My hydrofoamer 9410.04 stopped working

[nanojg]

I have had an itech 100 for about 6-7 months with the tunze 9410.04 pump. It stopped working today, please advise.

thanks!

[rvitko]

I have yet to see a motor fail, what I have seen is the impeller unit breaks in one of two ways, the shaft breaks, in which case it will usually run but very noisily or a piece of gravel enters the pump and cuts the plastic coating of the rare earth magnet causing it to swell and then it will stop spinning completely. Have you opened the pump to check?

[nanojg]

Thanks for the quick response!

I opened the pump and scraped off a little calcium deposits, put it backed and it fired up.

We had a power outage today, so I guess it probably would have kept going if it stayed on, but when it shut off it could not start because of the deposits?

[rvitko]

Be careful with scraping, just use vinegar and give things time to soak and dissolve any calcium. The magnet is neodymium which swells and disintegrates when exposed to water, these magnets are used in a lot of high performance pumps because they produce more power with less electricity, it is a very strong permanent magnet, however they have to be plastic coated and if the coating is damaged the impeller won't last long.

[nanojg]

ok, i'll soak in vinegar next time. I didnt actually take the impeller out, just scraped off the deposits around it with hot water and my hands. I actually tried to pull the impeller out, but didnt want to break anything so I didnt pull that hard. Does it just pull out?

[rvitko]

The magnet is hard to pullout, neodymium magnets are what high end algae scrubber magnets are made of, it is a very strong magnet.