Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, I did it and all 10 large air-stones are running off the one pump. Not quite as much coming out as before, but certainly adequate.

Pump still feels hot though !

Pumps unless they are aligned right will run hotter atm my pump is running quite cool just checked with the inferred temp gauge its 26 deg out side and the pump is 41 deg

Aligned ?? What do you mean Milne ?

My pump fell of the bench and it started running real hot was just about to chuck it and i thought better see what makes these things work i noticed the piston seemed to be binding on one side so on re assembly i made shore the piston moved freely in the bore it ran a lot better and still is though now its my standby unit

Ahh, OK. Yep - had the same issue as part of the diaphragm had broken off and melted on the outside of the piston. Was actually a significant effort to remove the piston once I had opened the housing whereas, as you know, it should just fall out.

Anyway, I wet/dry rubbed it and the housing until it ran pretty smoothly and then put a bit of powdered graphite on the relevant parts.

It's certainly not running as hot as it used to and is now touchable, but certainly running warm.

Well my guess of 3 months was for mine to last spot on. Internal diaphragm broke up and turned into a melted goo. Some time today it stalled the piston. Yesterday it was running fine with no noticeable drop in output.
Pump was so hot it turned spit to steam instantly so I am glad I had it on a non flammable surface...

Not sure If I want to try rebuilding it. 3rd time I have come home and found it stalled

What size air pump was it and how many air stones are you running

What model air pump was it...

I've run an ACO-008 12 outlet in the trout tank... non-stop for over 18 months... never missed a beat...

And I've run other similar smaller air pumps non-stop for even longer than that...

And they've never been excessively hot... or even that hot that you can't pick them up or burn your hand on them....

My aco does about 50 liters per min with 12 airstones.

Gets too hot to touch.

I think quality control is an issue with these things.

Might find a storefront to get my next one to be able to verify rather than online.

As rupt said

Hailea HJD-02 Airpump 40L/m.
It was super hot due to being stalled. No air flow through it to cool down.
10 12cm round air stones and 8 120cm air strips. All less than 600mm deep.
Couple of the airstrips only let out bubbles for about 50% unless I block some of the others.

It seems to be the "hailea" pumps that people consistantly complain about being noisey and/or hot....

I run hailea" pumps no problem