Experience with reeflo pumps

[lananthony]

My Snapper has always had a drip problem at the bottom of the pump where the drain plug is at. I thoroughly cleaned the pump, seal, and impeller. After cleaning it, it kept leaking in the same spot until salt plugged it up. It may be all of the back pressure i have on the pump also.

 

[75pxatr]

Reeflo Pumps

Reeflo Pumps

I have a dart and orca gold on my skimmer. In one week both sets of seals went. Of course when I was away on a trip. Fortunately The pump was still working well enough that I did not loose the whole tank.

Reeflo was very cooperative but in looking at the design of the seals, It would seem this is the weak spot in the pump design

 

[Terryz_]

Hi, Anyone have any suggestion on reducing the vibration... My pump is in the cabinet and the vibration is causing my pipe and sump to vibrate and the sound sort of resonate out from the back of the tank and not from the front where the pump is... Very troubled by this for a week already... :furious::furious::furious:

 

[tangtang clown]

I bought a used Dart(closed loop) and Snapper(return) for my 125 build. They have both been running for about 8 months flawlessly...knock on wood. They both have the AO Smith motors and the black volutes.

 

[Atomikk]

The one thing that I would be watching is the rust formation on the shaft. If you ever need to change the seal, the rust will bind the shaft to the impeller, making it impossible to take off to service.

I have this problem. On both Wahoo pumps. And yes, they leak electrical current as well if the seal is broken.

 

[287C]

I have a Super Dart Gold that I bought used. The guy said it was running for about 3 months. I've had it running since Nov. and have no issues yet.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I will no longer recommend Reeflo pumps, seeing as I was 0 and 2 with mine, both with the exact same problem.

Any shaft driven pump will have the same issue. The seals are wear parts and need to be inspected and replaced on a somewhat regular basis

 

[jdargonaut]

Anyone have experiences with the blackfin models? I bought a blackfin 6000 for a tank that never got setup. Been sitting in the garage waiting for my next opportunity for a tank upgrade (little much for my 36"x36"x12" ), this has me thinking I should atleast hook it up and test it out with the bathtub or something. Have had a hard time finding feedback on these models.

 

[Travis]

I have 2 Sequence 5800's (1000 series) that I've ran for around 4 years and they still have the original seals. I had a 3200 that I had to replace the seal after around 6 months. Probably have better seals than the more economical reeflo line but that is my experience.

I have heard Ampmasters mentioned a couple times in this thread. If you don't want a pump that you have to change the seal every month or 2 do NOT buy an Ampmaster. They may be built better now but back in the day before Sequence came out with the Reeflo line, the Ampmasters were notorious for having terrible seals. I had one that I replaced seals on 3-4 times in a 6 month period before I got rid of it.

 

[tkeracer619]

If you have to replace seals all the time its most likely because the front bearing on the motor has worn or is defective.

 

[drstupid]

i have a hammerhead main return pump (sump in the floor under the DT), a dart for the CL and an orca on my skimmer (dart with a needlewheel) for years with minimal issues. AO smith motors on the darts, baldor on the main. the main pump needed to have the seal replaced after three years, they sent me one under warranty, and it's been fine for years since. the other pumps have never had a problem. i occassionally (like once every year or two) take one off line and plug the input and let it sit with vinegar in it for an hour or so, that's been fine to clean off any buildup that occurs, it's pretty obvious when it needs it.

seals are easy to replace if you need to, and i've only needed to do it once with three pumps, several years of constant runtime.

 

[whatcaneyedo]

Its been just over a year since I posted in this thread. I've now had to replace the seal on my Darts three times... I have two of them. One I use as my primary return pump and the other is just a spare in case the first one breaks down. I bought both used and both had a very slow leak when I bought them. My spare ran too long with its previous owner leaking the way it did and, like someone else described, the leak caused the shaft to rust which ceased the impeller onto the threads. So now the threading is badly stripped and I'm worried that I'll not be able to take it apart again without damaging it further.

The first two leaks were minor and only resulted in some salt creep and corrosion. However the third which occurred last night had me up at 4:00am mopping water off of the floor. The one year old seal completely failed and water was leaking out of it at a rate of about 8 gpd. The strange thing was that there was absolutely no warning before this happened. For the past year the seal had remained... sealed. There was not even a hint of a leak until it went completely.

 

[jcmelski]

I purchased a Dart as my return pump when I first set-up my tank. The seal leaked about 3 months later. I replaced the seal and it lasted a little longer. I bought a spare pump so I could have incase it happened again, sure enough it did. I switched out pumps and my spare ran for about 6 months give or take before I noticed the seal was leaking on it.I replaced the seal on my main pump and it leaked in about an 1hr! What sucks is the seals aren't cheap! $40 a pop. And you need to be careful threading the impeller otherwise it will go in cross threaded and your out $60!

 

[detroit_fan]

my tarpon has been going for 2 1/5 years so far, original seal

 

[tangtang clown]

Knock wood, but my Snapper (return) and Dart (closed loop) pumps, with AO Smith motors, which I bought used are still running after 1 year of continuous use.

 

[richard king]

Barracuda over 5 years, no problems.

 

[ataller]

Wahoo with a Baldor, basement return pump no problems, 1+ year.

 

[ostrow]

My Hammerhead Gold seal failed after just over a year in service.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to run a filter sock on the main return lines 24/7, changing regularly, to keep junk from getting to the pump intake. I have some more passive capture in my sump before the intake -- rock wall, etc -- but maybe this would help?

 

[aldiaz33]

Hammerhead Gold Leaking

Hammerhead Gold Leaking

My first Hammerhead Gold leaked out of the box. Granted, it appeared it was damaged during shipping (the fan cover was bent pretty badly). Reeflo sent me a replacement pump which after running for just 3.5 months is now leaking! I am waiting to hear back from Reeflo in regards to this issue. If replacing seals every 3.5 months is normal, I will have to find a new pump.

I regret not going with a submersible pump.

 

[SDguy]

Well I just found out that the leaking seal was so bad on the second pump that it actually caused damage to the motor.

I will no longer recommend Reeflo pumps, seeing as I was 0 and 2 with mine, both with the exact same problem.

And BTW, the fact that the owner of the company had the nerve to tell me that I shouldn't complain because I got a good 2.5 years out of the pump absolutely infuriated me.