salamander pump air lock

rupertwalshe · Feb 7, 2015

Hi

6 months ago we had out main hot water tank moved to a ground floor location and a new salamander negative head pressure pump (ESP 120 CPV) installed to pump hot water to the whole house.

This has been excellent until Friday when it gurgled a bit and stopped working. It has a red light on option 2 stating it has water starvation/ aeration. I thought this might just be a glitch so turned the pump off and back on. The pump then turns on and goes through its test procedure and during that time the water flows really well. However after a minute the pump just turns off and when we turn the hot tap on it does not activate.

I have subsequently today uncoupled the pump and checked all the pipes for an air lock and then put the pump back and this has had no affect. I assume now that there must be an air lock in the pump itself?

Any thoughts would be welcome before my wife sends me out to live with the dog.

Neil K · Feb 7, 2015

You sure you checked the pipes for airlock properly? Also did you check and see what caused the pump to airlock in the first place ie. being starved of water

rupertwalshe · Feb 8, 2015

Hi yes I believe that I did - sent the mains cold through the system. I have no idea what caused the airlock in the first place. As I said it has been working perfectly for 6 months. Can an airlock be within the pump itself? Or maybe the pump just has an activation fault?

Neil K · Feb 8, 2015

Check how fast the cold water tank is filling. Ie. Check the ballvalve. Turn off the water goin into the pump (turn off the power to it first). Disconnect water supply to pump, open it up into a bucket or something and clear the airlock. Turn off again and reconnect to pump. Make sure all taps etc are open. Turn valve back on, wait till water coming out of all the taps. Turn power back on. Bobs your uncle