Eheim is a company that was once synonymous with quality and durability, with many of their Classic water pumps still in use decades into their deployment. But alas, today it seems that Eheim is content to just repurpose pump designs that have been around for a long time, and for much less money.
The Eheim CompactON pumps are great pumps, I should know because they’re identical to the Maxijet Utility pumps I reviewed more than nine years ago! This series of pump models has been widely distributed in the Americas by Marineland as well as Newa in Europe under the NewaJet branding.
We’ve got no problem with private labeling of OEM aquarium devices but won’t apologize for holding Eheim to a higher expectation. The one saving grace of Eheim’s version of these pumps are some much nicer intake filters which are very welcome accessory for use in aquariums so the fish don’t get sucked in.
Like the Maxijet Utility and Newajet pumps, the CompactON are available in a range of sizes from tiny pumps for nano tanks and water fountains for $20 up to the 1320 gph CompactON 5000 for $199. One the one hand it’s reassuring that Eheim has chosen a pump design that has been proven (by other companies) for nearly a decade but at $200 for the top end CompactON 5000, that’s getting close to controllable DC pump territory. [Eheim]
