Re: [APD] Tetratec PF150

["Bill Wichers" <billw at waveform_net>]

> On 11 May 2010 22:30,  <Caddy579 at aol_com> wrote:
[snip]
> > enough steam to drive the water through the filter. The impeller
does
> rotate
> > cleanly on the stem that runs through it, it's not stuck or
anything.
> >
> > Would anyone have any idea on why this suddenly happened?... and
> >
> 
> My cheap pump rattled annoyingly until I glued the impeller to its
> rotor magnet - previously there had been some play between them. If
> you're lucky then you have a variation on this problem.
> 
> Otherwise, I would suspect the windings.

Many powerhead-type motors *require* some play in the impeller to
operate. You can usually tell if yours is of this type since they tend
to have a stop that allows the impeller to rotate a significant amount
(usually 180 degrees, IMHO), not just a "little bit". It's possible you
have a bad winding in which case I suspect you'll find the motor runs
hotter than normal. I've also occasionally had pumps fail in such a way
that the shaft mounting gets damaged and the shaft is able to "wobble"
(note that's the *shaft* that the magnet/impeller assembly slides onto,
not the magnet/impeller assembly itself) in the pump housing. The wobble
permits the magnet to contact the inside of the pump housing which
causes noise and wear. I would suspect you'd have noticed if that was
the case, but I've seen some that appear to be OK unless you look really
close and do a "feel with the finger" test. Sometimes these are
repairable (notably the Rena units that use little rubber shaft supports
that can be replaced), sometimes not (like the Aquaclear units that have
the shafts epoxied in place).

Regarding the filters, I've had good luck with the Aquaclear units
myself. They tend to be reliable (I've been using them for some 20+
years now), and AFAIK they still sell filters for every unit they've
ever made in that series and have only changed the color of the plastic
from brownish to grayish. Eheim seems to be similar in that parts seem
to stay available for a very long time. Any canister should be easier to
service though since they generally permit the use of "loose" media
which you can acquire from different sources if one should become
unavailable in the future. The canister filters will let you put your
heater in-line, outside of the tank too.

Also, and this might be most useful to you, the Aquaclear filter media
(the foam cartridges) are readily available at many/most pet stores, and
it's easy to cut the stuff with scissors to use it in other filters.
I've done this frequently to make little custom filter/strainer
assemblies -- just get one of the big foam cartridges and cut it as
needed to fit what you have. The carbon and "ammorid" filters are more
of a problem since they use bagged media, but you might be able to fit
one of the smaller ones into your existing filter. Personally, I use
only mechanical media so I don't run into issues with carbon filters or
other media of that type.

  -Bill

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