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Product Review JBL CristalProfi e1500 Review (Picture Heavy)

Thanks for this thread! There is a lack of reviews online and this was a very helpful for me
Went to shop and got one for my self with no doubts - e1501.
Got it for good money, and the main thing is 20w for 1400l/h. As far as I red it will perform
with 800-900l/h when with all the media, but for my 125L tank is enough and even I will
upgrade to 200L it still will be OK. will post more info and maybe some video when I will
have it up and running but so far first impressions:
Solid build. Compact (even with 12L capacity), fits easy in my Juvel Rio 125 original cabinet
with few adjustments leaving enough space for 2.3kg's Co2 tank. Good quality piping and
very easy to open. Side clips are just perfect. Very easy to take apart for cleaning.

Will start this to run in 2 months (at the present I have a dry start project) once it will be
up and running I will be able to say more..
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Hi there Superman. I have been toying with the idea of one of these for a while. I am now convinced. But, what is that tube you have behind the filter???
 
Hi there Superman. I have been toying with the idea of one of these for a while. I am now convinced. But, what is that tube you have behind the filter???
Looks like a CO2 reactor to me. I also have one of these filters and it is a good bit of kit.
 
Resurrecting and old thread.... (see update couple of messages below about JBL sending me a replacement e1501 pump head !!).

Well my e1501, bought in Feb 2012 (so nearly 8 years old), started making quite a load hum/buzz. Water flow unaffected (I think) but sufficiently loud to be not acceptable in my lounge. Changed the impellor and shaft, but no change in hum. Also took apart pump head completely, just undo screws, noticed there was water sitting in the plastic mouldings of the pump head, leaking from somewhere. Thought it was around the self priming mechanism, which I resiliconed greased all the rubber parts, but water was present week later. In the end I think it is actually leaking from the hose connector block, which does have two "O" rings, which I notice are available as spares, so maybe should be changed every couple of years. Hum/buzz unaffected by all this fiddling.

However none of this fixed the loud hum, JBL were nice and supportive in their support, but 8 years old..... I suspect an electrical winding in the pump head has "gone" causing the impellor to not rotate smoothly (had same issue with washing machine drain pump).

So I reluctantly bought a e1502 to replace it @ £155, as I know this is the biggest filter that can be put into a Vision 180 cabinet without cabinet modifications.

Things to note:
  • The spray bars are not exactly the same size and plastic, thus e1501 spray bar parts do not plug in e1502 parts. e1502 is a harder more transparent plastic, which hopefully may not sag as much my e1501 spray bars have (ok very slightly but noticeable). So my spare e1501 spray bars parts couldn't be used to extend the e1502 spray bar all the way across the tank (like in the above video). Could of course just reused all the e1501 parts of course, but new parts, why not used them.
  • The basket stacking arrangement is different between models, there are 3 layers of foam in e1502 and one ceramics, compared to 3 ceramics and one foam in e1501.
  • Scratched chin, drank coffee, swivelled on chair for ages trying to how to think how stack the filter that won't cause major bacterial commentary/opinion problems on this forum. In the end I placed the 1/2 full trays of existing ceramics (F2 & F3) in the bottom of the new 1502 (the baskets fit the same), and left in the upper F3 tray as foam. It is quite a coarse foam.
  • Foams have removable centres to place things like purigen, if needed.
  • All the "dirty" water and detritus from the old filter was poured into the new filter and quite surprisingly did not end up in the tank when the filter was started, so if is a filter....
  • The upper coarse and fine foams (F1 & F5) are a much better arrangement in the e1502. The coarse foam is now the whole area of the filter, which is much bigger than just the edge coarse foams of the e1501 which had a habit of clogging quite quickly (with plant matter) and collapsing and slowing the flow. Hopefully flow will be maintained greater when I don't clean the filter as often as I should.
  • Also gone is the awkward rubber gasket on the e1501 that needed to be placed correctly on the top basket to seal against the "flow plate". Ok later e1501 models had the gasket built into the flow plate.
  • Power is only 20W as opposed to 23W, a saving of £4.50 a year in electricity for me (£30 as opposed to £34.50).
e1501 & e1502

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Any way all assembled fine and silence has been returned to the lounge. Just a shame the filter did not last very long, my mates Eheim was over 20 years old when he melted it (tank sprung a leak).
 
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Strange, I bought an e1501 in 2017 and only got a single tray of the ceramic balls (the remainder were sponges) and the power rating is 20w... Perhaps the e1501 was updated during the production run?

Found it a decent filter but ended up using an APS filter booster for mechanical filtration as the water always bypasses the bottom tray in mine.
 
Found it a decent filter but ended up using an APS filter booster for mechanical filtration as the water always bypasses the bottom tray in mine.
That's strange, can't easily see how the water can bypass any of the trays if assembled correctly. My bottom ceramic rings were definitely in the flow and absolutely filthy with yuk.

I know there were numerous small changes from 1500 series to e1501 series and finally e1502 series.

Told you the filter foam/ceramic rings/half full/full would start a discussion. Hopefully all the lifeforms have taken up residence in the new filter, which is the most important thing.
 
That's strange, can't easily see how the water can bypass any of the trays if assembled correctly. My bottom ceramic rings were definitely in the flow and absolutely filthy with yuk.

I know there were numerous small changes from 1500 series to e1501 series and finally e1502 series.

Told you the filter foam/ceramic rings/half full/full would start a discussion. Hopefully all the lifeforms have taken up residence in the new filter, which is the most important thing.

I checked and double checked the trays, even swapped a couple of them around incase there was a defect on one of the trays.

I've seen it mentioned elsewhere too, quite frustrating until I got the booster.
 
Hi all,
trying to how to think how stack the filter that won't cause major bacterial commentary/opinion problems on this forum......Told you the filter foam/ceramic rings/half full/full would start a discussion
Made me chuckle.
All the "dirty" water and detritus from the old filter was poured into the new filter and quite surprisingly did not end up in the tank when the filter was started,.........Hopefully all the lifeforms have taken up residence in the new filter, which is the most important thing.
I reckon you are good.

cheers Darrel
 
Well....further news.

After raising a support ticket with JBL about my very noisy e1501 filter, despite it being nearly 8 years old, they are sending me a replacement pump head. Well I never. Shame I had to buy a replacement e1502 in the mean time, but then I was not happy leaving a noisy and slowly leaking filter over Xmas time...
 
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