Some days ago we finally put our hands on the new Rossmont Riser R3200 return pump whose special feature is to be a not-electronic Alternate Current pump, but it becomes controllable as soon as you plug it into the Rossmont Waver.
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The Rossmont Riser was spotted at Macna last year with a tweet by ReefBuilders. We were curious about it because we could combine the affordable cost of an AC pump to a Waver (here our review) to get a fully controllable product.
The pump resin casting seems to be very good, and we like the two colors body. The chamber cover is locked to the pump body by a locking ring. On hands it looks like a tiny pump but extremely well built, starting from silicone soft spheres which separate the pump from base. That has been a detail we’ve really appreciated and soon we’ll test it.
The pump can be applied to any sump in wet or dry mode and it’s supplied with two equal hose barbs for inlet and outlet. Depending on the size of the inlet pipe you can cut the hose barb on its larger section to get maximum flow rate.
Rossmont Riser 3200 Technical specs
| Rossmont Riser 3200 |
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| Flow rate: | 3.200 l/h |
| Electric consumption: | 52 watt |
| Head max: | 2,90 meters |
| Width: | 12,5 cm |
| Depth: | 8 cm |
| Height: | 9,8 cm (body only) |
| Cable lenght: | 2 meters |
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We got the pump in a sexy packaging rich in informations and with a compact dimension. Obviously we have also taken a Rossmont Waver to test its controllability features.
As we said earlier, the back of the box is full of technical data. We love this. The manufacturer warranty lasts for two years.
The reference value of the Rossmont Riser 3200 is 4.640 l*m/s, much less, on paper, than the Waveline DC 6000 (review) we are using now.
The pump has a standard impeller with 6 straight blades, and it spins on a ceramic shaft held in place by two standard rubber ends.
The main feature of this pump, as we have said, is that if you use it as “stand-alone” it’s a standard AC pump, but if you plug into the Waver controller it becomes an interesting controllable pump.
With the controller it’s possible to adjust the pump flow during the day and it’s also possible to calibrate the pump, which is very interesting. Through this mode it’s actually possible to decide the pump power to get up to zero flow rate exchange between the sump and main tank. In this way you can feed your fishes without any flow in aquarium but the sump doesn’t get filled with water. I really like this feature. It isn’t new, however by my acknowledge just the Ecotech Marine Vectra has it.
The comparison with the other pumps
As we said before, let’s see the comparison between the Rossmont pump and the other pumps that we reviewed in the past month, AC and DC current.
| Reference value | Flow rate | Head max | Power Consumption | Price | Litres x € | Litres x w | Annual Cost | |
| Eheim 1260 | 4.440 | 2.400 l/h | 3,7 m | 65 w | 137,90 € | 17,4 | 36,9 | 159 € |
| Rossmont Riser 3200 |
4.640 | 3.200 l/h | 2,9 m | 52 w | 114,90 € (239,85 €) | 27,9 (13,3) | 61,5 | 127 € |
| Tunze 1073.050 | 5.850 | 3.000 l/h | 3,9 m | 43 w | 180 € | 16,7 | 69,8 | 101 € |
| Ecotech Marine Vectra S1 |
9.275 | 5.300 l/h | 3,5 m | 55 w | 299 € | 17,7 | 96 | 135 € |
| Corallinea Big World BQ5000-L | 12.500 | 5.000 l/h | 5 m | 80 w | 120 € | 41,7 | 62,5 | 189 € |
| Waveline DC6000 |
13.200 | 6.000 l/h | 4,4 m | 55 w | 283 € | 21,2 | 109 | 135 € |
| Sicce Syncra SDC 7.0 | 17.500 | 7.000 l/h | 5 m | 65 w | 399 € | 17,5 | 107,7 | 189 € |
| Ecotech Marine Vectra M1 | 24.375 | 7.500 l/h | 6,5 m | 80 w | 419 € | 17,9 | 93,8 | 189 € |
| Corallinea Pulsa 12000 |
30.000 | 12.000 l/h | 5 m | 100 w | 193 € | 62,2 | 120 | 237 € |
| Ecotech Marine Vectra L1 | 37.375 | 11.500 l/h | 6,5 m | 130 w | 539 € | 21,33 | 88,5 | 307 € |
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As you can see the economic efficiency is very good without the controller, even better than the immortal Eheim 1260, while it becomes less affordable if you add the price of the controller to the pump, although with the controller you can adjust two pumps, which changes a bit the comparison. So far we have considered half of the Waver price in the comparison table, but the attribution isn’t exactly correct. While the technical efficiency is just discrete, comparable to the electronic Tunze and the Big World BQ5000.
One last note about the Rossmont Riser 3200 performance chart here below
The curve is by the book and it goes above an hypothetic line that joins the curve ends. This is the right behavior that every pumps should have.
The Rossmont Riser 3200 is sold at a list price of 114.90 euro in Italy. It’s a very low price that allows almost any aquarist buying it, but you have the chance to control it in a second moment with Waver without buying it right away.
It’s important to remind that the Waver can be connected to a UPS (even a not-expensive one), to guarantee the return pump operation in case of a black-out. Since the UPS has not necessarily to be a sinusoidal wave form generator, that results in a more affordable price.
We’ll be able to tell you shortly if price is aligned with performances, straight after all our tests. We’ll also put it into the aquarium to see how it works with the minimum flow, and we’ll play with it.
