Removing the Pinwheel from Sicce Pump

[DarG]

You really need to just let it break in with whatever wheel you go with.

regarding the mesh on the flat disc. When you say it's unbalanced you are realizing exactly what I stated earlier. Mesh is about trial and error and it's an "art" in that it is something that you have to keep messing with to get it balanced and working well. Leave the disc alone for now. Let the skimmer run. If you feel that you need more air after it breaks in a while Then go back to the disc and experiment with mesh. You dont have to do 3 layers. You can try two ... or 5. I got the sicce running with 5 layers of flattened mesh and no startup issues. And more layers doesnt necessarily mean more air. The overhang seems to be the key and getting it balanced on the wheel is very important and it all takes some trial and error.
Point is, meshing can be a pita to get "right" and the more you mess with it, the better feel you get for it. Dont worry about it for now. Try it later if you feel you need more air after a break in.

Good luck.

 

[ai-reefer]

I think the mesh that we use will be unbalanced no matter how good you are. Its not evenly woven mesh so its never balanced the way a pinwheel is.

If we can find evenly woven mesh, that would give us much better results and a quieter operation. Its been a very intersting learning experience.

Also i think there is a point where you can draw too much and and not enough water through the pump. This is probably not that big of a concern for big skimmers.

Companies can make an evenly molded mesh impeller that is less dense and perfectly balanced so that it draws the perfect amount of air.

I'd try it if i had the resources. Im still amazed by how quiet this sicce pump gets after a while

 

[DarG]

You can pull too much air for the skimmer to handle, especially with a smaller skimmer. You probably wouldnt want a 40 scfh mesh wheel on the 160 for example.

The mesh mods can easily be done so the pumps run every bit as quietly as they do with the pinwheels. In fact, some of the mesh junkies believe that the mesh itself can balance itself out with some run time because it isnt entirely rigid and it shifts some. I believe that as well. After running for a day or two, I routinely removed the mesh wheel and trimmed the stray fibers that had shifted whenever I did a new mesh job.

And from personal experience, not all the SWC/MSX pinwheels are perfectly balanced. I had one sicce that ran quieter with the purple pinwheel or a good mesh job than it did with the MSX pinwheel that it came with. The PPW's are better made than the MSX and SWC wheels. The Coralvue wheel is better made as well but was the weakest performer of all from my experience. But the coralvue wheels are probably all pretty well balanced as well because of the way they are made.

But again, one gets better at meshing the more you do it. A good mesh job will be well balanced and the pump should run quietly as a with a pinwheel. The exception is that there may be a little bit of rattle at start up but besides that, a conservative but effective mesh should run quietly and the pump should re-start every time. And I dont like meshing pumps either. It's something that I find to be a PITA eventhough I got pretty decent at it and had a good feel for it. But if the skimmer performed better with the mesh, then it found it to be worth the effort from the standpoint of the skimmers performance.