Harbor Freight pumps

project5k

project5k

Reef enthusiast
So i dont know how many of you are familiar with Harbor Freight, or the products that they sell, but i have recently come across a series of pumps that they sell, some in the stores, and some online, that i have contacted the manuf. about and to the best of my knowledge is safe for use in our tanks, i have 3 of them in my tank now, and i see no ill effects, i havent tried the larger ones yet, but if you do, please let us know what you think.

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices 66gph $7.99
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices 145gph $9.99
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices 190 gph $12.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47117 258gph $19.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47136 528gph $29.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47137 1268 gph $44.99
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47138 1585 gph $54.99
 
Harbor frieght has decent stuff. Very few things in the stores are name brand but the tools are quality and if something does break down the road yiu will have definitly gotten your $$$ worth out of it.

I bought my palm sander there when I refinished my stand for $9. Did the job no problem. I know contracotrs down here that bought items from there and they get used everyday and are still going.
 
yea, they have some stuff thats worth it and some thats not, hand tools, like wrenches and stuff you might could get away with for a little while, but they are cheaper, and definately not the quality of a craftsman...

i love thier 4-1/2 angle grinders, i blow 3 or 4 of them up every season in my fab shop. Sure i could buy better quality, but these things get dropped and beatn up so bad, that theres just no point, so i buy the cheapies when they go on sale for like $12....

what i would not buy from them would be any kind of precision electronics, volt meters and things like that, they just dont have the quality that i need...

But back to the pumps, i've had several of the 66 and the 145 size pumps, and i've run them in dirty water, clean, cold, whatever, and they just seem to keep going so long as they dont get clogged, or run dry. they've been good so far... and cheap.

all of these pumps are made by pacific hydrostar, i dont know much about them, but apparently they make a decent product.
 
That certainly is a valid concern. And one that i have not investigated as of yet, but i will in time.

One thing to consider, in my situation at least, is that the house is kept at 68 degrees. so i have to run heaters year round. if the pumps are a little less efficient, and some of that input energy is converted to heat, and thus is put into the water, then wouldnt that offset and thereby reduce the workload of the heaters?

Just a thought.
 
yes it would but with enough of them and a heater in you tank you could also run the chance of overheating the tank easly and quickly
 
dont add sergant majors either if youc atch them , i caught a few and they have been alive for 2 years but you need to add them to an aggressive tank
 
so, my current plan is as follows:

when i get some money back that i'm expecting in the near future, i'll order the biggest of these pumps for my new return pump. My mix tank pump died on me yesterday, so i had to make do with something else, but when i get this new big pump, my plan is to upgrade to at least 1" lines on the return side, and then i can take the 2 smaller pumps that i have for returns now, and one can be to feed the algal scrubber and the fuge/dsb, and the other will be the new mix tank pump...

then i can give ya'll some good hands on reviews of the pumps...
 
so here's some information from the harborfreight website that you may find interesting... the top shaded pumps are rio pumps and the specs are from drfoster website, the bottom non shaded are the harbor freight pumps. the first 3 are available in stores, and the bottom 4 are only available online.

the lower 3 or 4 pumps on this list specifically say that they have ceramic bearings and are for use in freshwater or saltwater aquariums.

yes i've tried to contact the manuf, and they are useless as far as output charts are concerned, but you can basically gauge the pumps output by figuring what % of total height you are, and thats approx the % you'd get at a given height.
 

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well after many many many emails with HF and thier suppliers, i finally got a flow chart, i know its kinda not the best, but its good enough to figure from...
 

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just an update for anyone following this info... i got one of the biggest pumps, the 1500+ GPH one, well, i test ran it in about a third maybe almost a half of a 32 gallon trashcan full of water, just to make sure it ran and stuff, let it run like that overnight, and the next morning the outside temperature was in the mid 50's and the water was in the mid 80's, so, just for future reference, if you wanna use this big pump, remember it adds a bunch more heat to the water than i ever thought it would...

well, i put that pump into my system, but as far as my system goes, i'm using this pump as an external pump, not a submerged one... so i'm not adding heat to my water.. but that turned out to be LOUD, this pump was really dissapointingly loud, so, i re-arranged some of my plumbing fittings, and i submerged the pump body in a 5 gallon bucket of fresh water, and that quieted it down really well..

so, if you can figure out how to run this thing submerged, but not be adding the heat to your system, it appears to be a good strong pump, the flow from this thing is amazing, i'm using it for 2 big returns from the sump to the DT, AND its feeding all the flow to the fuge, AND i have a bypass hose going back to the sump, cause i just cant use all the flow that this pump can produce...
 
just an update, i just pulled the impellor out of my 1500+ pump to inspect it and clean it, and this is what i found...
 

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My DAD ask me last week if i had ever looked for pumps at harbor frieht, Well i never really thought they would have any thing as far as pond or aqurium pumps there. I had already bought a blue line 1290gph pump for $162.00 that day. I havnt got it hooked up yet, Im in the process of making a ats. But man that just trips me out that they have them there for 44.00 to 54.00 bucks, I hope it works out for you and hope that wasnt rust on that impeller.
 
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