Eheim 2028 pro II problems

[hogan]

Ok so i hooked my new Eheim up and well everything is going smoothly for the first hour, primed it and such. It was making a bit more noise than I thought it should but figured it was just working the air out. However, after an hour or so its making a ton of noise. I go to check it out and in doing so it just shuts off. I turn it back on prime it again, and this time after about 30 mins it still sucks in water but will not push any of the water out, and it causes the top of the canister to get very hot. I have no idea whats going on. I tried to re-lube the canister o-ring thing they tell you to do in the manuel. THis worked for a little but then it just stopped pushing air or water out. whats up with this anyone know?

[TankWatcher]

Are you sure it is primed properly. If it is sucking in water & the cannister & hoses are full, then just the effect of the cannister being continually re-filled from the sucked in water should push water up & out the hose. So if it's not doing that, I suspect it's not primed properly. I find my 2028, sometimes the self priming thing doesn't work as well as it should, so I have had to resort to sucking on the outlet tube.

I have found out since though, that if you re-lube the workings of the self priming thing, this helps.

For a filter to be primed, the cannister must be full of water and both hoses should also be full. Is this the case with yours?

[hogan]

no not the case as of right now. the outlet tube is not filled. But it has to be a primeing problem. The thing i dont get is both tubes and canister will b filled. Then outta no where the outlet will drain out and it will just stop

[TankWatcher]

Mine will not work unless both hoses are filled. I believe that's part of the priming process.

I don't know why, when both tubes and cannister are filled, that yours stops :confused:

If you can get the cannister filled again, making sure to fill both tubes completly (or almost completely), switch it on, & as soon as it starts running again pump down on the self primer a couple of times. That has sometimes helped kick start mine.

If all these don't work, then I am stumped. Hope you get it started.

I hope you have some other eheim experts pop in, as these are the only things I've needed to try (so far).

[FLGirl1977]

I have two Pro II 2028's and don't have problems with either of them. When you're priming it, you need to keep pushing down on the primer until you see bubbles coming out of the outputs (and inputs).. and then keep going until you start hearing the 'swishing' sound of water... then just push down a couple more times until you don't have anymore bubbles come out. Turn it on then and that should solve the problem... It sounds like you didn't get all of the air out before turning it on. HTH...

I just read that you said the top was hot.... :( Hopefully there wasn't too much air in there and having it run for an hour might be burning the motor up. :( Maybe someone else can chime in...

[haydns]

The approach explained in the following thread worked for me

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199007

[KDodds]

Agreed, too much air in the canister, sounds like. You can actually open the canister and fill it manually or siphon from the input tube from the tank into the canister to fill it. Then fill the output tube. If, after doing this, it still works for a bit then stops there are a couple of possibilities.

First, the unit is not sealed completely and rather than dripping, it's sucking in air. After the unit stops pushin water back into the tank, this should be evident by leakage or by there being air in the canister. Note that air should not enter a correctly sealed system, turning the unit off should result only in siphon and back siphon to the canister. Now, "sealing" may not only be the canister. Some of the hardware "elbows" that come with some Eheim models have fill caps. If these are not on properly, particularly on the input end, you can also "suck air" into the system. And, obviously, airstone below intakes are a bad idea. ;) Second, there is a problem with the motor and/or impeller. It's possible the unit is faulty, of course, but most of the time when I've seen this (having taken in my share of "broken" filters) it is because the canister is overfilled. It should not happen, I guess, but if the canister is overfilled with media to the point where the baskets do not slip nicely and to their full depth on top of one another, physical pressure is place on the intake portion of the motor and, for whatever reason, it stops working properly and does what you describe. My guess is back pressure due to a compressed top pad or, if that pad is removed, clogging/damage to the motor/impeller.

HTH

[FLGirl1977]

Never thought of that KDodds, that's a great explanation as well. :)

[hogan]

wow thanks for all the help, so this morning i just emptied and refilled everything manually. It was working for 30-45mins before work and when I left it was going strong. Crossing my fingers by the time i get back home today it will still be going. Thanks for the help, if this works who really knows what was the problem since i have manually refilled it once before and let it "self" prime once as well. Oh well, thanks again

[TankWatcher]

Glad problem is solved. My final suggestion was going to be if the hoses were around the wrong way. I only just remembered, that I did that once & the filter made a lot of noise, but didn't suck in anything. The motor got hot too, because it was running dry.

I have 5 of these filters & my experience is once they are going strong, they don't stop. As you get more used to them, priming becomes easier too.

[hogan]

im sure it was more of me than anything, with about 10% of the filter having trouble primeing. however, its going well now. Thanks for the help guys.