Tunze 3155 not working

dirland

Member
I have a Tunze 3155 auto top off. Just noticed yesterday it was not working. The light for pump on is dim and flashes when I put water in above the sensor the light for level turns bright green, but as soon as level goes below the sensor the pump light comes on dim and blinks again.

The system is less than a year old I believe.

Do you know what is wrong? Is there a warranty on this still?

Thanks

Derek
 
This would generally happen because the pump is drawing more than 1200mA, which is a limit set by the circuit board. The most common cause is the small connector with 4 screws for the pump has some corrosion or salt creep, it can also be the pump is failing. If it is the pump it would be replaced under warranty (2 years), but water damage to the controller or connector is not covered, though this connector is very cheap and readily available at any radio shack (about $2 for a half dozen of them).
 
I did check all connections on the connector with 4 screws and at the pump, there was no corrosion and everything was connected properly.

So if it is the pump how do I get it replaced.
 
Ideally you would send in the controller and pump so I can check both, a quick but not conclusive test of the pump is to touch the bare wires to a standard 9V battery, if the pump doesn't run, we know for sure it is the pump. If it runs, that is less conclusive, it can still be the pump but it is starting to fail and needs more current to run than the controller will allow.
 
I will test pump tonight with battery and let you know.

Where do I send for you to take a look?

Thanks for you help!
 
checked the pump with a 9v battery and nothing, so I am sending you the pump. Do I just send the pump then?

How long before I get a replacement?

Thanks again
 
Is their a wide problem with the 3155 top ups. i had to replace 3 new units as they all failed.
two would not start when the water was below the optical sensor and the last one would not stop pumping water.

i cant be that unlucky to have so many units fail.

Lucky i did not lose any live stock.
 
I worked out some of the issues with the top up. The new 3155 units with the larger optical sensors are very sensitive to any air bubbles, unlike the older units that still worked with some minor bubbles on the sensor.
hopefully future units will allow for some bubbles as it is not practical to have a sump with no bubbles.
 
Actually the new sensor is supposed to be less sensitive to bubbles, the goal was a bigger surface so a bubble at a point had less impact then it would on the smaller surface of the old sensor.
 
Actually the new sensor is supposed to be less sensitive to bubbles, the goal was a bigger surface so a bubble at a point had less impact then it would on the smaller surface of the old sensor
Oh,
Maybe you can do some tests, but so far that is not the case, they seem very sensitive to any bubbles.
 
We have tested it and I suspect the issues have 1 of 3 origins, first, the sensor is only one change, the circuit board is also brand new and is firmware based now, we can actually set the switching points and update them and get operational data, I don't yet have that ability in the US but they can do it at the factory, they will get the data from your old one and find out what exactly was the issue. Secondly, we know that oils greatly affect the sensor the sensor can take a couple minutes to recover from a heavy coat of oils and this greatly attracts bubbles. We have run so many tests on this that we have log times of clean hands, after eating McDonalds French Fries, etc, and also when new the sensor has a waxy film from the molding process. The old ones did too. I strongly suspect you will find it far less sensitive to bubbles after just a week or so of operation. Third, we changed from polyurethane to seal it to epoxy and now we are back to polyurethane. The epoxy was more bubble prone, the polyurethane is more difficult to work with but more reliably bubble free. Unfortunately, there are always some unintended consequences to progress but we added a lot of new things to the osmolator this year, you can now adjust the pump flow rate and no longer need a screwdriver to attach the pump.
 
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