Peristaltic pump chlorine feed issues

[devan019]

I manage a commercial whirlpool with a peristaltic chlorine feeder. The feeder died on me last month and I had it replaced. The feeder, the roller assembly and the tubing are all brand new. My issue is that the chlorine is not flowing from the chlorine tank to the feeder. The tubes have been in place for several hours and are still bone dry. The feeder is rotating but there doesn't appear to be any suction. What could be wrong?

[CarlD]

Passing you on to the site owner. Most of us are residential pool owners and users.

[PoolDoc]

1. Turn the pump off.

2. Disconnect the discharge tube from the injection fitting. Be SURE to have a rag around the tube when it comes loose; the bleach may be under pressure and SPRAY out. Be SURE to have safety glasses on.

Put the tube in a plastic bucket which has a few inches of water in it. Weight, tape, or tie the tube down so it doesn't fall or wiggle out.

3. Turn the pump on. See if it picks up & pumps the bleach at the normal rate. If it does, go to #8. If it does NOT, go to #4.

4. If not, turn the pump off.

5. Remove the suction line from the tank. Disassemble, clean, and re-assemble the suction fitting.

6. Try again.

7. If it still does not work, remove the suction fitting, and place end of the suction tube in a bucket of water. If it STILL does not pump, you have problems I can't help with from here.

8. If the pump is now pumping bleach into the bucket, turn the pump off.

9. Remove, dis-assemble, clean, re-assemble, and re-install the injection fitting.

10. Re-connect all tubing.

11. If the system does not work now, you have problems I can't diagnose from here.


BTW, my guess is, you did not replace the failed pump with an identical model. Why not? What model/make was the original unit? What do you have now? Stenner, Blue-White, & Mec-o-matic pumps NOT MADE IN CHINA should all work OK ***if*** properly sized and applied. All of those pumps have VERY specific operating capabilities. If you did not get an IDENTICAL replacement, there's a good chance you have the wrong model. Most people selling those pumps know very little about applying them.

On the other hand, if you got a Chinese-made (or possibly, Italian, if those are still being sold) pump, you'd probably be better off chucking the unit and starting over. I've seen so much junk come out of China, it boggles the mind. There's some good product too, but if you have to ask me how to solve a feed pump problem, you don't have the engineering and application skills to determine if the pump is junk . . . and if it's Chinese-made, there's a high probability that it is.

[lasvegaspoolservice]

most likely it's a priming issue. make sure where hoses are connected there are no air leaks. [promotion link removed - Admin]