Any ideas why my shower pump went a bit mental??

[numpty with a crowbar]

Morning folks,
Finally got my new shower pump fitted (salamander CT55 single impeller jobbie), and the better half is happy at ebing able to have a shower (system is a gravity fed h/w cylinder & boiler affair - previously raising the c/w tank into the roof had a negligible effect on shower pressure - hence the pump).

All has been well for a week or so, then the shower started making clicking noises when it pumped water; which culminated last night in it running full bore (with the taps closed and no water flowing) until I cut the power. I re-set the power and the pump kicked off again. Ran the water with the pump off in case it was a air-lock in the pump and it was trying to clear it with no joy. Ended up dismantling the thing and manually re-priming the pump and re-connecting it.

Touch wood this seems to have solved the problem of it running on it's own, and the clicking problem, so I'm starting to think it was caused by an airlock. Question is how can I stop it happening again? Forgive my naivety but seeing as the only place (as far as I'm aware) that air can realistically enter the system is at the Tee where the HW pipe drops away to the taps and the pipe goes up to loop back to the CW cylinder for expansion, is there any kind of valve I can fit there?? Kind of like a single check valve but for air not water?
Or am I missing something? Or indeed am I goosed?

 

[johnb80]

Very likely air in the system - the pump runs the air gets compressed, eventually it can go no further. The water flow stops, the pump switches off and the water goes back to the tank and the whole process is repeated. Try running the pump and the shower with the shower head removed to get loads of water flow through and see if any air comes out.

Regards - JB

 

[ChrisR]

It won't "run until you cut the power" with the taps off, on air. It needs flow to switch on. Sounds more like a dodgy flow switch to me.

If you had air in with the water you'd get symptoms at the shower.

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

Sounds more like a dodgy flow switch to me.

Curses - was worried someone would say that. Was keeping my fingers crossed it was the pump detecting an air bubble in the pump and pumping to expell it / thinking it need priming thus pumping....

Oh well - if it plays up again I'll be on the phone to salamander grumping - thanks for the advice

 

[jono_h]

I had exactly the same problem with my salamander pump. I found that small bits of plastic (from where I had cut the holes in a new cold water tank) and been sucked into the pump and were jamming the flow swicth in the 'on' position.

Obviously this shouldn't have happened as I should have fitted the inlet filters, but I hadn't because (insert poor excuse here)....

 

[Nige F]

A. "you`re not a plumber"?

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

Well the whole thing went totally t1ts up last night: - the better half had a shower, and the pump refused to cut out. I switched the power off to the pump, disconnected it, checked for air locks etc, re-primed and re-connected. D*mn thing won't pump at all now Typical

Time to ring up salamander and grump

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

Well, after 24 hours I can say that the Salamander helpline does exactly what it says on the tin. Got an initial call back from an engineer, who recommended trying to invert the pump first (I kid you not - far too close to the magic re-boot of PC's in my opinion but hey ) in case the flow switch was jammed. When this didn't work I called back and the same lad contacted me yesterday evening to move things forward.
Upshot is that they're send a replacement out today - pretty d*mn perfect service all in all.... Now why can't all service be like that??

 

[johnny_t]

Not sure if this is going to be relevant, but I had something similar. One of my input filters had disintegrated and the little bits of metal mesh had got through to the ball bearing in the flow switch, causing it to not drop back down once flow had stopped. Solved it taking the shower head off and letting everything come through full force until the problem eventually seemed to clear itself.

Your new flow switch is possibly just going to be the reed switch part.

 

[Vladimir1720]

Hey all.
I've got some similar issues with my Salamander CT55 single impeller pump.
It was installed 2years and 4 months ago. It's been running perfectly ever since, really (except one time when it wouldn't shut off and I had to switch off the power for a few hours, when I'd plugged it back in, it worked fine).

Tonight it started off doing the same thing, it was running without a tap being on. We were getting annoyed with it, and I'd switched it off at the wall. The OH wanted a shower, so I told her I'd turn on the pump and she can go ahead. Turned on the pump - and again it ran without a tap being on. Then she turned on the shower, it ran as always for about a minute, then it stopped and I can't do anything to turn it back on. What I've tried so far was to run the taps to try and clear air bubbles.

She said she wants it back on asap, and my backup plan is to go to screwfix tomorrow and get a replacement CT55. I assume that 2 years later, Salamander won't cover it under any sort of warranty?
Before I do that, I hope that you guys might help me to troubleshoot it.
I've read this thread, and I can see that the OP talks about repriming it. Can someone explain please, what this entails? Explain it to me like I'm 5 years old!

Any and all ideas are welcome.

 

[Vladimir1720]

Update on the pump situation:
I turned on the tap and shower in the bathroom to try and force out any possible air bubbles.
The pump has now changed from being off to switching for 1-5 seconds, then off for 10-20, then the cycle repeats.
Any ideas?
It does appear to be that on/off switch that detects flow that is going nuts, but what can I do about this?
Cheers
Vlad

 

[Vladimir1720]

For those that are interested here are a few things I found out about salamander pumps:
1. if you ring them up after you buy the pump and register for pumpwise (or is it pumpsure, pumpclever?) - you get an extra year of warranty on the house. something that I unfortunately did NOT do back in 2012.
2. if you want to ring up salamander and talk to them about sales or technical issues, the number is 0191 516 2002
3. when you do speak to their technical department, the first thing they ask you to do is the "upside down test" which is exactly as it says on the tin. It might be worth knowing that to save yourself a phonecall, i.e. do the "upside down test" before you call them.

So that's a bit of advice for anyone that has issues with salamander pumps.
I did do the upside down test and the pump would turn on, then off, then on, then off, etc, and the guy on the phone said that it needs replacing.

I do like salamander pumps, my Salamander CT55+ lasted 2 years and 4 months, which isn't too bad. I am replacing the CT55+ with a CT55+ Xtra - mainly because screwfix had the xtra in stock, whilst I would have had to wait fro the CT55+

I'm picking it up later today.