Eheim Impeller Shaft Emergency

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 14 Mar 2005, 00:23

I have an Eheim 2026 filter on my 75 gal.tank. The filter is 4 months old. There was a small sound coming from the filter. If you own one of these, you know they're rather silent. It was time for a cleaning anyway. I opened up the impeller unit and found this:

Broken clear in half. I screamed.

All other filters I've owned have had metal shafts. I took one of the metal impeller shafts from a filter I'm not using and made sure it was the same length. The filter is running and making the same sound.

Next, I went online to try to find the fool thing. I had to go to the Eheim parts online.....$17 for a piece of delicate ceramic?

At least their overnight shipping is only $15. Must be the volume.

WhitePine · Post by **WhitePine** » 14 Mar 2005, 05:52

Where did you buy the unit? If if was local I would just take it back. Of course you should keep the media and make sure to keep it in some of the original tank water. Get a new one, put in the old media and you are back in business.

Maarten · Post by **Maarten** » 14 Mar 2005, 09:10

4 months old? Overhere we have at least 1 year of warranty!

So go back to your local dealer and claim your warranty.

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 14 Mar 2005, 15:49

I bought it over the internet, Dr's Foster &Smith. They said I have to deal with Eheim. Past 30 days, Eheim's warranty kicks in. No surprise. I just sent the info to Eheim. I told them I have a picture.

The noise wasn't from the broken shaft. It's piece that keeps the white ball in the sight gauge. It was not rotated just so. I turned it 90 degrees. The noise stopped. Other than that, I LOVE the filter. It's amazing. I only have to clean it once every 6 weeks or so. And it's not the scrub-down I have to do on other filters. I use one bag of Chemipure for chemical media and that's it. I was using tons of stuff before.

I did order an Eheim 2213 for my 29 gallon tank. It's $76 with all the media, tubing and shut-offs at That Fish Place. I made sure to order an extra impeller shaft for the 2213, it was $8. I noticed it was listed as a "you may want to buy this" item as soon as I put the filter in my shopping basket. Must be a common occurance. The Filstar XP-2 clogs very easily and is relatively loud. I'll keep it as a back up.

Maarten · Post by **Maarten** » 14 Mar 2005, 18:12

Bronzefry wrote:I bought it over the internet, Dr's Foster &Smith. They said I have to deal with Eheim. Past 30 days, Eheim's warranty kicks in. No surprise. I just sent the info to Eheim. I told them I have a picture.

Thats a lousy internetshop then...

But I'm sure Eheim will solve the problem

I removed the red piece of plastic and the ball for a little bit more flow, I just have to check how my Gasteropelecus sterniclas are swimming in the current

I prefer mechanic filter medias.. no chemicals in my tank/filter ;)

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 14 Mar 2005, 19:12

I just got off the phone with Eheim. Impeller shafts and bushings are not part of the warranty coverage. If the motor failed or if there was a crack in the filter housing, that would be covered. Impeller shafts made out of ceramic break very easily when exposed to the following: high heat, plant matter, sand, gravel and of course the obligatory "filter materials not manufactured by Eheim." Don't ya love that one? It clears them on about 75% of all purchases, especially from the US.

The man I spoke with was for Eheim North America. He was very nice. He told me the only way I could ever get the warranty honored in the US is if the unit is directly out of the box and never had water run through it. How would you know if it worked? I know this is typical throughout the US. A lot of products with a cord and plug or computers have this kind of warranty. The digital camera I just bought had a huge sticker on it: once you open this box, you cannot return it. If you purchase an extended warranty for extra money, then they'll take it back. Total scam.

So, I asked Mr. Eheim if there was a large tubing adaptor for the Eheim pre-filter. Of course not. He told me exactly how to make one, though!!!!

This lowers the risk of the impeller breaking and add bio-filtration. You take a core sponge and take a cylindrical chunk out of it. Make sure it's snug around the intake. This will prevent any material from getting into the filter.

I would imagine the EU would have stricter rules for warranty enforcement. The US can get away with murder, literally, on things like this. So out of touch with the rest of the world.

You should see our car warranties.

Maarten · Post by **Maarten** » 14 Mar 2005, 20:02

Bronzefry wrote:You should see our car warranties.

I always read the US part of manuals to have a good laugh... One I still remember: do not dry pets or other animals in the microwave

sometimes, I'm happy to live in The Netherlands

A prefilter will drop the flow a lot... buit why do you need a prefilter? the intakes are not clogged or someting.. maybe you should add a blue filter in the bottom, it should keep your chemical stuff cleaner too

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 16 Mar 2005, 14:21

I have the blue pad in the bottom, the Effemech next, the Effestubstrat (forgive me folks, I'm not a German spelling expert

I promise to practise!), then a bag of Chemipure, then the white pad, topped by the green plate. Mr.Eheim turned into a real sweetie. I not only found the 2 impeller shafts, but a new impeller! I installed the new impeller and shaft this morning. I can't hear a thing. Silence is bliss. I did put the foam sleeve over the input. It does have a tendency to clog with plant material from Cabomba. I'll give it a few days to see if there's any slowing. So far, so good.

panaque · Post by **panaque** » 25 Mar 2005, 17:04

The impeller shaft on my 2213 broke after about 8 years of continuous service and only then because I had forgotten to prime the filter before plugging it in. I used a cocktail stick (you know, wooden pricker things) cut to the right length as an emergency shaft while I waited for the new one to arrive. It worked a treat for at least a month when I finally got round to fitting the new one. Could increase wear on the impeller though. On noise: Mine gets noisy when the intake flow is restricted due to lime scale and gunk in the hose or the connectors. Since I switched to soft water I've never had problems with noise again.

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 26 Mar 2005, 15:37

I used a steel shaft from an older Marineland filter, until the replacement got here. It just happened to be the same length. I think it worked better, but I was a little worried about the motor overheating. I think that maybe why Eheim goes with the ceramics. I noticed that filters with steel impeller shafts do get hot. Seven years is a long time for anything in a fish tank! I switched to RO water last year: 100 gal/day unit. You'd think I had saltwater species with the amount of crusting there was!