Just a quick tip and word of warning for those of you who own Eheim classic canister filters. When I was cleaning out my Eheim 2217 and 2213 this weekend, I made the mistake of cleaning off the sludge and slime around the impeller and the impeller magnet. I plugged it back in and wow, it was loud. It seems the sludge and slime in there created a natural lubrication that kept it quiet. So when cleaning out your Eheim, resist the urge to clean out this sludge or you'll probably have a very noisy filter afterwards!
In order to fix the issue, I took some Vaseline and rubbed it around the impeller shaft and magnet. I plugged it back in and the noise was greatly reduced. With time, the sludge will build up again and it'll go back to its old dead silent running, but at least I know now to never clean it out again!
That sounds strange. I've never had that problem before. It couldn't have sounded noisy when you used it new, right?
ReplyDeleteFit here,
ReplyDeleteIm using classic 2217 as well for almost a year now and did cleaned the filter 3 times, snapped my impeller shaft once. I agreed with Ranga, its strange that the loud noise appear after cleaning.. I never face one. You might need to check back whats the real cause.
While I have not experienced this loud noise after cleaning (I did break the ceramic shaft once though...), I would not recommend using vaseline. I work in the water treatment industry and have found that vaseline as a sealant or lubricant can have adverse long term effects on rubber parts (such as the ends of the ceramic shaft) and seals.
ReplyDeleteThere are commercially available silicone base sealant/lubricants that would be a better solution, such as DOW111.
Good to know, but vaseline was the only thing I had on hand and it was either use it or keep the filter off. Next time I'll use something else, but I'm hoping there won't be a next time.
ReplyDeleteCleaning out the sludge/slime was definitely the cause of the noise. It must have either a) removed the natural lubrication or b) unbalanced the impeller or c) both of the above. Take my word on it, thoroughly cleaning out the impeller housing is probably not the best idea.
I think you will find there was something else wrong. Could you have not put it together properly but when you removed it and vassoed it- it was then put together properly. I have 6 eheims and always clean the impellor/ shaft everything. Only time i got noise was when i had not fitted everything properly
ReplyDeleteThis is a really old post, but I think I know what happened - ie, the same thing that happened to me.
ReplyDeleteThere is supposed to be a small rubber bushing at BOTH ends of the ceramic shaft. However, the bottom one is usually stuck inside the impeller chamber. I almost gaurantee that you knocked is out and flushed it down the drain while scrubbing out the gunk in there.
I bought replacement bushings, and my filter was instantly silent again.