The cracked impeller and the flooding it brought...

[wynx]

Believe it or not, this comes from one of my pro2028 Eheim pro II filter. To be honest, I notice that this unit is making quite some noise of late and it always leaked whenever I turn off power to the unit…anyway, I got itchy fingers on saturday to change the media in my filter and fish out some baby shrimps….and it turn out to be a 6 hours ordeal for me, 2 trips to seaview to get impeller and and on the 2nd trip, the o-ring.

Thankfully, my wife was taking her afternoon siesta, I would imagine I would end up in her frog porridge for dinner. The entire living room was wet and not to mention so super messed up. And boy, I swear if I ever buy a second hand filter again, I will demand that I get a discount equivalent of the o-ring cost before I make the purchase, better safe than sorry. Having a leaky filter is not a funny affair.

[BFG]

Wynx, do what I do to prevent this mishap. Ikea has the SAMLA container. Get this and place your canister in it. It fits the 2026 nicely. Get the one which is deep, not the shallow ones. The container will collect any water leaking from the 2nd hand canister. I have experience much mishap with leaky 2nd hand canister filter. All you need to do is to frequently check the container if it's collecting water and if it does, you know your canister is leaking.

[diazman]

Believe it or not, this comes from one of my pro2028 Eheim pro II filter. To be honest, I notice that this unit is making quite some noise of late and it always leaked whenever I turn off power to the unit…anyway, I got itchy fingers on saturday to change the media in my filter and fish out some baby shrimps….and it turn out to be a 6 hours ordeal for me, 2 trips to seaview to get impeller and and on the 2nd trip, the o-ring.

Thankfully, my wife was taking her afternoon siesta, I would imagine I would end up in her frog porridge for dinner. The entire living room was wet and not to mention so super messed up. And boy, I swear if I ever buy a second hand filter again, I will demand that I get a discount equivalent of the o-ring cost before I make the purchase, better safe than sorry. Having a leaky filter is not a funny affair.

Now that is one serious cracked impeller.

[StanChung]

oops- i have two eheim 2028's. They are pretty old now[5-7 years] so I should be on the lookout for signs. One of them needs a gasket replacement as it leaks when power is off.

[wynx]

oops- i have two eheim 2028's. They are pretty old now[5-7 years] so I should be on the lookout for signs. One of them needs a gasket replacement as it leaks when power is off.

Well, the unit started leaking whenever I power it off since March...so, the sign kept showing and not mention buzzing...and viola 5 months on, I open up to change wool and investigate cause...viola...a cracked impeller and o-ring that gone bad..

Th

[StanChung]

The crack looks catastrophic. What kind of stress would cause that kind of fracture? I wonder if at any time your filter was running while airlocked to have help cause it?
I wouldn't mind replacing my impeller because it's already value for money as compared to the 2236 impeller that failed in a year of usage.

I think BFG's the containing of the filter is a good idea. Gives the person home time to leisurely walk to it and shut the double tap when there's a power failure.

[BFG]

All my Eheim 2nd hand canister filter, whether in my home or at my friends, are placed in the Ikea SAMLA container.

[deacon]

There's actually a way to prevent waterflow in the event of a external filter failure. Just drill a small hole in the intake tube that's residing in your tank. Drill it just below the water line. In the event of a failure, the small hole will disrupt the water flow once the waterline goes below it.

Put your external filter in a bucket, there's always backflow to deal with. I always wash my external filter with water from the tank, never from the tap. So the bucket is really handy.

Go to you dealer and get yourself some grease. Eheim has a packet and it retails about $5 to $6. Always grease your O rings, this will prevent hardening and breakage.

[xaine]

O-ring hardening is a constant issue for older canisters, you are lucky to be having a brand with available spares. To maintain the rings, yes, grease is a good alternative. I use Vaseline, it works the same and readily available, great for skin repairs too

Normally, when a canister gets noisy, first thing to check would be the impeller. It would be high chance it has some problems.

[fishking]

Wow...this is the first time I see a impeller cracked like this. I also do have a pro 2028 filter since year 2003. There is always a backflow problem when I off the filter. It happened badly once when there was a power trip in my house due to a heavy storm at night and I woke up next morning my floor was flooded with water. (no wonder was feeling very hot that night...)

Anyway rushed to Seaview and managed to get the o-ring. Cost me $27 for it. Applied some vaseline on the rubber and voila!!!...no more backflow...I purposely off the filter and waited for 5 minutes and not a single drop of water flowed out even though the inlet valve was opened fully.

But now just wondering how long will the o-ring last?...anyone knows?

[vinz]

I have a Pro I that has been in storage for about 2 years. The O-ring is still supple because I greased it before putting into storage.

The Pro I and II has had this 'problem' since the beginning, and that's why the sets come with a tube of lubricant. Many people ignore this and then blame Eheim for the 'problem'.

They seem to have avoided the 'problem' with their other series of filters.

[fireblade]

wonder what cased the impeller to cracked like this...
I have a 2224 the impeller also cracked..

[StanChung]

Magnet fatigue? Just guessing.

[Ariel]

2028 very reliable.
only got leak recently due to old o-ring. still got a spare shaft from c328
impeller will cost youS$4x

[lengswee]

There's actually a way to prevent waterflow in the event of a external filter failure. Just drill a small hole in the intake tube that's residing in your tank. Drill it just below the water line. In the event of a failure, the small hole will disrupt the water flow once the waterline goes below it.

Put your external filter in a bucket, there's always backflow to deal with. I always wash my external filter with water from the tank, never from the tap. So the bucket is really handy.

Go to you dealer and get yourself some grease. Eheim has a packet and it retails about $5 to $6. Always grease your O rings, this will prevent hardening and breakage.

Your method certainly makes great sense, but I was just wondering if by drilling this small hole, would this affect the efficiency of the cannister (i.e. when it is fully functional)

[StanChung]

it shouldn't as the water would come in through the small hole during normal functioning.
However for those of you using fans, you have to keep an eye on the water level to prevent it from dropping or your canister filter will airlock.

[lengswee]

it shouldn't as the water would come in through the small hole during normal functioning.
However for those of you using fans, you have to keep an eye on the water level to prevent it from dropping or your canister filter will airlock.

Thanks for confirmation. Will proceed to drill this small hole. Like the cliche "Better be safe than sorry"

[celticfish]

Yes, the vaseline is important to keep the O-ring working for its expected duty cycle or more.
One quick fix for the leaking O-ring I recall was someone adding a toothpick just under the clips that connected the head assembly to the cannister body.
The toothpick made the head assembly clamp tighter to the cannister effectively squeezing the O-ring to tighten the connection.
Not a long term solution but it would have saved wynx an immediate trip to get the O-ring!

[aquarius]

Thanks for confirmation. Will proceed to drill this small hole. Like the cliche "Better be safe than sorry"

Do note that you'll have to off the filter every time you want to change water which when done too often, not sure whether it'll cause the impeller to crack more easily due to the regular start and stop on the filter.