impeller issues 9410

[essencereefer]

Hi Roger,

After my last fiasco with the impeller issues and wrong impeller on the 9410, I am back to square one and frustrated. The last impeller worked for 4mos. Then started cavitating in the impeller housing and not working very effectively. I took everything apart as I do semi monthly and cleaned it all up. replaced the impeller making sure not to damage or set the shaft in off centre. Plugged it back in and still cavitating. Not wanting to spend endless fruitless hours on it, I bought another one. $57!
And alas after cleaning again just to make sure and setting it all back up, still cavitating and not creating any bubbles. But lots of noise.
If this is a problem others have had, and I'm sure you are out there. How did you deal with it. Been 2 weeks now that my skimmer has been offline. Starting to see the effects. Need this running ASAP.
Help would be wonderfully appreciated.
Thank you

 

[rvitko]

I suspect the bottom bushing is not seated. This bushing presses into a hole at the bottom of the pump, if it is just dropped in and not pushed into this socket, it rides high on the shaft and needle wheel assembly wobbles and binds. It is possible for the socket it is pressed into to be deformed, if the pump ran dry or the shaft had fused to the last bushing, the heat generated by the friction can deform this socket so the bushing will no longer fit, in that case the motor needs to be replaced.

 

[essencereefer]

The shaft comes off of the bushing well, so I'll assume it did not fuse. I think I had it seated well. But that may not be the case. I'll check again this afternoon. It sounds like it wants to start working, but doesn't ever turn over. When it works, it's one of the best skimmers I've owned. In over 25 yrs of having skimmers. But when this particular one goes wrong, it's like searching for the holy grail to figure out what's wrong. Is it normal for the impellers to breakdown in such a small amount of time (less than 6mos)? It worked flawlessly for 3yrs until these issues.
If I require a new motor, can you tell me the model number I am going to need to order?
Thank you

 

[rvitko]

Are you sure their are no bulges or deformations in the pump rotor well?

It is fairly rare for the impellers to fail, they have a rare earth magnet which is why they are so expensive and this type of magnet has to be coated, it will rust and tends to do so violently so it rapidly swells and deforms. We use the rare earth magnet as it has far more torque so the motor uses less power to do a similar amount of work. If something cuts this coating or the coating has a defect, the impeller will fail rapidly. If it had a lot of circular scratch rings, likely something got in the pump, if it has a lengthwise crack and is otherwise smooth, that is generally a defect in the coating, if the base is blistered or bubbly looking it ran dry or seized.

A motor only is part 9410.041.