Hello, I'm the new one

Ok, enough about myself, I've got a little question...

I'm restoring an old NS Personal 1 with Rotary Pump, well no problem so far but the pump is squeaky...
I've unmounted the pump and tried to spin it, on half way its getting tighter and starts squeaking but you can spin it all the way.

Now the question, is it possible to "fix" this in any (easy) way? This thing does not look like it could (or should) be opened?!

Thx alot in advance

Nightstalker wrote:Now the question, is it possible to "fix" this in any (easy) way? This thing does not look like it could (or should) be opened?!

I posed your question to a friendly repair technician who prefers to remain anonymous. According to him, if it is squeaking and difficult to rotate, the pump is going to fail soon. He said they send pumps out in bulk for repairs because the pumps require special tools to reassemble. The refurbished pumps come back "good as new." In the case of a single pump, replacement may be the easiest (albeit not least cost) option.

HB wrote:I posed your question to a friendly repair technician who prefers to remain anonymous. According to him, if it is squeaking and difficult to rotate, the pump is going to fail soon. He said they send pumps out in bulk for repairs because the pumps require special tools to reassemble. The refurbished pumps come back "good as new." In the case of a single pump, replacement may be the easiest (albeit not least cost) option.

well, that sounds a bit bad to me. simply replacing it is not the cheapest way. I'm not sure if it is really difficult to rotate, it just felt like it was... i will check this out later.
First i guess the easiest and cheapest thing to do will be to clean it in descaler trying to get out the dirt, if it still squeaks after cleaning i guess... yeah umh replacing will be the only way.

can you (or the technician) tell me WHY these pumps cannot be repaired "at home" ? I remember there are some parts that needs to be pressed in?! Maybe i can get access to the necessary equipment to do that...?

The pumps first squeak, then often start leaking around the bearings. The squeak turns into seizing which causes the brew pressure needle (if you have a gauge) to flutter. Often this places a lot of extra strain on the very powerful (and very expensive) motor. Replacing the pump is easy and cheap, they are only about £40, replacing a motor is much more expensive at around £200

Rebuilding is difficult, because the pumps run under high pressure, bearings are drifted in under heat and so many bit's need replacing that for you, it's cheaper to buy a new one. The manufacturers generally only use the brass body and scrap everything else!

What kind of pump is it? Procon or Fluid-O-Tech? Rebuild costs (even for the individual) are pretty inexpensive.

A pump can take many other components with it when it goes, according to a repair guy I talked to. One of several things that can happen is burn out the board which can cost several times more than a cheap rotary pump, yes it's all relative. To me a pump is a disposable piece of the equipment compared to the rest of the electronics that can add up if the pump decides to meet its maker. I actually heard one other pump squeak from a 2 month old machine.

I think Procon is actually owned by some other pump manufacturer now, this could be just a rumor, the same anonymous repair guy told me this.

Nightstalker wrote:can you (or the technician) tell me WHY these pumps cannot be repaired "at home" ? I remember there are some parts that needs to be pressed in?! Maybe i can get access to the necessary equipment to do that...?

The vanes of the pump are flat pieces that feel like ceramic material and slide into a slot (PDF diagram). When the motor turns, centrifugal force makes them slide out and act as fins to propel the water. According to said anonymous repair tech, without the tool to hold all the replacement fins in place, it's very difficult to assemble it properly. Plus what an individual would pay for the necessary replacement parts versus the whole unit is not that great. However, the extra savings and reduced use of pricey repair tech time are worth the trouble if your business is maintaining many commercial units.

Out of curiosity, I contacted Procon Pumps.... they do not rebuild pumps but refer those services to Edco Distributing in Sacramento, California, 1-800-559-0415. (Note - Edco does not have a functioning website per my phone conversation, so contact them directly to make proper arrangements.)

A Series 1 pump rebuild is $45, a Series 2 is $40. If a new rotary is required that is an additional $15. I gathered that shipping was additional and perhaps varied on location. That seems pretty fair to me. IIRC, PaulTheRoaster posted on CG that Fluid-O-Tech offers the same services directly, also around the $50 price point.

EDIT - I now see the OP is in Europe, so not too helpful to him, oops!

EDIT2 - Also to be clear, you must send in your pumphead... this is the cost of rebuilding YOUR pump, not the cost of a rebuilt pump. Unfortunately, I don't think they offer a "core charge" type service.

You can also get a used motor + pump inexpensively by buying a used carbonator on ebay. They seem to always include a 150-250 psi pump, but they adjust to 130 psi/9 bar without any problems. But sending in yours for a rebuild might be less trouble.

Hello guys!

Yesterday I unmounted the pump, took everything (the easy parts) apart and put it a few minutes in industrial descaler.
Rotating the rotor spits out some black stuff and the squeaking disappeared !?
Maybe there was just a bit dirt or scale inside that causes the squeaking?

Another question, when I rotate the rotor, there are 2 points where it becomes a bit more difficult to spin, is that normal or should the rotor spin easy all the way? (Sorry that's my 1st rotary...)

uh ah I don't know what brand this thing is, there's just a red label on the front saying "it is a rotary pump" and in the middle, where maybe the brand name is printed, there is a white service sticker telling me the last service is a few years ago


May the pump be with me