sfsuphysics
04/18/2011, 12:10 PM
Recently cleaned one of my vortechs (it fell off, that told me it needed a vinegar bath), and after a couple days (i'll admit, I forgot about it :D), I reassembled, and it seems the magnet has a bit tilting wiggle than it normally does. Note: magnet plus impeller, so it's a uniform wiggle throughout the screw axis
Hooked it up and there was a rather loud rattle sound, did some alignment and got the rattle down, however I notice the rattle is only at certain speeds. Initially it was only at high speed, fiddled with the alignment, then high speed was fine, a mid speed though was rattling like crazy... more fiddling... high/mid speed is good but low speed has a really large rattle.
Going through my mind possibilities, but I'd rather not brute force diagnosis it by buying one new of everything and just swap out until I figure it out.
So my ideas
-Little plastic washer spacer for the magnet/wetside some how wore out/too long in vinegar
-depressed center where the ceramic washer fits wore down unevenly (I've had instances where the entire shaft gets pulled through completely.
-magnet losing strength unevenly (either wet or dry side), this is the long shot.
-I notice a LOT of swirling on the magnet closest to the aquarium wall, not sure what exactly is doing the scratching, because there's nothing growing in there (hard shelled creatures) but perhaps that screwed the magnet up some how.
So any ideas? granted the plastic spacer for the magnet would be the cheapest diagnostic test, but just wanted to hear what others may think. Oh and these are old Vortechs, back from Gen 1 days, which makes me think something wore down too much.
Hooked it up and there was a rather loud rattle sound, did some alignment and got the rattle down, however I notice the rattle is only at certain speeds. Initially it was only at high speed, fiddled with the alignment, then high speed was fine, a mid speed though was rattling like crazy... more fiddling... high/mid speed is good but low speed has a really large rattle.
Going through my mind possibilities, but I'd rather not brute force diagnosis it by buying one new of everything and just swap out until I figure it out.
So my ideas
-Little plastic washer spacer for the magnet/wetside some how wore out/too long in vinegar
-depressed center where the ceramic washer fits wore down unevenly (I've had instances where the entire shaft gets pulled through completely.
-magnet losing strength unevenly (either wet or dry side), this is the long shot.
-I notice a LOT of swirling on the magnet closest to the aquarium wall, not sure what exactly is doing the scratching, because there's nothing growing in there (hard shelled creatures) but perhaps that screwed the magnet up some how.
So any ideas? granted the plastic spacer for the magnet would be the cheapest diagnostic test, but just wanted to hear what others may think. Oh and these are old Vortechs, back from Gen 1 days, which makes me think something wore down too much.