Whale gulper, not pumping.

[Ian_Edwards]

15 year old Whale Gulper pump, has stopped pumping. Trouble free until now!
The pump runs, and I can see water in the shower sump oscillating, but it's not pumping water.
The flow rate of the pump has gradually been getting worse over the last few days. I think it may be blockage some where.
What's the most likely problem?
It's mounted in a really inaccessable place, under the shower floor, it can only be reached by taking an adjacent floor board up.
Any insight into the most likely cause gratefully recieved.

 

[sarabande]

Perhaps general gunge in the pipework ? Can you force hot water with detergent into the hull outlet to backflush ?

 

[Ian_Edwards]

Not when she in the water!

 

[vas]

duckbill valves blocked with general crud, hair, etc not letting them close properly would be my guess.
Means you have to reach the head of the pump and undo the circlip round the front, reach the valves and clean them.
Messy job mine is mounted at the side of the Whale grey water tank which means shower/sink water goes down there via gravity, crud remains at the bottom of the tank and gulper gets clean(er) water to pump out.

 

[sarabande]

Not when she in the water!

Looks like a screwdriver job on the floorboard then.

Agreed that any non-return valve is a likely cause of trouble.

 

[KevinV]

Wouldn't you try a dash of caustic soda first? Before pulling everything apart?

 

[Bilgediver]

The movement in the shower tray suggests that the pump suction valve is not closing A service kit will sort both valves and the diaphragm for another few years

 

[Ian_Edwards]

I tried a brute force and ignorance approch ( I'm good at that!)
I had to empty the shower sump before I could do anything. I used Jabsco water puppy I have installed as general purpose pump. It has two long hoses on it, so I pumped out the sump, and put the hose onto the drain hole and let it suck all the water out of the gulper, lots of gurgling noises.
No idea what came out but that cleared the blockage.
It now works ok.
I think I'll order a service kit, just to make sure it doesn't block again.

 

[sarabande]

You may have cured the symptoms, but possibly not the cause. Pumps like to flow freely. I suspect that deep cleaning the pipework downstream of the pump should be completed before you screw everything down again, but I'd hesitate before using caustic in case of damage to structural materials, or humans.

If you have a few days before the service kit arrives, it might be worth putting a bio washing powder into the sump, and leaving it to work its way through the pipes to the exit.

Best of luck !

 

[Zing]

I tried a brute force and ignorance approch ( I'm good at that!)
I had to empty the shower sump before I could do anything. I used Jabsco water puppy I have installed as general purpose pump. It has two long hoses on it, so I pumped out the sump, and put the hose onto the drain hole and let it suck all the water out of the gulper, lots of gurgling noises.
No idea what came out but that cleared the blockage.
It now works ok.
I think I'll order a service kit, just to make sure it doesn't block again.

A service kit won't stop it getting blocked you know.

 

[Ian_Edwards]

There seems to be fundamental law, things that I have spares for never break down, it's only things that I don't carry spares for.
I think of carrying spares as an insurancy policy, in more ways than one