osmolater question

[galoot]

I just hooked up my new unit today. Seemed to be working just fine when I tested it out. Left for a couple hours, came back to the over full alarm sounding and the water level almost to the top of the float switch.

Any idea why this happened? I have the eye and float on the single magnet setup in my return chamber of my sump. The water line is there too. I'm waiting for some evap to retest the thing.

 

[shawnz28]

If the pump stopped and did not go past the backup float then it was caused by air bubbles on the eye. The new plastic attacts the bubbles which adhear to it and the eye thinks it is out of the water. It will subside after a few days and you can quicken ths by giving the eye a bath and a light wash with warm soapy water or 50/50 water vineger.

 

[tozzi]

If the pump stopped and did not go past the backup float then it was caused by air bubbles on the eye. The new plastic attacts the bubbles which adhear to it and the eye thinks it is out of the water. It will subside after a few days and you can quicken ths by giving the eye a bath and a light wash with warm soapy water or 50/50 water vineger.

That and its a good idea to just wipe off the eye every now and then. Also... Make sure the output line of the pump is higher than the water in the reservoir your pumping from. If its lower, when the pump stops the water will keep flowing in because it creates a syphon. I learned this the hard way

 

[galoot]

the pump ran and filled past the backup float. am i under the correct assumption that the pump should stop when it's at the eye or slightly above? the float is only a backup correct?

but why would the pump activate when I plug it in and the water is already above the eye? bubbles? i'll try cleaning it.

thanks for the advice

 

[tozzi]

Everytime you power the pump on or off it will turn on for 10 seconds then shut off even if the water is at the eye

 

[shawnz28]

If it was the air bubbles the pump would have stopped when the alarm from the backup float kicked in. If it filled past and covered the backup float the siphon tozzi mentioned is the culprit. As mentioned the output of the hose needs to be higher than the water level in the container it is pulling from. It is recommended to fill the main display in most cases easily remedy that problem. There are other creative ways around this if for some reason it is not an option.

 

[galoot]

ok. checked for bubbles. there were some all over the eye. i wiped them off and cleaned the eye. the outlet hose is higher then the container, so there is no way it is going to siphon.

plugged it back in. i ran for the normal 10 sec and stopped. green light for the water being level. SWEET!

10 minutes later, overfull alarm going off again!!!! i'm thinking it has to be bubbles on the eye again huh? maybe really small ones.

when the float switch is up and the alarm sounding i pushed it down to the "normal" position, the pump started to flow water again. is this normal? the same as when you first plug it in?

 

[shawnz28]

Do you have any lighting ballasts or magnets near the sensor or the controller?

 

[rvitko]

Galoot, he controller cannot differentiate between bubbles and being dry in the air, if there are a lot of bubbles in this chamber, it will never work. I would say at this point to rinse the optic sensor in hot soapy water and place it in a bowl or bucket of water to test the unit, this way we completely rule out bubbles. If it shows the same issue, the optic sensor could be defective, if it doesn't we know for sure it is a bubble problem that has to be solved either by a bubble trap or moving the sensor position.

 

[galoot]

there are very few bubbles in the chamber. i'll give it another cleaning and let the plastic break in some. it has been working well for the last hour or so. it seems to come on quite frequent though. more than i would have thought. i only average about a gallon a day of evap. and that was before i covered the top of the tank.

 

[galoot]

figured out way it was coming on so frequent. the tube was close too the refug water level, which is higher than the pump. it sagged just enough to make contact with the water and was back siphoning into the top off container. it hasn't come on in over an hour now. hopefully it is all dialed in now!

 

[rvitko]

That is good news, thanks for the update.

 

[galoot]

unit has been working flawlessly since. comes on only a few times a day. soooooooo much nicer than topping off manually.