if you dont run them dry. i also had issues with the small filter that is attached to the tubing clogging up, i had to remove it in order to get any type of suction. over all i would not recommend the unit until they make severe improvements to make design. 2 stars out of 5. hope this helps.

[Pacblu202]

I have mine turned off at all times. I just manually turn it on for a few every day or two. I dont want the hassle of it draining out so its better then hand misting... Although I do have to move the misting nozzles because they don't reach all the plants from left to right. It's not a very wide spread just more straight on and about 2-3 inch on each side max. I got it free though so no complaining from me haha

[affliction]

Free is always nice lol. I had to pay $120 for mine!

[joneill809]

Update on my Monsoon(s). So yes, I now have two. Got one for $80 new, shipped so I was ok with that. My first one has been in service for 15 months. It's driving 4 heads on 2 vivs. This is the unit that had a timer failure about 3 months in. I have continued to use an external timer and it has worked well. I have noticed though that the four lines going into the vivs to the mist heads are showing signs of pin hole leaks. The tubing appears to be failing. I contacted Hagen, and I was quite disappointed in their response:

Dear Jim,

We thank you for taking the time to contact us.

We have not heard of this. You may order the tubing directly at our website the item#PT2504.

Thank you,
E***** B****
Customer Service Dept.
Rolf C. Hagen (USA) Corp.

:lol: So I think I'll be skipping their replacement tubing since this has happened on 3/4 of my lines on the original unit. I'll experiment with replacement tubing (another reason to make a trip to Home Depot! glad it's only around the corner) and report back. So watch out for the timer, and monitor your tubing. I think these things need to come down another $20 to $30 to the $60 price range to justify their trouble.

Experimenting with one of these GE 15089 compact external minute timers now:

Got one on sale over the holidays and had it stuck in a drawer. It has up to 20 on/off cycles, so more than enough to run a mister. My next mister will be a MistKing

[BcsTx]

I saw the Monsoon in action at NARBC, was not impressed. Wow 70 bucks? MistKing has a starter system for 99 bucks, well worth the extra 29 bucks.

[joneill809]

Yeah that was what I thought initially but then to get two heads I think you had to add another mist head ($15) and a reservoir ($5) and shipping ($15). So when I was price comparing for a small stand alone viv it was a difference of ~$80 shipped versus ~$135 for the Mk. I could be wrong, but that was my assessment at the time. I agree though, long term, the extra cost is worth it given the lack of headaches.

What bugged me the most was the lack of concern from the customer service team. That's worth a few extra bucks too.

[BcsTx]

Which customer service were you disappointed with?

[joneill809]

Hagen - they own the exoterra brand. I've dealt with them with fluval and aqua clear products in the past as well. Customer service is spotty.

[joneill809]

Well the tubing has deteriorated further since my last posts. Looks like replacement tubing will be my next viv project - it looks like I have a drip irrigation system installed in my viv. I'll let everyone know what solution I come up with. I'll see if I can get a clear pic or video of the drip system in action