RW-4/General Impeller Issue

[VW_TDI_02]

After about 9 months of use, my RW-4 stopped working. I ended up taking it apart and I noticed that the pump worked just fine while the snail guard was removed. The top of the impeller has the rubber nipple/tip that fits into the snail guard. I ended up removing the rubber piece and the pump is back to working great! Is this safe to do? Are there any benefits to having the rubber piece on it vs not? There has to be some sort of reef-safe lubricant that would allow me to use the rubber piece as well. I gave it a vinegar soak over night right off the bat hoping that it would clean it up. Would the vinegar soak have an impact on the rubber piece causing it to jam the impeller?

 

On a side note, the RW-4 was incredibly easy to take apart. For those interested, the mounting arms that hold the powerhead just need to be pulled a little bit and it will release the middle part. From there, the snail guard can be twisted about 1/8th or less of a turn and it comes right off. If the powerhead is facing you (so if it was on, it would be shooting water directly at you) you simply twist it counter clockwise and it should pop right off. It helps a lot if you give it a vinegar dip first and then dry it off allowing for a better grip without having to put too much pressure on it.

 

 

I jumped the gun a bit and ended up ordering two more RW-4s before I managed to get it fixed so I'll at least get a nice upgrade in my water circulation. One will go into my sump where I have almost all of my SPS frags and it will replace the cheap powerhead I have in there that's always on and provides no wave motion or anything like that. The other will go in my display so I'll have one powerhead on each side of the tank allowing for a more even flow.

[jamescstein]

That rubber piece is a bushing that absorbs vibrations from the spinning impeller. There is one on the inside of the motor as well.

Most other power heads I've seen the impeller spins on the shaft. I am not 100% on the RW's. I have a dead one that I'll look at when I get home.

Assuming it's supposed to spin on the shaft, you have a problem and will eventually damage the cage and the housing and likely the shaft. Not to mention I suspect your RW is now noisy as hell.

[VW_TDI_02]

 

That rubber piece is a bushing that absorbs vibrations from the spinning impeller. There is one on the inside of the motor as well.

Most other power heads I've seen the impeller spins on the shaft. I am not 100% on the RW's. I have a dead one that I'll look at when I get home.

Assuming it's supposed to spin on the shaft, you have a problem and will eventually damage the cage and the housing and likely the shaft. Not to mention I suspect your RW is now noisy as hell.

 

It's actually dead silent still. The shaft is attached to the magnet so it's the whole thing spinning. I'm still getting some issues though. It appears to randomly turn off and stop spinning and I have to knock it a bit for it to start up again. I'm going to pull it out again because I really don't want it to short out the tank and electrocute everything. I guess I'm glad I just bought two. I'm going to try and figure out how to get the thing completely taken apart and see if there are any loose connections in there and hopefully get it working again.

[jamescstein]

As I suspected... the impeller does indeed spin on the shaft. I'd recommend taking the impeller out of the powerhead apart and soaking it in vinegar for a bit and try to work that shaft free and soak it more after you get it out of the impeller.

 

 

Now if I could figure out why this one stopped running.. impeller spins easily, controller drives other rw-4 fine.

[VW_TDI_02]

Oh wow, I didn't realize they came apart. I had the whole thing soaking over night in vinegar but I didn't take it apart first. I'm just worried that it may be shorting out.

[VW_TDI_02]

So I finally got the impeller apart. The center shaft was definitely jammed in there and the impeller couldn't rotate at all. After about 10 hours in vinegar, I was finally able to remove the shaft. After that I let them both sit in the vinegar for an extra couple of hours just to make sure that the inside of the impeller and the shaft were both clean. I just put them back together and it rotates incredibly well. I put everything together and it is working fine for now. I just plugged everything back in and I'm just waiting to see if it turns off again or if it continues to work well. I have two RW-4s that are supposed to arrive tomorrow, lol. I did want to add a second one for the display tank. 30" tanks tend to be a bit tough because of the length. This way I can turn it down on one end and get a nice even flow on both sides. I can also set them up as master/slave so it should work really well. The second new RW-4 will go in my sump. I'm getting a bit of detritus build up on the SPS frags because the current power head is a really cheap one that is always on.

[jamescstein]

Incidentally, in case you were curious. The RW-8 impeller does not rotate on the shaft. There are ceramic bushings on the motor and the cage for the shaft to spin in.

 

Had to clean my wifes. She likes to feed chaeto to her tangs and a ball of it got sucked into her RW-8 and jammed it up.

[VW_TDI_02]

That's good to hear. I have a couple of cheap powerheads that were having issues. I may take them apart and see if they rotate around the shaft as well.