tunze master skimmer broken already!

[jaggy]

Got home tonight to find my new tunze master skimmer not working , removed it from the water disassembled the pump to find that the shaft through the motor had snapped , and the magnetic cylinder has been rubbing on the inside of the motor housing! , was has happend to tunze quality control!
the unit was always noisey since i had it alot of vibration , but as of tonight i am stuck with a new tank with no skimmer ! any advice ? , i have called and left a message with tunze uk and emailed them as well explaning what has happened!

as i said i live in the Uk and have called and emailed , i know that tunze were having problems before they released the skimmer with noise etc , might i have a prototype?

 

[rvitko]

Prototypes were mainly sent to France and Germany, they had hard plastic needlewheels, they usually came with no manual and were not intended for sale to my knowledge, they were Beta Test versions given to shops. Final versions have a soft rubber needle wheel, it is a clear material. I know that our Beta models had the shafts break because the needlewheel of hard plastic clanged around in the pump. The rubber is supposed to flex and absorb the knocking around caused by the air bubbles. It shouldn't be too difficult to remedy, I have spare pumps here in the states and whatever parts are needed. I would think they should have some in UK as well.

 

[jaggy]

hi well it is the soft impeller i have , so thats fine , but as i said the pump was noisey to start with , so i assume shaft has always been broken , i only hope the uk side of tunze is as helpfull as you ! , i bought the item from germany , well i got it as a gift , so i only hope tunze uk will houor the garnattee?

 

[rvitko]

I am not sure, it could be the shaft was broken especially if it was loud from the beginning.

 

[jaggy]

well m8 got the hydrofoamer 9400.04 pump back today from tunze uk they said they replaced the shaft but didnt have a new rotor assembly and immpellor so they sent it back up and assured me it was working i plugged it in and ..........NOTHING jammed again , i sent it away with no plug , as i wire everything into a juction box , and i came up without a plug , i dont think they even tested it! i wish they were as helpful as you , now i am sitting here with a tank full of corals some i have had for years and i cant get now cause of cites regs and i fear that this has been almost 2 weeks without a skimmer i have bought over £30 of carbon to use to try and slow the decline but i fear the worse , this skimmer was expensive to buy but i fear now the cost might be irreplacable ,i save along time for my reef and corals , and the skimmer , and i wanted to make the right choice but it seems i was wrong and have now faced with a dying tank !
i know it is not your problem as you are tunze usa , i have emailed tunze in germany to about my problems but a doubt i will get a reply , this is all taking to much time to get replacement parts , and the uk has NONE this is a very sorry state :mad2: :eek2:

 

[rvitko]

I will talk to Mr. Tunze about this. I would suggest loosening the rivet that holds the magnet to the needle wheel, it is yellow in color. If it is very snug the pump cannot start properly. The needle wheel should be able to free spin 180degrees on the magnet.

 

[jaggy]

many thanks , i am worried sick about the tank! i will check out what you say , the needle wheel is very tight and doesnt spin that well i will have another look , but if mr tunze can get this sorted asap i would be in your debt!

 

[Jacob D]

Jaggy,

Sorry to hear about this! I got my 9420 about the same time you got yours, we PM'd each other a couple times. I have not run mine yet and I'm a little nervous after hearing your experience. I hope that you don't suffer any losses due to the skimmer. Frequent water changes will help. Please keep us posted...


Roger, what if anything should we expect to hear when the skimmers are running?? I'm about to unpack mine and run it in the bath tub for a while.

 

[jaggy]

hi it turns out that the rubber needle wheel has swollen up and jammed in the pump , they had never seen that happen before , and say it was a freak occarence skimmer is pretty quite now !

 

[Alex Soo]

my 9480 make lots of noise during thr=e first week and jan on the 3rd week, wited more thst 6 monthds for warranty with no answew.

 

[Kirk_M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10636221#post10636221 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rvitko
I will talk to Mr. Tunze about this. I would suggest loosening the rivet that holds the magnet to the needle wheel, it is yellow in color. If it is very snug the pump cannot start properly. The needle wheel should be able to free spin 180degrees on the magnet.

How does one go about this? I have a hydrofoamer I got seperatetly to put on a EUROREEF skimmer. The pump never starts...you have to open it up, spin the impeller manually, and then maybe it will run. The store (Rick's Reef) I got it from had 8 of them, and 3 other pumps we tried didn't work either. What's the deal? It's a new style flexible needlewheel. How the heck do you loosen the rivet without destroying things? The impeller does rotate on it, with resistance, 180 degrees.

 

[shawnz28]

Roger showed me this at Macna and if I recall the magnet portion slides away from the needlewheel and. The magnet should not be "one" with the needlewheel(like many such as Euroreef where they are one glued solid piece) as it should spin free for a partial rotation then catching the needlewheel and thus spinning that. When they were assembled I believe some where just basically pushed together too tightly thus the magnet tries spinning the needlewheel from the getgo causing the problem.

Sadly I dont have one in front of me to describe the process better

 

[Kirk_M]

I figured it out late last night...thanks though Shawn. But, nevertheless, it still won't start up all the time, and, when it does, it's usually after opening the pump and spinning the impeller first. Worse yet, with the rivet loosened, it rattles even more than what it had before - it was loud before, but, nowhere near as bad as this.

 

[rvitko]

Is the shaft broken? The rivet should be loose enough that the needle wheel can spin easily 180 degrees but not so loose that the needle wheel can move back and forth. If you still have trouble I will send a new one.

 

[Kirk_M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10783058#post10783058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rvitko
Is the shaft broken? The rivet should be loose enough that the needle wheel can spin easily 180 degrees but not so loose that the needle wheel can move back and forth. If you still have trouble I will send a new one.

Sounds about like how I have it. Shaft's not broken.

 

[rvitko]

I will send you a new needle wheel today.

 

[Kirk_M]

Thanks, Roger...you always come through! Some other "high end skimmer company" needs to take lessons from you.