Rossmont is a new company out of Italy that has been plugging away at making a new line of propeller pumps for aquariums. For the last couple of years, Rossmont has been happy to make no-frills but very modern-level propeller pumps which move decent water at a fair price, but overall don’t stand out in a crowded marketplace.
However, about a year ago Rossmont started teasing details on a game-changing new product called the Waver. What makes the Rossmont Waver so revolutionary, is that it is designed to give fine tuned controls of their AC pumps, a first in the aquarium hobby which is dominated by DC water pumps.
Besides the fundamental difference in how the Rossmont Movers are operated, resulting flow and functions are roughly the same as most water flow bundles containing two pumps and some kind of controller functions. But what is really different about the Rossmont Waver/Mover combo is that the user experience is wildly different, and the up-front cost is radically more affordable.
The largest Mover is the Mover MX4100 which pumps a nominal 4,000 gallons per hour and you can get a pair of these in an advanced bundle for $209. The Waver costs $199 so basically you get 8,000 gallons per hour of wirelessly controllable water flow for just a touch over $400. To get this kind of flow from other manufacturers you’d have to spend quite a lot more.
Comparable pairs of controllable pump at similar flow rates include the Ecotech QuietDrive Vortech MP40s ($700), Sicce XStream E ($500 + external controller), Neptune WAV kit ($499 + minimum Apex Lite $240), Tunze Turbelle Stream 6155 ($850 with minimal controls) etc. This is obviously not an apples to apples comparison, pricing and functions vary wildly but you get the drift.
Furthermore, we’re just comparing Rossmont’s most powerful MX4100 Mover pumps and although they move a respectable 8,000 gph, they don’t move that volume with the same force as say the Neptune Wav or Ecotech MP40s by any means. However, the MX4100 is not the only Mover in Rossmont’s catalog of various pumps which start at $49 for the tiny 6 watt Mover M900.
By any measure, Rossmont’s new Mover & Waver combo is a completely new value proposition when it comes to controllable, high quality propeller pumps. Keep in mind we’re not talking about some cheaply made pumps from China, but highly engineered water moving equipment designed by former employees of highly respected Italian water pump manufacturers.
We’ve already reviewed the Rossmont Movers so we knew these are good pumps but how does the Waver hold up? In a nutshell, we were able to create a standing wave without reading any instructions in about 10 minutes. Since there’s no registration or intermediary hub to access control of the Rossmont Waver and the pumps connected to it, getting up and running is super quick and simple.
There will be native iOS and Android smartphone applications available to access and control the Waver via wifi, but for now we’re controlling the Waver using the built-in web server. It does take quite some time for our iPhone 6 to connect, and the user interface could definitely stand to be refined with more development of the software which will be available with firmware upgrades in the future.
Overall, the new Rossmont Mover/Waver is a very exciting new development in water movement in our reef tanks, and it sets a new standard for affordability for well made equipment in the aquarium hobby. Rossmont has really hit a sweet spot of value and performance with the Mover pumps and Waver controller, and we can’t wait to see what other products the company will release next.
