Self Pump Out Problems

[dmr]

Did a self pump out yesterday (into a convenient sewer, not an elsan point)

 

The SPO is the manual one based on a Whale bilge pump.

 

Connected hoses, put suction hose into canal and pumped a bit of water to open the layflat hose and make sure all was well.

Connected to boat and pumped out tank.

Filled tank almost full with water to do a good rinse as its a nice fast tap here.

Pump struggled to prime (a very nasty moment) but then sucked out the tank fine.

Slackened ropes and rocked boat whilst pumping to get the last inch or so of tank contents. Pump failed to prime and little resistance from handle, something felt very wrong.

Put suction hose back into canal. Pump struggled to prime at first but then pumped ok for a minute or so, then stopped, again no resistance from handle, could not get it to suck at all.

 

What is going on?????????

 

(answer later)

 

..................Dave

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Pivot 'bar' at bottom of pump handle slipped out ?

Small rip in diaphram ?

Hole in suction pipe ?

You used the discharge pipe as the suction pipe and it collapsed ?

[Tracy D'arth]

Something stuck in a valve?

[dmr]

Tracy gets it.

I'd recently overhauled the pump so feared I'd done something daft, but no.

Luckily the pump had pumped a fair bit of canal just before it failed so getting inside it was not unpleasant and the failure was immediately obvious.

During the initial canal water suck I had picked up a large snail who had rattled about in the pump body causing the intermittent failures before finally becoming stuck solid in a valve. ?

 

Boating is good, a new adventure every day.

 

...............Dave

[David Mack]

3 minutes ago, dmr said:

Boating is good, a new adventure every day.

But not for the snail!

[ditchcrawler]

3 minutes ago, dmr said:

Tracy gets it.

I'd recently overhauled the pump so feared I'd done something daft, but no.

Luckily the pump had pumped a fair bit of canal just before it failed so getting inside it was not unpleasant and the failure was immediately obvious.

During the initial canal water suck I had picked up a large snail who had rattled about in the pump body causing the intermittent failures before finally becoming stuck solid in a valve. ?

 

Boating is good, a new adventure every day.

 

...............Dave

When I was on the Fens where pumpouts are free I spent a long time shaking little stones from the nozzle and clear bit before I could use it, when someone had obviously dropped it on the river bed while flushing the pipe

[Tracy D'arth]

9 minutes ago, dmr said:

Tracy gets it.

I'd recently overhauled the pump so feared I'd done something daft, but no.

Luckily the pump had pumped a fair bit of canal just before it failed so getting inside it was not unpleasant and the failure was immediately obvious.

During the initial canal water suck I had picked up a large snail who had rattled about in the pump body causing the intermittent failures before finally becoming stuck solid in a valve. ?

 

Boating is good, a new adventure every day.

 

...............Dave

Was it Brian?

[Jon57]

9 minutes ago, dmr said:

Tracy gets it.

I'd recently overhauled the pump so feared I'd done something daft, but no.

Luckily the pump had pumped a fair bit of canal just before it failed so getting inside it was not unpleasant and the failure was immediately obvious.

During the initial canal water suck I had picked up a large snail who had rattled about in the pump body causing the intermittent failures before finally becoming stuck solid in a valve. ?

 

Boating is good, a new adventure every day.

 

...............Dave

Shit happens. It’s how we deal with it.?

[Phoenix_V]

grape pips they go through the human body but not the pump

Edited May 26, 2021 by Phoenix_V

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Phoenix_V said:

grape pips they go through the human body but not the pump

Really?  Never noticed.

 

Now sweetcorn, that's the stuff.

[ditchcrawler]

I know someone who had problems with a macerator and cherry stones

[dmr]

Whale pumps, especially the famous Gulper, do say that a filter is not required as they will pump most debris, but a snail of exactly the wrong size is obviously just too much.

 

................Dave

[Tracy D'arth]

6 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I know someone who had problems with a macerator and cherry stones

That is a regular problem with Saniflos in houses. They get this bad rattle as the stone flies around inside the cage.

I often wondered why and who would swallow cherry stones.