effluent pump

[gghb]

most effluent pumps vent through a small tube in the cord if water or corrosive gas gets in it will ruin the pump. Learned this the hard way in 40 years of installing septic systems. Meyers pumps are close to bullit proof.


Greg

 

[Billrog]

When I install those pumps I always bring a loop up to the top of the pump chamber with a union so it isn't necessary to get down inside to change the pump. All electrical is hard wired to either the garage or basement where the controller is located so there are no connections where high humidity can corrode them.
The pumps generally last for years & your not using a lot of water the min. design flow rate for your home would be 750 gal. per day. I only use 1 pump if it fails the warning alarm goes off giving you 3 days to fix or replace it or the real alarm goes off and there's no way to shut it off until the power is cut off.
If your tank has been pumped within the recommended scheduled I can't see any restrictions being a problem not when they are pumping 50 gal. per min ( 240 gal. in 5 min.) Are there inspection ports at the end of your field runs for you to check ?

 

[6sunset6]

There are no inspection ports at the ends of the laterals. There is a box at the top of the field where the pump line discharges into the start of the laterals.
The field design is such that the whole field takes the discharge volume all at once . The board of health guy like it. Said the field would probably last forever. If I pull the manhole cover I can see the level going down pretty quickly , has to be going somewhere that fast. Anyway the pump fails are fail to start except one that had the start points weld shut. Two had broken plastic springs in the centrifugal mechanism . One had a bad splice in the box, thats the spare that just went in. A Grainger Zoeller is the one that just failed 3 years old . A meyers just failed and it is still in there waiting on a replacement .

 

[6sunset6]

I opened up the Zoeller pump. Impellor turned freely ,Upper section with power feed through, clean. Drained oil from the next chamber , which had a lot of grey particles in it, not a good sign,
Second chamber popped right off.Clean of effluent however the starting capacitor, no centrifugal switch, was blown right in half . Hmm $500 pump, Grey grit distributed all thru bearings and close distance between stator and rotor, got to get capacitor and connect with oil tight connections, got to get clean oil and some how flush the motor case, and hmm how long would it last. Meyers are $260 scrap it. Now why did the capacitor blow. Heat not likely pump is immersed in water 100% of the time. Impeller jammed it was not. Load on the pump well could be but even if the weep hole did not drain the pipe , and this is for freeze prevention not unload the pump, it's hard to see a centrifugal pump like this failing under a 12ft column of water . It only 6 psi in a 2 inch pipe. Lets see if I can post a picture

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Wow, I'm really suspicious of your power source to the pump now. I'm no electrical guru. Once you got out of the plumbing calcs, I'm out of my league....

This isn't helpful but it may lighten the mood. Do you guys eat alot of Mexican food?

 

[6sunset6]

Funny The capacitor was made in Mexico.
grainger $52 for capacitor plus shipping
light weigh mineral oil I am guessing $47/gal plus shipping
This is just for kicks I am not going to try and save the pump. I could do everything but get all the gunk out but who knows when it would fail again.
I will post again when I get the new meyers about a week and get out the other meyers that just failed.
I was just thinking, If I find a blown capacitor in the meyers then perhaps the pumps don't have enough start hp regardless of the curves . Read bigger pump more $$.

 

[Billrog]

Just checked to see which pumps I've been using & could only find the whole salers quote sheet no names for the dam pumps.
1hp EFF Auto 230v 1PH pump 751.80
& 4/10 115v sew pump auto 20' 301.00
Wish I had more knowledge to help you with the pumps , check that they have a good power supply. Sure at a loss why the capacitors would blow. Maybe check out ebay for a capacitor $57 sound a little on the high side.

 

[6sunset6]

The mystery continues. I have hour meters on the pump circuits. In two years since I read the numbers last the pump that failed ran twice as many hours as the pump that did not fail. And it is a little bit bigger pump. But 24 hours over 2 years is not a lot. . I did notice the the check valve on the opposing side was leaking at the joint. That would do it.

I just spoke with a guy who is a sump motor expert. He said long start times are really hard on start capacitors. He thought the problem was clogged weep hole and or stuck check valve. He suggested taking out the check valve but that would only work with one pump. I don't want to do that so I guess the answer might be a yearly PM on the check valves and the weep hole. Maybe make the weep hole a little bigger.

 

[6sunset6]

All right 2 pumps with blown capacitors. $51 for one and $121 for the other. I guess they are submerged in oil so they are pricey. I found same value caps for $6 from Mcmaster carr. Plus some oring material as one swelled. Bad material from China I would guess. The caps are a physically little bigger but there is a ton of room under the hood. Plus no moving parts. One cap had electrical push on tabs in the oil so nothing special there. I strained the oil through a tee shirt filter. It probably not as clean as new and maybe the lower bearing will wear out sooner. But one of those pumps goes for $1000 now the other is $500.
So For $30 I will see if they run. If they do good for hot standby short term spares. The pump I am using now is a Meyers at $260 but it takes a week to get it.
I have one Meyers not running now and the new one just came . So when I open that one up I will post whats what.
I am seriously thinking about getting a contractor in here to remove the manhole cover and the top concrete precast for it and replace it with a precast cylinder and the pumps on a lift out rail. I will get some quotes and see. I still have a backhoe and tractor but getting to old for all that activity.
I still have not figured out the hard start . I am afraid someone will tell me to put in a bigger pump , over $1000 and there are 2 and then have the same failure. They certainly move liquid when they run.

 

[jlawso21]

I have a similar situation. You can look at Liberty or Ebarra pumps, very expensive. I just had one worked on. It stopped working because it wasn't wired properly on installation 8 years ago. When it was rewired it works now. The first pump lasted about 12 years. The guy who worked on it said to expect 12-20 years out of them.

They sell for $1200 to $2000, it's 2 horsepower which may be more than you want but you may need something stronger than you have now.