It’s been crazy windy here. Pine tree pods blanketed the pool. I had to empty the Betta tray 3 times in one day. It felt like the tray weighed 5 pounds. The large tray is a great feature for the local flora. After reading all the breakdowns I hope mine konks out before the 1 year is up if it’s going to fail!
Maybe it was in the skimmer.
After the light sequencing at startup, it appears to start. Red props spin less than a minute, then nothing. It would shut down before it could be lowered into the water. Had that a couple of times so ran the start up with the lid open. Again, after light sequence, the the paddle wheel would start, but gear choked. Watched again and saw the gear stop, so no paddle, no propeller. Propellers still spin, paddle spins freely with manual spin. Layman’s diagnostic. We’ll see what Instapark says.
I know! It’s been very windy the last couple of weeks it seems. All these cold fronts coming though. If yours does die, it will be well within the 1 year period..
Hi again everyone. I was sorry to hear that Orion's Betta failed. I was thinking he had the the only bullet proof one out there. The last time I wrote (in Dec.) my fifth new Betta had failed and I was going to ask for a refund finally but Vivian said she would send another one, refurbished this time, and I said ok. Well, after a little over three months it started to fail with a binding motor once again. I took the propeller off and cleaned off the calcium deposits and it worked for a day or so intermittently. I have determined that the motor magnetically binds a bit at one spot as you turn it and that causes the Betta to fault. I have done some research on magnetic drive DC motors and the problem may be caused by the control board, not the motor itself. The motor is bound even when the unit is turned off. I will call Instapark today and see what they will do but I do not have high hopes since my warranty was up in Feb.
Ain't that the truth! I like mine a lot also, but every time I look out at the pool I expect to see it not running. I'm for sure hanging on to my pole-mounted skimmer net.
Let us know how that one works. They still haven’t shipped out my refurbished one yet.
Well it is still working, of course it has only been a day and a half. It may be my imagination but this one seems even quieter than the original Betta. Anyway, the new one has very different motors and propellers and no longer has the blue and red lights in the back, just green flashing LED's in the front which change to red if there is an issue of some kind. The metal wire on the back underside is gone and molded-in plastic replaces it. I know in the past they have said they upgraded the motors and they did change the motor type once that I noticed in all of the Betta's I have gone through, but the motors on the new Betta II are way different.
Awesome thanks! I just called them and ordered the new one. They also charged me $200.00 to upgrade the old one. They didn’t mention the 3 year warranty, just that it comes with the 1 year warranty. Thanks for mentioning that, I’ll probably get that as well. She said all three motors were upgraded. Hopefully this version adequately addressed the quality issues. They sure do work great when they are working. As much debris as I get in my pool this is a must have for us, not a nice to have.
I saw the various extended warranties on their website and when you get the new one there is a card inside the box telling about the warranty choices. I too hope this model has a much improved life expectancy. We will be among the first to know.
I see it on their website now. What’s weird though is that they don’t have the betta 2. I only see those on Amazon right now. They seemed confident over the phone that these will last longer. They said the motors have more room and can self clean or something like that. Without seeing it I have no idea how that works.
The new motors are not covered by the propeller at all so maybe that is what they meant my self cleaning. My other Bettas all developed a lot of calcium (lime) build-up inside the propellers and inside the motor rotor and I thought that was what was taking them out since it put a strain on the motor, but after I cleaned them the last time one motor would still hang up at one spot when I turned it by hand (with power off). It would hang up magnetically like there was still an electric current going to it. Something I read on the internet implied that a speed controller problem could cause that issue. What I was reading was about RC controlled items that used DC magnetic motors with speed controller circuit boards on the car, boat, drone or whatever. I think the circuit boards on our Bettas serve that function also. Anyway, I could clean the motors but could do nothing about any circuit board malfunction. It would be nice if there was an electronics person on the forum who felt like taking a malfunctioning Betta apart to find out what was causing all of these numerous failures.
Interesting. I don’t think many people would be willing to take one apart and void the warranty.
My pool is an oval. It works great in mine. Not sure how well it would get into corners. I wouldn’t think they would take a dead breeze. They do however have an upgrade option and offer a up to a three year warranty for $60.00.
bettabot.com
Mine's kidney, so large radii. I have 5 oak trees, 3 hanging over the pool, so lots of leaves and pollen gather along edges. I was going to go with the 2 year warranty, $40. It's either going to fail year 1 or last a few years (hopefully).My pool is an oval. It works great in mine. Not sure how well it would get into corners. I wouldn’t think they would take a dead breeze. They do however have an upgrade option and offer a up to a three year warranty for $60.00.
Betta Care Extended Warranty
My pool is kidney as well. I have never seen the edges cleaner. It is remarkable.
