Advice needed - Water pump won't calibrate.

[StuartWard]

I've been trying to solve this problem for about a week now.

I have two Liquid Logic water pumps (one is a V11 and the other a V16) which have worked fine for the last year or so. They accasionally get the odd air bubble but other than that they haven't caused me any problems. Last week I found that the V11 stopped working. I usually work with the pressure at 60, and at first I thought it just had an air bubble. I could get it to flow fine until I connected it to my pole at which point the water would come out in a trickle, if at all. I tried to autocalibrate it, which set the calibration to C1. I've tried to manually calibrate it, attempting to set it to anywhere between C35 and 45 with no success. I've also tried to calibrate with my pole fully extended which hasn't worked either. Today the same thing started happening to my V16 and now neither of them are working. The wiring all appears to be properly connected and the battery I use to power the pumps is fully charged. 

Has anyone had a similar problem?

 

[Pjj]

Sounds like  a question for @spruce and  @Ian Sheppard 

 

[Ian Sheppard]

I've been trying to solve this problem for about a week now.

I have two Liquid Logic water pumps (one is a V11 and the other a V16) which have worked fine for the last year or so. They accasionally get the odd air bubble but other than that they haven't caused me any problems. Last week I found that the V11 stopped working. I usually work with the pressure at 60, and at first I thought it just had an air bubble. I could get it to flow fine until I connected it to my pole at which point the water would come out in a trickle, if at all. I tried to autocalibrate it, which set the calibration to C1. I've tried to manually calibrate it, attempting to set it to anywhere between C35 and 45 with no success. I've also tried to calibrate with my pole fully extended which hasn't worked either. Today the same thing started happening to my V16 and now neither of them are working. The wiring all appears to be properly connected and the battery I use to power the pumps is fully charged. 

Has anyone had a similar problem?

Hi Stuart.

Air in the system as mentioned could cause the controllers to auto calibrate very low. The reason is the pump is only driving air and drawing very little current. Then when flow rate is increased the low calibration value will cause the controller to dead end.

Can I ask when calibration is manually set what message is displayed on the controller

2nd Check all the hose connections are tight and not letting air in to the hose/pump. If you have a Pole valve is this fully opening.

3. Are there any kinks or twists in the hose. Has the tank been run dry ) below the tank outlet recently.

With a flow rate of 60 Calibration would probably need to be between 45 and 50. Please set the calibration on both to this. Ensure all the valves are open. Do the pump run ? if no what message is shown

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 7446]

I've been trying to solve this problem for about a week now.

I have two Liquid Logic water pumps (one is a V11 and the other a V16) which have worked fine for the last year or so. They accasionally get the odd air bubble but other than that they haven't caused me any problems. Last week I found that the V11 stopped working. I usually work with the pressure at 60, and at first I thought it just had an air bubble. I could get it to flow fine until I connected it to my pole at which point the water would come out in a trickle, if at all. I tried to autocalibrate it, which set the calibration to C1. I've tried to manually calibrate it, attempting to set it to anywhere between C35 and 45 with no success. I've also tried to calibrate with my pole fully extended which hasn't worked either. Today the same thing started happening to my V16 and now neither of them are working. The wiring all appears to be properly connected and the battery I use to power the pumps is fully charged. 

Has anyone had a similar problem?

I would say air lock. I've not used my van system for a while due to working on other projects and mine would not work as normal until I disconnected my hose reel and ran the pump flat out at 99 for around 4 mins until the flow of water was normal. I reconnected my reel and continued to calibrate with no further issues 

 

[Pjj]

Hi Stuart.

Air in the system as mentioned could cause the controllers to auto calibrate very low. The reason is the pump is only driving air and drawing very little current. Then when flow rate is increased the low calibration value will cause the controller to dead end.

Can I ask when calibration is manually set what message is displayed on the controller

2nd Check all the hose connections are tight and not letting air in to the hose/pump. If you have a Pole valve is this fully opening.

3. Are there any kinks or twists in the hose. Has the tank been run dry ) below the tank outlet recently.

With a flow rate of 60 Calibration would probably need to be between 45 and 50. Please set the calibration on both to this. Ensure all the valves are open. Do the pump run ? if no what message is shown

Cheers

Hi Ian this is interesting we run our controllers on 64 flow rate when I auto calibrate it’s going to around 31-35 I haven’t altered it manually and it works fine are you saying that the calibration is to low ?? I calibrate with cold water but we work with hot , controllers are V11 

 

[Ian Sheppard]

Hi Ian this is interesting we run our controllers on 64 flow rate when I auto calibrate it’s going to around 31-35 I haven’t altered it manually and it works fine are you saying that the calibration is to low ?? I calibrate with cold water but we work with hot , controllers are V11 

Hi Pjj

To be honest every system will calibrate differently, The ideal is to have the lowest possible calibration value for flow rate as this mean the controller responds to dead end relative quickly and restarts relatively quickly on the tap opening. A hot water system is likely lo have a lower cal value than a cold water system this is due to the hose expansion. Warm water will see the hose wall being softer and expand more compared to a cold hose wall that is stiffer and does not expand as much. With the second the pump will need to work a little harder and this would see a higher cal value.

The controller is very flexible and covers a wide range of pumps, hose, brush jets and temperatures, different flow rates all which will affect water flow and how hard the pump has to work and in turn impact on the calibration value. Running auto cal at your preferred flow rate will give the most accurate cal value. Sound to me as you have found the sweet spot for your set up.

In my reply to Stuart his controller was auto calibrating to a value of 1 which to me suggested a lot of air in the system. In that instance the pump motor is under almost no load and draws very little current. In a nutshell the controller responds to this low current draw by giving a very low Cal value C1. With water in the system and the pump under normal load  and the pump drawing say 3 amps at a flow rate of 40, Calibration on the controller would range from C20 to C30

Cheers

 

[Pjj]

Hi Pjj

To be honest every system will calibrate differently, The ideal is to have the lowest possible calibration value for flow rate as this mean the controller responds to dead end relative quickly and restarts relatively quickly on the tap opening. A hot water system is likely lo have a lower cal value than a cold water system this is due to the hose expansion. Warm water will see the hose wall being softer and expand more compared to a cold hose wall that is stiffer and does not expand as much. With the second the pump will need to work a little harder and this would see a higher cal value.

The controller is very flexible and covers a wide range of pumps, hose, brush jets and temperatures, different flow rates all which will affect water flow and how hard the pump has to work and in turn impact on the calibration value. Running auto cal at your preferred flow rate will give the most accurate cal value. Sound to me as you have found the sweet spot for your set up.

In my reply to Stuart his controller was auto calibrating to a value of 1 which to me suggested a lot of air in the system. In that instance the pump motor is under almost no load and draws very little current. In a nutshell the controller responds to this low current draw by giving a very low Cal value C1. With water in the system and the pump under normal load  and the pump drawing say 3 amps at a flow rate of 40, Calibration on the controller would range from C20 to C30

Cheers

Thanks Ian I know how to set it up with calibration but didn’t really understand how it all works thank for the explanation ?

 

[Ian Sheppard]

Thanks Ian I know how to set it up with calibration but didn’t really understand how it all works thank for the explanation ?

? you are very welcome. The forums is a good way to provide support and demystify controllers

 

[ched999uk]

Ian is the controller man no question but reading your post I wonder if there is something wrong with your pole setup. i.e. is a jet blocked, hose squashed, univalve broken. i.e. when you say you had a fault with the V11 controller and couldn't find out why, then you started using the V16 controller and are now suffering the same issues.

So what are the common components? Look at the common components to see if everything is OK, don't assume - test.

 

[Stevieboy]

Ian is the controller man no question but reading your post I wonder if there is something wrong with your pole setup. i.e. is a jet blocked, hose squashed, univalve broken. i.e. when you say you had a fault with the V11 controller and couldn't find out why, then you started using the V16 controller and are now suffering the same issues.

So what are the common components? Look at the common components to see if everything is OK, don't assume - test.

Yes. He did mention it flowing ok until he connected his pole. Try another pole would be my first obvious test.