Repeat Impeller Failures

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M

monkey30butt

0
Jun 7, 2015
4
Springtown
I have a 2 HP Waterway Hi-Flo 2 speed 48 frame pump feeding a sand filter that is between 150 and 175 lbs (I think) on a 15,000 gallon above half ground pool (counter sunk lol). Please forgive me for not remembering the exact capacity of the filter. The pump is only a 2 or 3 years old, but so far has had 1 seal fail alone & then 1 seal fail when the first impeller failed 2-3 month ago, actually the seal may have only been leaking because the impeller was broken. I have noticed that the pump has developed a kind of growling noise coming from the wet end starting about 1.5 months ago. On Friday I saw that the seal was leaking again. I went and bought another new seal to put in it, but when I took it apart I found that the impeller was badly cracked around the shaft area & the shaft part fell right off when I tried to replace the seal. The impeller was clean & the motor seems to spin smooth & free. This is also the exact same way that the first impeller failed. If it matters, I run the pump on high speed & have it on a timer that has it running a total of 10 hours a day.

My biggest question here is:
1) What could possibly be causing repeat impeller failures after only 2 or 3 months?
2) Would I be better off replacing the entire wet end?
3) Does anyone know if there is an impeller the has a metal shaft area?

Thanks for any opinions or advice.
 
It could be the motor shaft is slightly bent which would make both the seal and sometimes the impeller to fail.
 
Having rebuilt hundreds of pumps... the most likely causes are:

Bent shaft,
mis-bored endbell(s),
mis bored motor shell,
out-of-balance condition,
impeller damaged at installation,
impeller damaged by debris sucked into the inlet,
or a combination of the above.

Then, too, it could be planned obsolescence or poor engineering!

Pics? Where did the crack start?
 
Sorry, I do not have any pics on me, but may be able to post some later.

I did not notice any runout of the shaft. However all I did was check it visually, I didn't use a dial indicator or any other tools to guage minor deflections.

The impeller itself is cracking apart on the back side where the brass nut is. It is at the base of the long plastic stem that extends out of the impeller and into the seal area. The seal actually sits in the area where the failure is occurring. It leaves the brass nut still in the impeller but loose because it is no longer completely enclosed in plastic.

I have noticed on parts diagrams that there shows to be a slinger between the seal & the motor & it also shows a wear ring on the front side of the impeller. Neither of these are there, however I had the pool store replace my first seal so I do not know what they took off of it.

So are the end bells part of the wet end housing? If it has some wear from the previous failed impeller, could that be what you are referring to?
 
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