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Pump maintenance & pressure switch

Bwfc

Active member
Messages
351
Location
Dorset
Hiya everyone. Just asking you intelligent ones if pressure switch goes on my Gardiner pump does it still run? Will I notice effect? & Finally how often does it fail? My pump nearly a year old & want it to last as hate things going wrong.. thanks

 
Hiya everyone. Just asking you intelligent ones if pressure switch goes on my Gardiner pump does it still run? Will I notice effect? & Finally how often does it fail? My pump nearly a year old & want it to last as hate things going wrong.. thanks
A pressure switch is just a micro switch which activates or deactivates the pump. The most usual failure is that these contacts in the microswitch burn over time. It could go either way. Either the switch won't activate (the pump won't run) or the contacts fuse together (the pump will continue to run and won't switch off.)

We have had a Gardiner backpack for more than 4 years and used most working days when my son is with me. He prefers to use that than the hose reel. We haven't had an issue at all. I could order a charger, a battery, a replacement pump and controller, but I would just replace the whole backpack if it broke now. However, if this was my sole means of cleaning windows then I would probably order a second backpack just in case Gardiner's didn't have stock when I did need it.

Coming from a parts background I started off trying to keep a variety of spares. I have lots of parts that I will never use now. For example, the first part I ever broke was the Y connector on the brush head. I ordered a few in the post which took 3 or 4 days to arrive. I've never broken a Y connector again and now we don't use them. I've ordered numerous brass jets from Gardiners over the years, but now they use different jet cartridges so these will most probably never be used again.

 
I can't remember how the backpack pump is wired but normal ShurFlo pump's micro switch can be bypassed to get you to the end of the day as long as you have a controller with Dead End detection that is setup.
With the Spring and the then Varistream controllers you could actually leave the pressure switch disconnected.

Spring advise you to leave it in as a safeguard but Varistream advised to 'remove' it from the circuit. I bought a Shurfo 3.8 litre per minute pump from Williamson pumps around 2004 just before the first analogue Varistream was released. I burnt the pressure switch out within a couple of months.

Williamson pumps suggested the controller and that pump was used until the end of 2018 without a functioning PS. The pump is now a spare and is still fully functionable. It was replaced to match the other pump on the van - 5.2lpm.

 
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