Eh...irony....humour...?.... Better get back to my whisky: my point was that the fellow said straight out he wasn't very experienced, just thought it was a humourous way to point out the obvious. What's the matter Kevplumb, has the PCB engineer in Indonesia got your goat up?
Did anyone tell him to turn the elec to the pump off? Na don't bother, with the Myson pumps you can undo the hex nut by hand and watch a cartwheel of water streak across the room. The colour of the stain on the magnolia will tell you the condition of the water in the primary circuit.