A few weeks ago, we finally got our hands on the new Rossmont Riser R3200 return pump whose special feature is a non-electronic Alternate Current pump, which becomes controllable as soon as you plug it into the Rossmont Waver.

The Rossmont Riser was spotted at MACNA last year. We were curious about it because we could combine the affordable cost of an AC pump with a Waver (our review) to get a fully controllable product.

The pump resin casting seems to be very good, and we like the two-color body. The chamber cover is locked to the pump body by a locking ring. At first glance, it looks like a tiny pump but extremely well built, starting from the silicone soft spheres which separate the pump from the base. That is a detail we’ve really appreciated and soon we’ll test it.

The pump can be used with 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

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The pump arrived in sexy packaging, rich in information and with compact dimensions.

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’s 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 set 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. As far as I know, the Ecotech Marine Vectra is the only other pump that has this feature.

Comparison with the other pumps

Let’s see the comparison between the Rossmont pump and the other pumps that we reviewed in the past month, AC and DC current.

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As you can see, the economic efficiency is very good without the controller, even better than the immortal Eheim 1260.  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 the comparison a bit. So far we have considered half of the Waver price in the comparison table, but the attribution isn’t exactly correct. The technical efficiency is comparable to the electronic tunze and the Big World BQ5000.

One last note about the Rossmont Riser 3200 performance chart below:

The curve is by the book and it goes above a hypothetical line that joins the curve ends. This is the right behavior that every pump 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 to buy it, and you have the chance to control it at a later date with Waver, but you don’t have to buy it right away.

It’s important to remember 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 doesn’t have to be a sinusoidal wave form generator, that results in a more affordable price.

We’ll be able to tell you if the price is aligned with its performance as soon as we finish 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.