The MaxSpect Riptide is arguably one of the most exciting products released at InterZoo which comes to us from a company better known for their LED lighting innovations. First we had centrifugal pumps, then we had propeller pumps, and now we have the MaxSpect Riptide pump with a design so novel there’s no clear cut way to describe it.
Where centrifugal pumps and powerheads create high pressure water flow in low volumes, and propeller pumps create high volume flow with low pressure and a lot of turbulence, the MaxSpect Riptide generates high volume flow, at low pressure, but it is much more laminar and therefore propagates much more efficiently through a body of water like an aquarium.
The idea for the type of flow that the MaxSpect Riptide produces was inspired by an article on water flow that was written more than seven years ago and we have to admit that MaxSpect really nailed the concept.
From that article, one of the biggest principles of creating the most efficient kind of water flow is to move a cross section of the water volume in order to begin the generation of mass water movement. While we’ve done a pretty good job of stepping up our employment of these water movement techniques with our current pumps, the Maxspect Riptide has the source code for gyre flow generation baked right in, and the effect of mass water movement that the Riptide pump creates is truly something to see.
The MaxSpect Riptide pump can move a cross section of water vertically or horizontally to create gyre flow in any number of directions and the effect of a mostly unidirectional strip of water moving together is incredibly efficient. When the Riptide is placed at the water surface it quickly propagates water movement throughout the entire aquarium and it can also be placed in the corners with the outlflow of water from the Riptide also able to be directed.
With its innovative design for creating water flow, it’s easy to overlook that the Riptide is also one of the first aquarium flow pumps to use a direct drive motor, as opposed to the magnetic drive that powers virtually all our pumps save for the Hydrowizard. Having a direct drive motor is a more efficient transfer of kinetic energy from the motor and it also means there’s no magnetic rotor to clean or clog up, and subsequently less maintenance.
There’s still a lot yet to be discovered about the features and functionality of the MaxSpect Riptide water pump but trust us when we say this pump is going to be quite the game changer. Pulse modes, gyre modes and synchronization of multiple pumps will be available in some models, and perhaps enhanced with a beefed up controller but we’ll have to wait a little while still to find out just how big of a hit MaxSpect has created.
