Getting a Jabsco Shower Pump to work

N

NFCN

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 Sep 2006
Messages
197
Location
France
Visit site
Am undoubtedly being stupid. I have a new pump, wired up correctly according to the multimeter. Big blue arrow on side of pump showing flow of water / waste up (ie out of shower tray and overboard via seacock). Have checked all the jubilee clips and have blown through the pipe from the tray to the pump - about 1m in length - it is clear, as is the route out to and through the sea cock.

It just won't prime. Having disconnected the tray pipe, and connected a short pipe downwards, it primes and sucks out from a bucket fine. The pump says it self primes to 2m and is able to run dry.

Am stuck. Any ideas welcome...

Thanks

Nick
 
shower pump

hi sounds like you have sim setup to us. our set up: shower tray-pipe joins outlet under the floor-joins to a filter-then back up to a non return valve-then to pump-then to skin fitting.

'did you have plenty of water in the shower tray when you started the pump?' as you said it worked when from a bucket so no reason why not from the shower.

Ours is a little reluctant at first, taking a very short while to start pumping.
dont think i've helped or answerd your question though 'sorry'
 
One of the Jabsco Diaphragm pumps ?

If so perhaps a valve not seating correctly.

Fitted with a "Pump Guard" strainer on the suction ?

Not got a change over valve so that it can also suck from the bilge ?

Any bad connections allowing air to enter ?

If it will suck from a bucket but not from the shower tray then look at the plumbing connecting it to the shower tray.
 
Pump is self contained - will only open it as a last resort.

There is a pump guard below the pump, protecting it: seals are firm and the unit is clear.

No changeover valve.

All connections tight...

Not sure I understand 'backfilling with a hose into the outlet' - outlet is below the water line but accessible I guess from the seacock if I undo the hose from it.
 
I'd agree with thoughts from previous posts but would add that it sounds like the pump is doing less work from the bucket than up from the shower tray.

So, a few things I've encountered:
Pump had previously been dismantled then screwed back the wrong way round so there wasnt a perfect seal inside
Pipes had warped around the jubilee clips so not a perfect seal
Cracked pipes
Semi-blocked pipes down to shower tray - I pumped water at pressure down into the tray and a bunch of crud came out, although with blowing into it had seemed fine
Sea-cock semi blocked with a mussel - fine when emptying the bucket for me but somehow the pump was not powerful enough to overcome the mussel and the slight extra work of the shower tray
Poor electrical connections on the motor so slightly reduced power
 
PCUK said:
If it works from a bucket something is wrong with your system and not the pump.
Click to expand...

Wow, you live in a very binary world. There are plenty of ways a pump could have enough suck to empty a bucket but not enough to pull water through a whole system
 
VicS said:
Its shower tray it wont empty... not a "whole system" .... Of course if the pump is not located close to the shower but is connected to it by yards and yards of hose it might not work as well as it should..
Click to expand...

I sort of see what you mean but the test could be as simple as a new short vertical length of pipe attached by a new jubilee clip immersed in a bucket of water on the inlet side, and the pump outlet left unattached so it the outlet squirts straight out of the pipe.

The "whole system" ( which is a bit of a grand description I admit ), might be an old pipe invisibly connected by an unseen old jubilee clip to a semi-immersed horizontal hole in the shower tray, that is connected to a bashed up old filter, that has a join to another pipe to the pump that has an outlet pipe to a seacock that in turn is connected to an outlet that may be weed encrusted. Quite a lot of old joins and pipes to leak air or have blockages. My own experience is that testing a pump by itself does not tell you whether it is giving the full power it needs for the job. A fully working pump can make the whole arrangement work whilst a weak one might need every other part to be perfect first.
 
A shower drain should work well. Ours will drain faster than the shower fills but has occasionally succumbed to crud, which I flush out with very hot water. We also have a strainer in the system which needs clearing out occasionally - I presume this has been checked?
 
Yes, I've checked the whole system through in a logical manner - but there is some good food for thought in this thread which I will apply when I'm next down on the yacht. Many thanks all.
 
We have a set up it takes the water up to a height of 2 metres or so through a goose neck then straight out just below the water line "or on it". It primes and is similar to others it sucks faster than the water system on board can supply it.

I did some work on an Oyster 61 that has a small little holding tank it went to before it was pumped out. A small air lock caused the pump to working correctly. When I looked at the set up It just looked completely pointless. bypassing this box and it worked perfectly everytime.

I think the reason it went to the box was the fact the system did not have a "above the waterline" set up. effectively putting a whole in the boat to the point of the pump.
 
Had a similar problem with a shower sparge pump, which made hell of a lot of noise, but did not pump, ona recently purchased boat (secondhand)
When I took that system to pieces the idiot had got the connections the wrong way round. Even so, rhe pump did not always self prime.
Moved the pump so that it was below the level of the shower tray, and no more probems. The pump is probably 20+ years old.
You done the obvious things, try moving it on a temporary basis
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top