HydroThruster Pump problem....
 

Well this is certainly not good. The pump every now and then would just stop turning the impeller and it would stop the motor aswell but power is still going to the motor which in turn heats it way up. Untouchable hot! My test bed is dead without it. :(

bigben2k mentioned it might be the brushes in the motor but it is not. The impeller itself is actually binding up. The odd part is the impellor spins freely and the motor works fine when it isn't atached to the impeller. Put them together and bad things happen. :( Any idea WTF could be the problem?

Here is the pump: http://www.aquaticeco.com/aquatic1v1...s=4&numitems=4 The company itself doesn't seem to have a website. The company name is Filtronics.

you might have some residue buildup on the magnet, that looks like the kind of pumps that are completely sealed of from the outside, and the drive is through a magnetic drum/cylinder, right.
I have one here, that I am playing with, and it had some residue on the magnet, that prevented the impeller from turning...

http://3rotor.homelinux.com/SCM-BB/c...l_DSCN5302.JPG

a Little cleaning and this one was good as new...

Well this is interesting. I am finding the pump itself is just fine! I took it out of the test system and hooked it up in the bathroom sink with a big hose going into the water and the outlet hose going back into the sink and it works great! Lot better than it does in the test system. I even put my thumb over the outlet and blocked the flow off and the impeller kept turning and the pressure remained constant as it was wanting to push my thumb away. The thing has balls!

So this leaves me with the question on whats going on when it is in the test system? As I watch it it alomost looks as if it is getting vapor lock of somekind. The pump will just bind up and stop. Works fine outside of the system though. Maybe having all that water sitting much higher than the pump is causing to much weight to be forced on it and it is binding?

Here is a pic of the setup. The red arrow is the res/airtrap holding about 3/4 gallon of water. The yellow arrow is the outlets of the block going into the res/airtrap. The blue arrow is the inlet of the pump.

Tomorrow I guess I will rework all this.....

It is completely take apartable. I just took the the magnet and the impeller out. They actually spin IN the water! The other magnet is attached on the shaft of the pump and they are seperated by the acrylic. Everything is clean and it works fine outside of the test system. The pump itself is near new. Only has a few days on it...

May want to talk to pH, I gave him my Hydrothruster when he was in town.

IMO, the culprit most probably is in the reservoir.

The pump is too strong and is creating a vortex inside the res, making it suck just enough air for the impeller to "free-spin", and/or the res needs more water.

Think building a larger res will cure the problem. Having a transparent res will sure show if there are any problems.

I think your right on! Going to re-construct it tomorrow...

I completely re-woked it this morning. Seems to be working fine now. Been up for about 4hrs now with no problems. Flow seems better to...