DIY vibration pump repair

In detail: do-it-yourself repair of a vibration pump from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Submersible pumping equipment of models like Brook and Typhoon, Neptune and Malysh, Harvest and Chestnut, Bosna and Dzherelce, Strumok and Aquarius are popular among the inhabitants of the countryside. Comparatively (with foreign manufacturers), the low cost of domestically produced pressure equipment and a high degree of reliability (according to reviews) are attractive for owners of wells.

No less than reliability in terms of performance and price, summer residents are impressed by the possibility of self-repair and maintenance of pressure equipment. After all, the ability to quickly solve a problem with water on the site due to a pump breakdown without the involvement of third-party specialists is always a plus. And the man and the saved nerves, money and time of his household.

By and large, the design of all pumping equipment for private use is the same. The pump consists of:

  • a case in which there is a hole for water intake;
  • an electromagnet (dynamo);
  • vibrator (electric motor).

What does a vibrating pump consist of?

For deep wells, pumps with an upper water intake hole are used, for shallow wells - with a bottom or side water intake. However, the lower water intake suffers from periodic captures of bottom impurities in the water from the well.
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Since all vibration pumps operate on the principle of inertia, all work is reduced to creating vibrations in the fluid, which is driven by the diaphragm membrane and creates the difference between internal and external pressure. The difference in pressure created is responsible for pumping water.

Video (click to play).

Bending the diaphragm creates vibration. The more oscillatory movements the diaphragm creates, the more intensive the cooling of the motor with water should be. Therefore, it is forbidden to use pressure equipment without entering water.

Dynamka (as the people call it an electromagnet) is:

  • steel core;
  • two coils of enamelled copper wire.

To install the magnet, you need to fix the speaker and coils inside the case. To do this, we fill everything with epoxy compound, which works simultaneously as insulation and removes excess heat from the coils to the case for speedy cooling.

The composition of the compound necessarily contains epoxy, plus a hardener and a plasticizer (with the addition of quartz sand). Quartz in this case simply serves as an additional heat conductor.

The electric motor consists of an armature with a rod, on which a spring for shock absorption and a piston (rubber) are installed. The better the quality of the rubber from which the spring and piston are made, the more reliable and economical the pump.

The direction of the stem is provided by a rubber diaphragm. It divides the two working parts of the apparatus - (electrics and hydraulics) and is attached to the stem for a distance coupling. The most vulnerable place in the design of any pump is the rubber valve that closes the water intake openings.

The vibration of the diaphragm occurs due to the fact that when current enters the motor, the armature begins to be attracted to the magnet and is thrown back by the shock absorber at the moment of polarity reversal (polarity reversal).

The higher the frequency of the current, the more oscillations per second the diaphragm makes. Moreover, the piston also emits vibration of the same frequency.

The hydraulic chamber of the pump is the space occupied by the valve and piston. The piston vibrates, the water springs due to the air dissolved and not dissolved in the water, then contracting, then unclenching, and its excess is squeezed out of the hydraulic chamber into the pressure pipe, and then into the hose.The constant maximum amount of working fluid in the pressure vessel is provided by a valve that lets in and does not allow water to flow back.

Vibrating pump with bottom intake

The design with top water intake and bottom electric drive is a classic in the vibratory pump line-up. In them, the engine is better cooled, and with open suction openings, it can work without interruption for up to seven hours. Sometimes the kit contains an overheating sensor (thermal relay).

By the way, pay attention to the material from which the fastening cable is made. It is better that it was made of nylon. This cable, unlike steel, does not rub the lugs of the housing and provides additional protection in the event of damage to the current cable.

But, before proceeding to repair vibration pumps with your own hands, you should pay attention to two more things:

  • the cross-section of the cable with the euro plug should not be less than the international standard 2x0.75 mm;
  • hose with an internal passage diameter of at least 1.9 cm.

The ability to self-diagnose and repair will always come in handy. Therefore, whatever the reason for the failure of the pressure equipment (breakage of traction, short circuit or breakthrough of the valve), the pump will have to be disassembled first to inspect internal problems.

Unscrew the bolts that hold the body together, inspect the corrosion, the tightly seated bolts can be cut off with a grinder. Beat off the compound. Inspect the windings on the coils and clean all moving parts. The power coil, if it needs to be replaced, can be simply knocked out of the case. Use a tester to check the power cable, if everything is normal, you can put it back together.

Make sure that the water flow holes are well aligned with the rubber gasket. Tighten the mounting bolts so that the pump operates within the usual noise and vibration range.
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If it was not possible to limit ourselves to the usual inspection and prevention, and the reason is in the carbonization of the cable or overheating of the case, lack of pressure or increased vibration, then you can repair your vibration pump using methods that are universal for any model of units.

As practice shows, a replaced hose or cable can easily reduce the pressure or the level of overheating. Replacing or repairing the magnet will help reduce vibration. Now, in more detail about each of the options for the emergence of problems.
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The humming of the pump with a low pressure or lack of water can be caused by three possible reasons:

  • the nuts of the rod attached to the shock absorber are loose;
  • a worn-out valve burst;
  • the stock broke.

Assembling the Vibratory Pump Trickle

Here only the problem cannot be solved if the stem is broken or deformed. There is nothing to replace it with. If the problem is in the nuts, tighten them all the way and fix the upper one well. It is from this nut that all the loosening goes. If you had to cut the bolts, replace them with the hex capscrews. About "replace the valve", I hope, they themselves understood - we just change it.
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The cable is carbonized or knocks out plugs. There are two options: either the anchor winding has burned out, or the tester will show a malfunction of the cable itself. We change what is needed and should work.

If the cable cannot be changed, because the drive is filled with compound, then the wire will have to be extended by twisting.
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Increased vibration or overheating occurs due to delamination of the magnetic part of the unit. The source of the problem is that the pump was running without water. How to reduce vibration?

You need to get out the magnet, cut through the grid of grooves with a grinder 2 millimeters deep and make the same grooves inside the case. We put the magnet on glue and sealant, let it dry and only after that we start assembling.
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If the pump is operating normally, but the head could be clearly higher, then the reason is low pressure. To increase the pressure (if the reason is the vibrator - the gap is too small), you can use the washers mounted on it (up to 11 pieces, depending on the model of the device).

The main thing, when repairing a pump with your own hands, is to remember that replacement and adjustment of all its parts is carried out only when the device is completely de-energized.
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Vibration pumps have a long history, so there are a huge number of their modifications. Each manufacturer introduces its own characteristics into the design of the product, but the time and operating conditions still lead to inevitable breakdown or complete failure.

The variety of breakdowns is great, but there are only a few major ones that significantly affect the quality and evenness of the pump. Having understood the principles of operation and the device, you can do a simple repair of a vibration pump with your own hands.

Vibration pumps are weaker than centrifugal pumps, less reliable, but have their positive aspects. They are much cheaper in cost and maintenance, and are easier to replace and repair. And they are also less selective in the quality of water and its content, therefore they have found their application in summer cottages and private lands for pumping water from a well and pumping it over short distances.

To perform any repair of a vibration pump, you need to know and navigate in its device. After all, knowing the principles of operation, it is possible to determine with great accuracy the causes of a malfunction only by the sound of work or by the actions performed.

What does a vibrating pump consist of?

The submersible pump with vibrating principle of operation is completed with the following elements:

  • shockproof sealed housing;
  • an electric motor driving the pump;
  • working piston;
  • high power electromagnet;
  • additional replaceable structural elements: shock absorber, diaphragm, etc.

The operation of the electric pump is based on the action of an electromagnetic field, with the help of which the working piston is driven. Due to the pressure difference created by it, water enters the working chamber and is transferred to the connections of the branch pipe or hose of the water supply system.
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Very often, submersible vibration pumps stop working, having a minor breakdown, which can be eliminated independently, and, sometimes, very quickly, without the intervention of paid specialists. Therefore, you should know how to determine the malfunction and how your own electrical appliance behaves at the same time.

A characteristic feature of the repair of the device is that after replacing the damaged elements, additional adjustment is required. For example, after replacing a rubber valve system, the pump does not deliver the rated power or even refuses to pump at all. In this case, a simple adjustment of the valves helps, setting them in the correct position, determining the correctness of their opening and closing.
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Before the user is filled with decisiveness to disassemble a non-working product, a number of simple manipulations should be performed to establish a preliminary diagnosis:

  • fix the pump in a container with water by releasing the outgoing pipe. Turning on the device in the power supply, check the voltage level, which should be in the range from 200 to 240 V.
  • under normal conditions, turn off the pump and drain the water. Then blow with your mouth into the outlet. A correctly adjusted device lends itself to blowing, but with strong blowing it locks with the stroke of the working piston inside. Conversely, with the intake of air, the latter must pass freely inside.

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Vibrating pump with bottom intake

With an incorrect setting, when air is not blown through the pump, but passes through the suction, the pump can operate at a reduced voltage of less than 200 V.

Before starting active steps to disassemble the pump casing, you should leave marks at the joints for correct assembly in the future.

The principle of operation of pumping equipment dictates the control of three important parameters of reassembly in the specified order:

  1. Axial alignment of piston and seat.Sliding the inlet nozzle over the gasket makes it very difficult to achieve this when assembling the pump, but misalignment will prevent the pump from working in principle.
  2. The piston should be at some distance from its seat. The size of this gap should not exceed 0.5 mm, but be greater than 0. The gap can be adjusted using shims. The correct distance allows air to pass into the water outlet, and with a greater blowing force, the piston closes the channel.
  3. It is necessary to observe the parallelism of the piston disc with its seat - their axes must also be parallel.
  • large clearance between piston sleeve and rod. Such a problem can not only affect the regulation, but also cause vibration of the operating unit. How to reduce a large gap? It is enough to replace either the bushing or the stem, and the popular method is to seal the stem with an improvised material, for example, foil.
  • the stem is bent. In this case, the problem is unlikely to be corrected, but, perhaps, parallelism will be achieved by expanding the gasket to 180 0.

A correctly replaced structural element and a properly assembled submerged electric pump produces a jet of at least 30 cm in height and operates without interruption with a voltage of up to 240 V. Decreasing the voltage changes the sound of the pump and can reduce performance.
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It greatly facilitates disassembly by placing the unit in a vice. Clamping the body protrusions with jaws, the tie bolts will give in faster, but they need to be loosened in turn and little by little. The collection after repair is carried out in the same way.

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Assembling the Vibratory Pump Trickle

If the pump has been submerged for a long time, most likely, the tie bolts will not give way quickly - you should apply a penetrating lubricant and make slotted slots in the bolt heads. As a last resort, you should carefully cut off the bolt heads to disconnect the body parts of the device.
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Let us consider in more detail the symptoms of malfunction of vibration pumps, how to identify and eliminate them with our own hands.
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There may be several reasons for this pump behavior:

  1. The fastening nuts located on top of the shock absorber are loose. When unscrewing the nuts, the shock absorber can move slightly in relation to the rod and the movement of the rod will be idle. To eliminate the problem in the operation of the pump, fix the shock absorber, tighten the nuts to the stop and lock them in order to avoid repetition in the future.
  2. The rubber valve is mechanically damaged. The reason may be wear as a result of long work or the negative impact of abrasive particles pumped with water, or its banal breakthrough. The solution to this situation is to replace the worn out part.
  3. The worst variant of the resulting malfunction is a stem break. Repair or replacement of a rod with its deformations is practically impossible. With this development in business, buying a new pump will be the best way out of the situation.

When the pump is connected to the mains, the cable connection heats up and charred, knocks out the electrical plugs, the circuit breaker turns off.

Dismantling the vibration pump

This result is often due to two reasons:

  1. Defective power cable. To check, a tester is used, which will indicate the integrity of the connected wires and, accordingly, whether it is the reason for the operation of the electrical protection. Replacing the pump cable is possible, but not on all models. In some cases, the power cable is filled with an insulating compound and it is not possible to change it.
  2. Burnt armature winding. Repairing the winding requires special skills and knowledge, so it is impractical for an ordinary user to replace it. But nevertheless, its repair is possible by rewinding or by replacing it with a new one.

When the device is turned on, it must always be in the water, because the pumped liquid removes the heat it generates. In the absence of a cooler, the pump suddenly begins to heat up, which can lead to irreversible damage. The pump body expands and a special filling lags behind it, which holds the electromagnet. The "clanging" of the electromagnet becomes the basis of the vibration process. If the dry operation lasts long enough, then complete detachment of the magnet will inevitably occur and the piston will not be able to move.

A breakdown of this type is one of the most difficult, and doing it yourself requires a lot of patience.

First, the user disassembles the pump, separating the electrical part of the product. Then, tapping on the body, for sure, determines the looseness of the electromagnet. After removing the pump from the housing shell, it is necessary to cut small grooves in a chaotic order with a small grinder on the inner surface of the housing and on the unit itself.

It is recommended to replace the screws with new ones during assembly.

After the work done, it is necessary to cover the case with window sealant or high-quality strong glue and press in an electromagnet. After the structure has dried, it can be reassembled.

A thermostat built into the housing helps to avoid damage, which will cut off the power supply to the pump in case of strong heating or short circuit. Models equipped with such protection are more expensive, but last longer.
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The pump operates in this mode due to the small clearance between the piston and its seat, unless there is another reason from the above.

An additional washer restores the work on the piston rod. Using washers, you can reduce or increase performance within the declared characteristics.

It should also be remembered that the pumping equipment is electrical and compliance with safety conditions with it is imperative.
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