Dear Roddy,
Independent testing on your part sounds great, but let's clarify a few things:
First, this unit is primarily designed to be an autofill. That was the original design and that is what it does.
Second, the other features; prime dry pumps, bleed filter air, install in under 30 minutes without drilling or digging or cutting pipe, were my design based on owning a leaky pool and not being satisfied with the choices and having friends in the engineering fields...pooof...we made one and sold it to the Air Force (probably not a good sign) who liked it so much they wanted more and a product was born.
As you know, evolution happens and 88 prototypes later we came up with a Model II which has a 5 year warranty as opposed to the 2 year warranty of the Model I. We still make both units.
Years passed as we fed the pool industry this device and one day we had this old lady buy one and she was a friend of a friend and had this black algae problem and after 3 months of use about 90% of it disappeared. A pool builder (a guy replacing some of her tiles) pointed out to us that it was probably th copious amount of oxygen/air it was adding to the pool via the side jets.
At the same/similar time, a Koi Breeder (the biologist in this thread) was having her pond built and we were approached by the builder who liked the features, came to the old ladies pool, saw the oxygen, reported to her what he saw, she liked it and they pointed out to us (we didn't discover this aspect really...they did) that it was a great addition to live ponds. Poof...a new vertical market was born for the product.
She liked it and asked if other koi people used it and I said we were just starting to knock on those doors and if she was interested in how they responded and she asked me to find Koi breeders who tested their water regularly for bacteria, algae, chlorine etc. and so this thread was born.
In the course of meeting folks in this industry we also discovered some products that degrade incoming chlorine with a UV light as well as knock out bacteria and algae. While I am sure many forms of organisms are beneficial to ponds, we did some research on chlorine and realized that by coiling the 12 feet of clear tubing (more or less could be added) and passing it under a high-wattage UV lamp (not supplied) the unit could do a number on bacteria and algae and chlorine as well.
It wasn't designed to add air to ponds...it just does that as part of the design and the ozone etc. you described actually isn't how it does it. It just does as part of it's metering functioins. It wasn't designed to zap orgs and chlorine in the water, it just can IF a UV lamp is employed on the clear tubing provided with the unit. As to desired wattage or footage of tubing, I have no clue; how long does water have to be under a UV light is most likely inversely proportional to length of tube and wattage and proportional to speed of flow. Since the unit has a rather 'slow flow' through the tubing compared to other parts of a pump/filter system, this is an area of 'tuning' I suppose by individual breeders who want to retain some orgs in that water. If left to it's own devices and a high power lamp was used I am fairly certain it would sterilize the water and perhaps that isn't a good thing after all. I don't know...you probably do.
As for the testing, right now we have a large pool supplier looking at it (he was impressed by the bullet proof warranty and multi-function aspects) and we are prepping new packaging for his review, a slightly different case to improve it's 'drop/kick/smash' resistance, although the Model II was already pretty tough, we're making it tougher, and getting his feedback before releasing the new design to the general market. We could end up changing a few things there as well and are holding back a bit on orders/advertising until we see what they say about it.
Having been a pool man (high school) and installed a variety of devices, all I can say about it as of now is that it was designed to be tough (able to eat mud and be dropped on concrete from 5 feet), and UPC code compliant (a building and planning engineer helped us out with a testimonial) and easy to install. All of the rest of the features are just bi-products of it's design.
Does that clarify a few things here? In honor of THIS market segment we are dedicating a huge links page for Koi Clubs everywhere (I might add, without spamming those who post their pics/links; restraint is the better part of valor) and I do believe once word gets out (fingers crossed) it will be the autofill of choice for breeders who want a unit with multi-feature capabilities. We shall see.
Now, for your 'independent test', I guess I should ask what size pond you have, what sort of pump/filter you use, what autofill you currently use, do you add air, how much, do you test your water for bacteria and algae regularly, would you test the UV aspect of this etc. I can PM you but there are a few folks here listening in and I have always tried to be blatently honest my entire life so no shields are required. If you find the unit sucks, tell it like it is here. If it performs, tell it like it is. That always works for me. If some aspect needs improvement for breeders, let us know and we'll figure a way to include it if we can.
Does that work for you?
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