Drainage problem

[Sanke]

Hi all
Was called to a customer today who had a problem with the alarm on his drain In his system he has a tank in the drive which collects & then pumps everything away His alarm was constantly on After lifting the cover the drain chamber was full to the brim & the pump wasn't pumping it away I put in a separate sub pump to clear the contents so that I could see what was going on The float for the proper pump had a load of what looked like fat stuck to it Removed this and put float etc back in chamber but when powered on the alarm still rang even though there wasn't any water in the chamber Have left alarm swicthed off but pump on auto to see what happens Anybody got experience of these or what might be wrong ??

 

[oldplumber]

its probably shorted out having been covered in the smelly stuff

 

[Sanke]

So a new float then ??

 

[adam121]

has the chamber only got 1 pump or does it have 2? and how many floats are in the chamber?

 

[tamz]

If it was a Klargester or similar it will have codes flash up indicating the fault.

All a bit high tec these days compared to throwing a dead sheep in a brick built tank

 

[Sanke]

The tank is much smaller than a klargester about 3 ft in dia & 7 ft deep Only one pump with one float

 

[Sanke]

Had a call from customer tonight Tank is full again Anybody ever taken the pump out ???

 

[Centralheatking]

Get some good gauntlets that go up to your elbows.

Ventilate the chamber well before disconnecting.

Charge enough time to go home and get changed after.

centralheatking

 

[Sanke]

How do I disconnect the pump ?

 

[adam121]

Sounds like the pump is blocked.
Normally the pumps are fitted on a duck foot at the bottom of the pit which pumps up a manifold and a rising main. Depending on the size of the pit there are normally guide rails which will guide the pump onto the duck foot,there should be a lifting chain on a hook at the top of the pit, use this to lift the pump out. If the pump is too heavy your going to need 2 people to lift the pump up the guide rails and out of the pit. Once the pump is out, look into the bowl at the bottom of the pump, check the impellers are clear, if they are not you may need to unscrew the bowl from the pump to clear the blockage. Operate the pump and check impellers are spinninng.Then carefully lower the pump down the guide rails and it should fit nicely back onto the duck foot.Check all float is clean and free from any obstuction and also might be worth checking the fuses inside the control panel.