YouTube Video of pipework and pump

[Bogart]

Saw this last night and wondered about a couple of points.

1 You see the state of the pipework at 7m30s and at 7m54s he says he will recommend the customer gets the system flushed. I am thinking that the pipework shown is not
like it throughout or surely no amount of flushing will help that. As some of you may know I posted a photo recently of some pipework of mine removed from around
the air separator in my place and I thought mine was bad! Why should it be so bad in the proximity of an air separator or is it just a coincidence?

2 Did the pump need replacing? Yes it looks a bit messy, at 10m 15s. Mine had a bit of the orange stuff on it, am assuming that is just bits of rust,
but nowhere near as bad as the one here. Surely it could be cleaned up.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

No vid / link ? I’m guessing you mean pb?

Worst one I’ve seen for a while

 

[gmartine]

I suspect an air separator acts a bit like some filters in that they create eddies in the flow that allows the magnatite to settle and therefore accumulate.

 

[Bogart]

No vid / link ? I’m guessing you mean pb?

Worst one I’ve seen for a while

It is this video
Momentary blip yesterday not listing it. Your pipe picture does not look too good either,.

 

[Bogart]

I suspect an air separator acts a bit like some filters in that they create eddies in the flow that allows the magnatite to settle and therefore accumulate.

I was thinking along same lines a flow rate much slower and hence the crap has time to adhere instead of being swept along. Something to be said for a higher pump speed maybe.

 

[Ric2013]

I suppose if the water can flow, then the acid can circulate and it will eventually clear. A re-pipe may be a cheaper option, but depends how intrusive it would be to perform one.

I like the fact that the video shows someone bothering to rotate the pump. I hate seeing pumps the 'wrong' way round even if there's no real technical reason not to have them that way - it just shows the installer was in a hurry.

As for the air separator, it's where the cold feed is. Air can in, and the water expanding slowly up the feed deposits all manner of rubbish. Clean the F&E on a dirty system and leave it some months and you'll see the sludge gets deposited in the cistern where it leaves the cold feed.

Re the old Pump... problem with those new pumps with ceramic shafts is they are brittle and if they don't have a vent hole to push the shaft out, then you can't push the shaft out... levering normally entails the shaft going CRACK. If the pump was working, though, but possibly it wasn't, or the electronics were detecting a fault and switching off. I think the fact that there was a callout implies the pump had failed.

 

[Bogart]

I suppose if the water can flow, then the acid can circulate and it will eventually clear. A re-pipe may be a cheaper option, but depends how intrusive it would be to perform one.

I like the fact that the video shows someone bothering to rotate the pump. I hate seeing pumps the 'wrong' way round even if there's no real technical reason not to have them that way - it just shows the installer was in a hurry.

As for the air separator, it's where the cold feed is. Air can in, and the water expanding slowly up the feed deposits all manner of rubbish. Clean the F&E on a dirty system and leave it some months and you'll see the sludge gets deposited in the cistern where it leaves the cold feed.

Re the old Pump... problem with those new pumps with ceramic shafts is they are brittle and if they don't have a vent hole to push the shaft out, then you can't push the shaft out... levering normally entails the shaft going CRACK. If the pump was working, though, but possibly it wasn't, or the electronics were detecting a fault and switching off. I think the fact that there was a callout implies the pump had failed.

All valid thoughts. Doing the pipework in a whole house is not to be taken likely. As regards the orientation of the front of the pump, in my case, also as in the video, a Grundfos Alpha2L, the documentation shows that the electric cable should not be at the top, either side or the bottom is fine but not the top. When I inherited this system the front was upside down and obviously the electric socket was on the top. Takes all of about 2 mins at most to turn through 180 deg.