Had an odd experience recently with a replacement pump, if anyone could shed light on why the following occurs I would be grateful.
My 10 yr old Viron P320 pump started making whining noises, the last time it did this 3yr ago cost me $450 to get it serviced where they replace the bearings and mechanical seal as well as cleaning up the pump internals. This time I thought I'll just get a new pump.
I was recommended to purchase the new model of my pump which is called the Viron P320 XT. It was a direct replacement plumbing wise with all the connection points being same position as old one. The new pump is AC variable speed where as the old one was DC, new pump motor end is smaller and lighter than old.
When I started up the new pump it took a while to prime but did not fully prime with a small pocket of air less than 10mm high remaining in the basket chamber. I ran the pump on high for ages but it would not pull the air out, I could not see any air bubbles inside the chamber. I did some googling and tried the following:
1. Put cling film around all the joints and coupling to see if they sucked in.
2. Swapped the lid from old pump to new.
3. Doubled up the rubbers on the lid.
4. Adjusted the pump suction collar until I could see the point where bubbles entered and then did it back up again.
5. Adjusted both drain valves until I could see air bubbles coming up from them then did them back up again.
It didn't look like a suction leak, unless it was the lid fitting sucking air in from the top. I put the old pump back in as it still worked, just makes a horrid sound, and it primed quickly as normal and got rid of all the air. I then put the new lid on the old pump but it still worked ok.
I called the place I got the new pump from and they fobbed me off to Astral, the manufacturer. On the phone they agreed pump was faulty and the seller should swap it, contacted seller and they called me back saying the had arranged a service call out from Astral. The tech from Astral stripped the pump down looking for anything and regreased/assembled pump and it did same thing. We then went thru parts of the aforementioned fault finding and he was stumped and said seller should swap it over.
I contacted seller and they agreed to swap pump. Got the new pump and connected it up and does the same thing. I have tried running the pump at medium and slow speed and it the water level in the basket does not vary, still always that last little air pocket in basket. So it doesn't look like there is a danger of it running dry as there doesn't seem to be suction leak and there is certainly no pressure leak.
Can a pump just not have the power to evacuate all air from the basket?
My 10 yr old Viron P320 pump started making whining noises, the last time it did this 3yr ago cost me $450 to get it serviced where they replace the bearings and mechanical seal as well as cleaning up the pump internals. This time I thought I'll just get a new pump.
I was recommended to purchase the new model of my pump which is called the Viron P320 XT. It was a direct replacement plumbing wise with all the connection points being same position as old one. The new pump is AC variable speed where as the old one was DC, new pump motor end is smaller and lighter than old.
When I started up the new pump it took a while to prime but did not fully prime with a small pocket of air less than 10mm high remaining in the basket chamber. I ran the pump on high for ages but it would not pull the air out, I could not see any air bubbles inside the chamber. I did some googling and tried the following:
1. Put cling film around all the joints and coupling to see if they sucked in.
2. Swapped the lid from old pump to new.
3. Doubled up the rubbers on the lid.
4. Adjusted the pump suction collar until I could see the point where bubbles entered and then did it back up again.
5. Adjusted both drain valves until I could see air bubbles coming up from them then did them back up again.
It didn't look like a suction leak, unless it was the lid fitting sucking air in from the top. I put the old pump back in as it still worked, just makes a horrid sound, and it primed quickly as normal and got rid of all the air. I then put the new lid on the old pump but it still worked ok.
I called the place I got the new pump from and they fobbed me off to Astral, the manufacturer. On the phone they agreed pump was faulty and the seller should swap it, contacted seller and they called me back saying the had arranged a service call out from Astral. The tech from Astral stripped the pump down looking for anything and regreased/assembled pump and it did same thing. We then went thru parts of the aforementioned fault finding and he was stumped and said seller should swap it over.
I contacted seller and they agreed to swap pump. Got the new pump and connected it up and does the same thing. I have tried running the pump at medium and slow speed and it the water level in the basket does not vary, still always that last little air pocket in basket. So it doesn't look like there is a danger of it running dry as there doesn't seem to be suction leak and there is certainly no pressure leak.
Can a pump just not have the power to evacuate all air from the basket?
