Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Ecoplus parts?

I dragged out the aerator, hooked it all up, and put it in the pond and got nothing. I tried it on land and had (what I thought) was good air movement.
So I pulled it all back out and made sure all was well with the line and diffusers.
I found that one of the diaphragms is shot in my Ecoplus pump. I cannot find anything on this pump telling me what model it is. It is a commercial model and I bought it 2-3 years ago. I didn't use it last year since I was doing the pond renovation and it dried out.
Anyone have a clue how I can find out the model? I found a place that has repair kits but I might just cut my own piece and see if that will work.

Diffused Sean

The pumps are made in China. I was told they did not provide rebuild kits. Where did you find the repair kits?. Several members here will want to know that for their pump rebuilds. If you use these pumps where they are at, near, or above their maximmum psi rating it will shorten the pump's life span because they are working at their maximum ability. Similar to if you you drove your car at 100mph all the time. I assume that if the pump operated in hot sunshine it would also shorten the life of the rubber diaphragm tending to overheat it and dry it out. You might be able to figure out the model number by the length of the pump compared to the specs of other advertised models or by how deep it was able to blow out air. Each of the EcoPlus pump models 1,3,5,7 has a higher psi rating and larger body size. One half the depth it was operating was real close to the psi of the pump. My guess is you have a EcoPlus commercial model 7 with 5psi rating, 11.5" long for pond use 6-9ft deep. The place that provided the rebuild kits may be able to help with the model number.

Bill......Here is a link to the repair kits:
http://www.aquasythe.com/Products/Repair-Kits-for-Whitewater-Linear-Air-Pumps__AE-LTRK.aspx

But I did a bit more looking and found this on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-AxSfvh3Ys

I cut up a rubber glove and it works like new.

sean

Buzzworth - Great links. Thanks from many of us. The Youtube video will be helpful for many users with this pump.

The diaphragm on mine was pretty thin and the rubber glove was just pliable enough to use. The old one was as dry as the bed in Lake Mojave.
It looks like this will need to be done regularly.
I didn't take the back off the pump (as they did in the video) and all of the vitals were accessible from the front. If you do pull the shaft out, watch that the ball doesn't fall out.

Well.....the rubber glove deteriorated in about a month so it was back to the drawing board.
I found a rubber coated cotton glove and cut the diaphragm from that. It is heavier and I thought it might be too stiff to use.
It seems to be working even better than the other one. We'll see how well this holds up.
I have a Powerhouse surface aerator I'm selling. If anyone is close by and is interested, I will let a member have it for $500.
http://louisville.craigslist.org/grd/3784542598.html

sean

Nice work Buzz, sorry to hear your having trouble with your Eco 7. I have not had that issue yet but I am sure it is just a matter of time if you use a pump enough it's gonna happen. This is my 4th year with mine and no problems as of yet. Thanks for the youtube link that's awesome!!

RC

Has anyone measured the actual thickness of the original diaphragm of an Eco7 pump? Would rubber roofing material or EDPM pond liner work?

We had a request from a customer to re-design a license plate holder that wouldn't bend or break in cold weather for the truck bodies. It seems that the holder would bend and break off in snow banks when they'd park the trucks for the night in the lot. The plates were disappearing from the trucks and they couldn't figure out why until the snow melted in the Spring. I did some research and found that http://www.mcmaster.com/# had different durometer "rubber", different thicknesses and some had fabric impregnated in the material. After some long term testing (we had most of the summer to test) I found a sample that would hold up to over a million bending cycles without any signs of failure. It was thicker than what would work in your application, but I'm sure that they have something that would do what you want. Sean, be up to you to figure out what thickness and durometer that would be.