Troubleshooting Penguin Power Sponge Filter

Okay,

A few days ago, I thought I scored. On the free table, still in the box still in the plastic never opened wrap.... a Penguin Power sponge filter 170 gallons per hour. Took it home with me.

It doesn't work. I can't find a thing wrong with it. I fiddle and fiddle, but really, there isn't much to fiddle with, finally, it starts pumping and runs great guns! For about 24 hours. It started making a rattling noise, so even though it was pumping, I shut it off to look to see what's going on, and now, it's back to not pumping at all. The motor runs, you can hear it, but no water is being pumped. I've tried syphoning, I tried placing a small pad at the base of the propeller bar to see if raising it up would make it catch the wheel better, I've made sure the housing is tight, I've checked to make sure everything is clear and free to move, I even read that owner's manual! G! How desperate is that???!!! There is NO logical reason for this thing to not be pumping.

Any suggestions?

That's annoying! I don't have any experience with Penguin filters, but usually when my filters rattle it's an impeller problem.

I have 2 Penguins.

It is almost always a impellor problem.

the magnet doesn't make a good 'field' around the impellor and it won't spin.

Try this:

unplug and take it in the bathroom.

Soak the impellor in bleach and water 50/50 for a few minutes

Be sure your impellor can spin on its own. Sometimes grass or foreign stuff gets wrapped around the shaft right at the impellor.

Push on it and make sure the magnet and propellors are all tight but NOT jammed

make absolutely sure there is no foreign matter inside the impellor housing to keep it from spinning. It only takes a one grain of peeble rock or a short strand of seedweed......


You can try purchasing a new impellor only if they will sell you one. Sometimes they are just out of balance and will not spin ........

* Is your water level high enough? Although it runs when the water level is low, it needs a high water level to kick start itslef at the beginning.


reagrds,
nm

Thank you, that's all good information! Is the bleach to clean it? Or does it do something for the magnet pull?

It was spinning, it was all free and clear, that's why none of it made any sense. For whatever reason, it's working now. I'm don't think I'll ever unplug it again! The water level is fine, that wasn't the problem. Still don't know what was.

As the saying goes, no good deed shall go unpunished. Since you answered that one, would you care to answer another?

It has an attachment for a hose, which, after I got it running smoothly, I added to slow it down as 170 gallons an hour was too fast. I'd guess it is circulating at about half the rate as we speak. I was wondering, just how slow can one slow it done before it's working too hard? As long as it's pumping anything at all, is it okay?

Thanks!

In my opinion (IMO) you never want to reduce flow on this type of pump. You'll get all of the detrimental heat without the benefit of flow. Powerheads are so cheap, why not just get the right pump size? If I'm not mistaken, a powerhead that size is about $15.00

Well, because cheap is my middle name. Actually, it's my first name, but I don't like being called by my first name.

It's the challenge. I mean, come on, how many times have you received good advice and you ignored it just to see if things would be different for you? We all do it. If we didn't, the world would be perfect by now!

Oh, alright.. I'll get the right pump, next pay day, which, for me, is September 20th. It'll have to suffer until then.