Should I be worried - bad pump noises

jeffbrig

jeffbrig

Premium Member
I have a sequence 4200 as my system's return pump, approx. 9 months old.

Tonight it started squealing intermittently, as if there was a bearing or shaft lubrication issue. Definitely coming from either the dry side or the shaft area of the pump. The squealing would die down if I put any pressure on the motor housing. I turned off the pump, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, still there.

After a few hours, the squealing gave way to a louder, almost grating sound. It was like whirring sound of the fan increased tenfold in volume. The pump was still running at full speed and moving a lot of water. So, I went to bed only to get up a few minutes ago to check on the pump (yes, the sound was bothering me that much). Then, while I'm typing this message, the sound dies down and goes away completely. It's back to the normal hum of the motor.

Anybody had anything like this happen before? Did some grit get into the shaft/seal area and finally work its way out? Should I be worried about seal leaks?

Sleepless in FL,
Jeff
 
The pump started making loud noises again around 2:30 am, so I ended up shutting it down for the night. I'll call MDM/Sequence today and see what they say about it.
 
Sequence is sending me a loaner pump so I can send mine in for repair. They though it sounded like the front bearing in the motor.

:thumbsup: to sequence, very easy to work with.
 
i am a proud owner of 2 sequnce hammerheads. I broke the volute on one and they replaced it free of charge!

BIG :thumbsup: for MDM, sequence
 
Don't know if it's related to the original noise, or a consequence of whatever bearing problem may be present, but the shaft seal has started leaking. I found about 1/4" of water under the pump before I left for work this morning (fortunately my stand is lined to hold water). I had to shut it down and close the plumbing valves on both sides of the pump to keep it from draining the system.

Now I just hope that loaner pump makes it here before the weekend, but that sounds like a long shot. Otherwise, I'll be falling back on a spare mag5 just to be able to keep the skimmer running. :eek2:
 
Any time a pump has a squeeling noise or anything like that take it apart and clean it completly. Sometimes stuff gets in there and causes problems. Its worth a shot.

In your case its def a bad bearing and seal combination. Use the spare pump for now. Who did you talk to over there. Hope it was a tech seeing as how he hit it on the money seeing as the pump is leaking.
 
I had a similar problem occur with my Blueline HD70 right out of the box. Took the pump apart and could find nothing wrong at all. Put it back together and tried again, same godawful racket. Turns out the cover over the fan on motor end got a little bent in shipping and I didn't notice. Took it off, and bent the thing back, works perfectly ever since.

Anyhow, I was gonna mention to check that, until you stated the seal went out.
 
Jeff - So you got me thinking about my 4200 as I was doing maintenance this weekend. While I don't have any noise, I definitely have some salt creep underneath the head of the pump. I couldn't get to it tonight, but I'll need to pull it out and see where it's coming from. From what I could feel, I hope it's the drain plug at the bottom of the head. I REALLY don't want to pull this thing out, but at least I can isolate the pump from the closed loop easily to check.

Have a good week,

Doug
 
Well, the loaner pump arrived this week, and I didn't get a chance to mess with it until today (the tank has been limping on a mag5 in the interim). I unboxed the pump only to notice that the the box is labeled "Cimarron". If this is a Cimarron, and not just a re-used box, it is a freshwater model. I tried calling Sequence to confirm, but since it's the weekend I only got voicemail.

Now I'm in a quandry. I'd like to get my return flow back to normal, but I don't know what problems I might face if I hook up a non-sw pump. Leaky seals? Corroding metal? I wouldn't be so concerned except that sequence doesn't even offer these with a sw seal, which makes me worry that they may contain non-sw friendly materials.

Jeff
 
Jeff - What did you find out on the Cimarron pump? Freshwater... Saltwater... It's all water... Just kidding

I pulled down our 4200SEQ12 last night and found our leak. Fortunately, it isn't the pump at all. I initially thought the drain plug or one of the seals was leaking, but it appears that the threaded nipple on the inlet side has been seaping every so slightly since the start-up 7 months ago. Obviously it wasn't a bad leak, but I finally saw the salt creep and after reading your thread was alittle concerned.

I'm off to Home Depot for some Teflon paste.

-Doug
 
Doug, I don't know if you remember, but i had the exact same leak when setting my pump up the first time - threaded nipple on the inlet side. I think I redid that connection 3 times with teflon tape before it stopped seeping. Maybe one of these days I'll graduate to paste instead of tape.

I spoke with someone at Sequence today and she told me the Cimarron seals are fine for freshwater or saltwater. I found this really interesting because it's such an inexpesive pump - just $100 at AZ ponds. IMO, it looks just like the early Dart models....

loaner_pump.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6569013#post6569013 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jeffbrig
Doug, I don't know if you remember, but i had the exact same leak when setting my pump up the first time - threaded nipple on the inlet side. I think I redid that connection 3 times with Teflon tape before it stopped seeping. Maybe one of these days I'll graduate to paste instead of tape.
Click to expand...
That's right... I forgot that you had problems with your inlet leaking. What did you do to get it stopped? Two rolls or three of Teflon tape.:D

The good news is that pump and OM4-Way went back together very well. The bad news is that the inlet still leaks with the Teflon paste. The really bad news is that the leak is worse than when I started!

I'll tear it down Tuesday night and try again. Perhaps a more tapered approach with the Teflon tape?

Later,

Doug
 
I just started using more teflon tape, and (from trial and error) I now tighten the fitting as much as I'm comfortable without feeling like I'm going to crack the volute. Tapering the tape seems to be a good approach, I have used that on some of the fittings with good success.

The cimarron is working great, BTW. No leaks from any of the connections, and it's dead quiet compared to my noisy 4200. I'm now convinced the 4200 had a bearing issue from day one. Moves a lot of water too. As cheap as they are, I'm tempted to pick one up to have on hand as a backup.
 
The tapered Teflon tape approach worked last night. I did a single wrap near the tip, but I started the build-up after the first 1/4-3/8". The nippled threaded into the volute much further and hasn't leaked yet...

Great idea on the Cimmarron. I'm surprised it's considered SW compatible without a seal change. Perhaps they put SW seals in the loaner?

-Doug
 
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