# Eheim Guru's Help!



## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

I have a Eheim 2217 with a modified intank hose (wider diameter to suck more water out of the tank). It has been running perfectly fine for the past year. Over the weekend, there was a power outage so the Eheim of course stopped working (it's not fried, the flow of water just stopped).

I've spent an hour last night and it won't suck the water like it should. I don't have the Eheim starter device so what I used to do is....

1. fill up the canister with water
2. stop flow of pressure hose and fill up both pressure & intake hoses with water
3. power it on
4. allow flow of pressure hose

What happens is, water does flow for a few seconds then stops... there doesn't seem to be enough water being pump out of the tank into the canister. So my question is, how do you guys start water flow with your Eheim's?

I tried sucking the water to start the flow but i drank a bit... so I don't wanna keep sucking. LOL. That doesn't sound good. But you get the picture...


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

urabus said:


> I have a Eheim 2217 with a modified intank hose (wider diameter to suck more water out of the tank). It has been running perfectly fine for the past year. Over the weekend, there was a power outage so the Eheim of course stopped working (it's not fried, the flow of water just stopped).
> 
> I've spent an hour last night and it won't suck the water like it should. I don't have the Eheim starter device so what I used to do is....
> 
> ...


I'm not a Eheim guru but what I do to fill my Eheims after cleaning them is to :

1) make sure the canister is empty 
2) hook the tap connectors back up 
3) open the output side connectors
4) open the input side connectors, the water should start flowing into the canister and replacing the air and expelling it out.
5) plug the filter into the outlet and away you go! No sucking! No fish waste in your mouth! 
(This is in the Eheim manual that comes with the filter)


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

Here's a snippet of the instructions from Eheim.com itself:

_Starting up: With the EHEIM suction device (order no. 400354) or by sucking by mouth, suck the water on the pressure side above the edge of the tank. This will start a siphon. When canister is completely full of water connect pressure hose to outlet pipe and switch on filter by plugging in power plug. After a short while there will be a full flow of water through the hose without any air bubbles. (Be aware that the vibrating noise in the pump, occurring for the first seconds of operation, is normal)._

I just went to my local hardware store and bought a suck pump.. ones that are normally used to suck gas out of snow blowers/lawn mowers. 

So I used that to start the siphoning process and quickly attached the hose to the outlet hose. After 30 secs or so after water flow, the siphoning seem to have stopped. I'm clueless now. The inlet pipe and hose is not clogged... So my question is... what's going on? Water flows in then out for half a minute then the rate in suction slows to a halt.

???


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

If everything is empty....hoses and all...then I hook up the filter and hoses and just suck on the output hose to get the water flowing through the imput hose. Once the flow starts it will fill up the filter and then you just start it up. If I do a cleaning I use the quickconnects, leaving water in the hoses which will keep the syphon and do exactly as stated above. Hook up the intake hose and then release the quick connect to allow the flow of water. Once the filter is full I stop the flow with the quickconnect, hook up the output hose, open both hoses and fire it up. Never had a problem and 3 of my eheims are over 4+ years old.

Sounds like your filter is either clogged or maybe something is in the impeller.


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> Sounds like your filter is either clogged or maybe something is in the impeller.


Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check the filter & impeller tonight! The water is getting green!


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

urabus said:


> Here's a snippet of the instructions from Eheim.com itself:
> 
> _Starting up: With the EHEIM suction device (order no. 400354) or by sucking by mouth, suck the water on the pressure side above the edge of the tank. This will start a siphon. When canister is completely full of water connect pressure hose to outlet pipe and switch on filter by plugging in power plug. After a short while there will be a full flow of water through the hose without any air bubbles. (Be aware that the vibrating noise in the pump, occurring for the first seconds of operation, is normal)._
> 
> ...


Here's something from the manual from the Eheim 2217 that I have ... under section H where it says important 
View attachment 85380


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

Thanks Red Eyes. I gave the following a shot as per the instructions but still failed.

- closed the suction hose with water contained
- emptied the tank and pressure hose
- opened the suction hose so it will start the siphon process
- when the filter was full of water, plugged to outlet

This startup process was successful in that water flowed in and out freely for approx 10 seconds... then i noticed less water was being sucked out of the tank and then nothing at all. Upon failure, during this process, I did see air flow up the suction hose, which should NOT happen. What is going on here? I have taken apart the entire setup, cleaned it and make sure the impeller wasn't broken. All is good. This is very fustrating. I've spent the entire nite trying to get this to work.. all I have as a result is a soaked floor and me smelling like fish water.

I'm about to give up and try another eheim. I don't think any parts are broken b/c all that has changed is a power interruption.


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

I'm starting to think there is something wrong with my impeller or pump service. When I test the suction alone it works fine. For example, I use a pump to start the siphoning straight into a bucket (by-passing the filter). Result is as expected.. water continually flows out of the tank into the bucket. Then I tried reversing the process, to test the flow of the pressure hose.. I submerged the pressure hose into the tank and then detach it from the filter. Water flows out as expected.

So this leads me to think something is wrong with the pump/impeller. The question now is, how do I test it? When the filter is plugged into outlet, I do hear parts moving. I inspected inside the filter, and tehre are no broken parts. Earlier I mentioned that I got the filter to get water flowing normally for about 10 seconds.. then I think the pump is not pushing water up into the tank, causing a back flow of air/pressure and seizing.

ANy ideas?


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

urabus said:


> I'm starting to think there is something wrong with my impeller or pump service. When I test the suction alone it works fine. For example, I use a pump to start the siphoning straight into a bucket (by-passing the filter). Result is as expected.. water continually flows out of the tank into the bucket. Then I tried reversing the process, to test the flow of the pressure hose.. I submerged the pressure hose into the tank and then detach it from the filter. Water flows out as expected.
> 
> So this leads me to think something is wrong with the pump/impeller. The question now is, how do I test it? When the filter is plugged into outlet, I do hear parts moving. I inspected inside the filter, and tehre are no broken parts. Earlier I mentioned that I got the filter to get water flowing normally for about 10 seconds.. then I think the pump is not pushing water up into the tank, causing a back flow of air/pressure and seizing.
> 
> ANy ideas?


How old is your filter? Have you ever changed the impeller? Does the impeller spin freely? (white part) Have you checked the impeller shaft? (the part that the impeller sits on in the housing, it's made from ceramic so its can break/wear).


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

Red Eyes said:


> How old is your filter? Have you ever changed the impeller? Does the impeller spin freely? (white part) Have you checked the impeller shaft? (the part that the impeller sits on in the housing, it's made from ceramic so its can break/wear).


The filter is probably 2 years old? Never changed the impeller.. is that necessary? What is the average life span of the impeller? I'll check if the white part spins freely.. speaking of which.. how easily is it supposed to spin?

The shaft is intact.

Thanks again Red Eyes.


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## Red Eyes (Nov 25, 2003)

I've had (1) 2217's for over 10yrs and changed the impeller once, the other (2) are a couple of years old and are fine. I wonder if when the power went it , the water drained and so the filter was "dry" and trying to prime itself when the power came back on and damaging the motor. How long was the power out for? I know sometime the power here will go out for a minute (storms) and then come back on, I then check the filters to make sure they are working properly and aren't making any strange noises. I sometimes give them a little shake to get any air bubbles that are trapped in there (you would be surprised at how much air gets in there). Is there a store nearby where you can bring the filter in for them to trouble shoot for you?


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## urabus (Dec 28, 2004)

Lastest advancement. So I took apart the filter again, performing another cleanup. I noticed that for the impeller shaft, there is a black rubber hat (so to speak), one at either ends. What I found out is that one of the rubber hat is stuck to the motor end. I remember taking apart this before and when I took the impeller shaft out, I was able to hold onto both rubber hats. Now I'm only able to hold one. Could this be the problem? How does the impeller work with regards to the hat?

I did another experiment to test the impeller. Since the purpose of the impeller is to pump water up through the pressure hose, I purposely aimed the pressure hose downwards (below the filter or water line) so the pump would not be necessary once the siphoning process starts. BAM! Continuous flow of water. So I'm pretty sure it's the impeller that's not performing. So the question now is, what's the relation b/w the black rubber hats w/ the impeller shaft? Are they to spin as one? Maybe I can use crazy glue and make the shaft stay solidly into the hat? Or is the shaft supposed to spin freely in the hat? Any ideas?

Man, this is a pain.

Thanks Red Eyes for the help. I think we've narrowed it down pretty much. It's either the impeller itself or the shaft or both. I don't want to buy them all b/c frankly, the impeller costs $34 and shaft costs $10. I can buy a brand new one for another $100.


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

I just wanted to say thanks to all in the above posts for i was about to ask this question. I recently aquired an eheim 2213 and now i know how to get it started.

So i Apreciate it


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