I check the water when I backwash as I have to lift the drain cover and wash it away down there.
I do have a bottom drain, but the filter is on higher ground than the pond, giving me only 24" depth of water where the filter sits.
Will put the new filter on today, and while I'm at it I'll put in 13Kg of brand new beads. Then see what happens!
My skimmer runs through a Waterco (Aussie too!) multi vortex which should take out anything above 100 microns, but that's no good if the little bits are'nt coming up to skimmer level I guess!
Just to add a quick point on what Vippymini said on claiming when things fail.
I'm pleased that the manufacturer is helping out with bits, but the onus is on the retailer that sold you the filter to do the repair
Your contract is with the retailer that sold you the goods, not the manufacturer - any manufacturer's warranty is in ADDITION to your rights NOT instead of them. Too many retailers try to hide behind behind the manufacturer's warranty when they are responsible for resolving the problem.
To quote from the Which? web site
"When you buy goods you enter into a contract with the seller of those goods. Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 goods must be:
* 'as described',
* 'of satisfactory quality', and
* 'fit for purpose' – this means both their everyday purpose, and also any specific purpose that you agreed with the seller"
the 'of satisfactory quality' and 'fit for purpose' have implications for how long it should last.
It's an old post, I know..... But here's an update.
I got the replacement filter body in January and have been running it normally. Backwashing twice a week and all was fine. Until this morning that is, when the new filter body sprung a leak in the identical place to last time. As before it's a pin prick type hole that's spurting out water under pressure. And it can only get worse I suppose.
I'm just off out to buy some Araldite , then I'm going to rough up the surface a bit and put a good layer of it on top to see if I can stop it. If not then it'll be off to the manufacturer with £80 to get a third one. I can only assume that I'm letting the pressure build up too much, but how can that be when I'm backwashing twice a week? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.......... It's got a pressure gauge too that never shows any problems. The fact that it's in the same place as before is a little too coincidental for my liking. There's got to be a weak spot there.
I would not touch it, leave it as it is otherwise they may not give you another one. Do you have the old one to show your dealer it must be a manufacturing fault? I am no expert but surely these barrels are pressure tested to normally twice their normal operational pressures (based on other pressure vessels i have seen).
I was lucky to get a replacement last time, and I'm not going back on bended knee again, just to be told "No." I'll pay for the third one, and then if it does the same again I'll take out a claim in the County Court for the cost of a replacement filter. Can't lose, especially since I have a record of it all. Still....bloody annoying though.
Louie
I don't think you should be going back on bended knee, there's obviously a problem with the manufacture - maybe they've had a bad batch of the vessels delivered! Just because no-one else has posted about it on a web site, doesn't mean the manufacturer (and possibly some dealers) have not had other complaints about them.
Don't forget, it's in their interest to keep their customers and happy - they don't want the potential hassle of Trading Standards investigations or court appearances - let alone the possibility of losing customers as a result of bad publicity on koi web sites!
Go and talk to them calmly, but firmly. Take your evidence that this is not an isolated occurrence with you, but don't make any threats about telling the whole of the koi world etc. If that fails, you can always go to Trading Standards and start making life very uncomfortable for them in an official way - but I suspect you might be pleasantly surprised!
That's what I tried to do last time, and the MD of the company was adamant that I'd have to pay for the replacement. He gave in eventually, but it took a while and a lot of hassle. I can't really afford to be without it either for the amount of time that it'll take to get it sorted. Might have been ok in winter, but definitely not now. The other thing is that he said they've never had this kind of complaint before....... And here's me with the same complaint twice on two different filter bodies!! Unlucky eh?
Maybe he was telling the truth before and you was the first one to report a problem, but he may have had more since as the result of a "bad batch" of mouldings - that's not an impossibility. Even if he still denies having any others, you've got the evidence that it has happened before, so he's on a much stickier wicket!
I think he should at least be able to tell you what it is about your system that is causing the damage. If he can't, the filters he is selling are not "fit for purpose" so I certainly wouldn't pay for another one of the same - maybe a different make of bead filter, but certainly not the same one.
If you then decide to make a claim for your money back, you will have the evidence that the equipment was faulty and that you gave them the chance to put things right - always guaranteed to strengthen any argument!!
Seems that mine isn't just an isolated case as there have been a few more instances (not many) since January where the filter bodies have split. The MD is sending me out a new filter body straight away... In fact he couldn't have been nicer about the whole thing. Seems that the manufacturer in Italy has just decided to start making the body thicker, so perhaps they are aware that something is wrong. Anyway.....He was fine about me having tried to fix it and just asked that I post it back to him so they can see what the fault is.
Huge Relief!
Thanks for all the input!
Louie
