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Water pump issues


Tasemu

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4 minutes ago, bizzard said:

A foot operated water pump at foot level beneath the sink, looped into the water supply. I have mine on the cold water tube to the cold tap. I find I use it a lot for filling the kettle ect rather than the electric pump, saves a lot of 12v elec, my left leg has bulging muscles.

We had a caravan with the water pumped by a handle on the sink.  One day the missus noticed that one boob was firmer than the other - she then changed hands regularly when pumping :)

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9 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

To be clear Tony I was only suggesting carrying it as a spare if it proved not to be defective or was repaired as suggested in the post I was responding to. It goes without saying really that carrying a defective pump to use in place of a defective pump is .......well pretty pointless.

 

I know what you were talking about but the fact remains those switches are unreliable plus some on here, including me, have given up trying to overhaul modern water pumps because of resealing issues. Carry a spare pump by all means but in the light of experience attempting a repair as @Sea Dog advised may well not obviate the need for a new pump. What order anyone does things in is their choice but I fitted a remote switch and then in my own fitted  new pump with the one with the faulty switch becoming the spare. Once the remote switch is fitted the chances of a pump failing is imidiately greatly reduced.

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17 minutes ago, WotEver said:

We had a caravan with the water pumped by a handle on the sink.  One day the missus noticed that one boob was firmer than the other - she then changed hands regularly when pumping :)

My pump's in the corner, I'd have to cross my legs to pump with my right leg, or work blind by turning my back on it to pump with my right heel and manipulate the pots and kettle behind my back. I'm good at doing things like that though, being a mechanic.

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7 minutes ago, bizzard said:

My pump's in the corner, I'd have to cross my legs to pump with my right leg, or work blind by turning my back on it to pump with my right heel and manipulate the pots and kettle behind my back. I'm good at doing things like that though, being a mechanic.

Ergonomic design is a bugger.

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15 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

Carry a spare pump by all means but in the light of experience attempting a repair as @Sea Dog advised may well not obviate the need for a new pump.

I'm not advocating he attempts a repair, rather that he replaces the pump with a new (i.e. known good) one as soon as it is suspect. If the old one is repairable, as mine was, or isn't duff at all, then it becomes a handy (essential?) spare, which is really good thing to have. Money well spent imho. :)

 

  • Greenie 1
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15 hours ago, WotEver said:

We had a caravan with the water pumped by a handle on the sink.  One day the missus noticed that one boob was firmer than the other - she then changed hands regularly when pumping :)

Are you sure it wasn't you that noticed  the difference ? 

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21 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

An accumulator (as opposed to an expansion vessel) needs setting to the CUT IN pressure or about half the cut out pressure. You seem to have set your accumulator as if its an expansion vessel so it won't be doing anything much accumulator wise.

 

By all means try loosening the immersion heater but two of us have now pointed to a likely pressure switch problem rather than an actual pump problem. If its a blocked diaphragm drilling as @Iain_S suggest then stripping the end of the pump and clearing it might work as it would if the diaphragm chamber is full of muck but the pressure switches are no that reliable in the long term so rather than spend £80 on anew pump spend maybe £30 on a decent external pressure switch and solve pressure switch problems for 40 or 50 years.

Ah apologies, I was tired when I read through this, i'll set it to 15. :) https://www.jabscoshop.com/files/Accumulator and Expansion Tank Instructions ZPWL4 doc595.pdf

21 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

A further thought - do you know the difference between an accumulator and expansion vessel because they are both the same physical thing but with different air pressures and different tasks.

 

Just to be sure:

where is this "accumulator" in the system, in a cold or hot pipe?

If in a cold pipe is there a non-return valve between it and the calorifier?

If in a hot pipe is there a NRV at the cold calorifier inlet. If there is no NRV in that position then air in the top of the calorifier may well act as an accumulator and force hot water back down a cold pipe and out of a cold pipe.

 

 

1: I think so, the accumulator tank sits directly after the pump on the cold water feed from the tank. So i'm going to say cold.

2: Unsure, however the diagram for my 55l surecal says there is a built-in NRV in the cold feed.

 

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Edited by Tasemu
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Just now, Tony Brooks said:

Thanks - its an accumulator, better ensure it correct rather than guess.

Cheers for all the help seriously, i'm going to try stripping down the pump today and see what happens. I'm gutted that I caused this just be trying to replace the immersion heater. Newbie mistakes I guess.

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I've just stripped down the pump and inspected it, cannot see any debris or issues. I've put it back together now and the issue still seems there. I'm going to attempt the calorifier next, then purchase a new pump if that doesn't work. Might be a little out of my depth to fix this one.

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Sorry for the late reply, I have fixed the issue. In order to do so I loosened the immersion heater slightly with the pump on and bled all air out of the top of the calorifier. The pump now works as before.

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6 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Sorry for the late reply, I have fixed the issue. In order to do so I loosened the immersion heater slightly with the pump on and bled all air out of the top of the calorifier. The pump now works as before.

 

That's good. You won't worry about that, again. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Tasemu said:

Sorry for the late reply, I have fixed the issue. In order to do so I loosened the immersion heater slightly with the pump on and bled all air out of the top of the calorifier. The pump now works as before.

All that means is that you inadvertently  gave yourself a far larger accumulator. It does explain the longer on - off cycles but t does not explain the loss of pressure you noted in your replay to the first few posts. As soon as the system pressure dropped to the pump cut in pressure the pump would run so there should be no significant loss of pressure compared with before.

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1 minute ago, Tony Brooks said:

All that means is that you inadvertently  gave yourself a far larger accumulator. It does explain the longer on - off cycles but t does not explain the loss of pressure you noted in your replay to the first few posts. As soon as the system pressure dropped to the pump cut in pressure the pump would run so there should be no significant loss of pressure compared with before.

That is a good point, though I don't yet have the know-how to give an opinion on why. It could still be an issue, though the faster on-off cycles may be masking it.

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