[paul w]

just got a new batt and the man in the shop said even a new batt will only have half its power in this cold

[jonisondell]

no load of rubbish, what you get out of you battery depends on how much its charged by full charg you get full voltage full current drain, if its almount flat you may voltage loss and you wont be able to pull much current ie pump will work slow and not much flow

[steve a]

Also sounds like you may have a blockage in the jets in the brush, if you shake the pole and its ok for a while, try taking the hose off the jets and blowing them through backwards, i generally use the pipe i have just taken off the jets to blow them through, if that makes sense.
Charge your battery every night and use one of the 'intelligent' chargers so as not to damage plates.
The more gizmos you add to a system the more can go wrong, I use the bypass method and flow rate set to approx 1-1.5 litres a minute.

HtH

Steve a

[WISEOWL]

Okay heres an update on my progress.

I took the pump off it's brackets yesterday morning and removed the black cap. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, and the fact that the pump was completely frozen up I let it thaw and returned the cap and fixed the pump back to the van.

This morning I have gone out and connected the hoses and turned on the pump...

...nothing.

The pump appears to be working and the varistream is on but no water, not even a trickle. Interestingly enough when I turn it up to 8, 9 or 'b' the green light doesn't even flash as per the norm. I would understand if the pump simply wouldn't start up but everything seems to be working except water coming out.

New pump do you reckon?

[twt]

your pump now has air locked in it, you need to disconect the hose reel from the pump, turn the varistream up to "b" and leave it until you get a good flow of water out of the end of the hose,(you may have to try this several times. ie let varistream run on setting "b" for tens seconds then turn off and try again). when you have got water flowing turn off varistream reconect hose reel to pump then turn varistream back on and it will pump until your hose reel is full of water then it will reach pressure and shut off.

[WISEOWL]

Another update and hopefully some success in my quest.

I have hopefully solved both problems and will explain to let others know if they have the same problem too.

Yesterday I took off the black cap but due to the pump being frozen I couldn't inspect the diaphragm fully as I couldn't detach the sections. Then today when it all thawed out I mentioned that the pump ran but nothing came out.

So after a final decision to have a proper inspection I was able to get to the diaphragm and can see that 1 of the 3 rubber seals had perished which must explain my weak flow, it was only being spun by two of the rubber rather . Also, when I ran the pump with the cap off the motor was spinning but the diaphragm wasn't it was just sat on top of the spindle not moving!

I will be ordering a new diaphragm and hopefully fitting it Tuesday morning, no doubt I will be on here for advice on how to remove the old one and fit the new one!

Any suggestions for suppilers?

Does it sound like I have cracked it?

[ftp]

Doesn't ice push the diaphragm out of place?

My tank outlet foze just after the open and shut valve last week too.

[WISEOWL]

Yes but the initial problam was a reduced flow rate.

I looked at the diaphragm today and 1 of the 3 fins has eroded away which must have explained why I wasn't getting an efficent flow. The central cog was only spinning two of the three fins.

Cheers...still on the look out for a diaphragm though.

[ftp]

Any pics? I've never looked inside one.

[WISEOWL]

There is a good picture on this forum: http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=47390.0

Basically the central spindle from the motor drives the diaphragm which in turn rotates the three fins I believe. One of mine is worn down so that it is not getting friction from the central seal. Thus slow flow.

It didn't work this morning becuase of displacement yes.