Equipment Review and Discussion :: Question about XP3 Issue

[wcrimi]

I own a Rena XP3 for several years. It has been doing a great job on my 70 gallon turtle tank. I love it!

Unfortunately, lately I've been noticing that it's getting more difficult to prime.

I fill the feed tube with water, start the filter, close the lever, and not much of the water drops into the filter to get things flowing. When I used to do that, the tube would empty quickly. Now only about 1/2 (or less) of the water drops in and the rest sits in the tube. Sometimes it takes 4-5 attempts to get it to prime at all. I also have to empty out the limited water that accumulated in the filter from the previous attempts or it gets harder and harder.

The other thing that has been happening is that even when I get it going, I don't think it's filling up as much as it used to. It's filled a few inches from the top. It used to go almost all the way. So it makes some strange gurgling noises (I', assuming that's related to air in the filter and/or the swishing of the water) when it's running. It stopped twice in the last week or so and I had to reprime it.

I just recently cleaned the impeller and everything else thoroughly and checked that all the seals for the tubing etc... are tight. Everything seems tight and sealed. When I had problems like this is the past it was usually that the intake tube (coming out of the water) was a little loose (the plastic pieces that fit together were probably disturbed by the turtles) and air was getting in, but I checked and rechecked them repeatedly and everything seems fine. I don't see air bubbles coming in at all.

Could the plastic top intakes on the filter top be clogged a little? How do you clean those?

Any other ideas?

Just to double check, when you prime it, you are supposed to start the filter, then lower the lever quickly to allow the water to flow in after that correct?

[steve]

This is how I re-prime:
1- turn the filter off
2 - move the close lever is up
3 - remove the cap on top of the intake tube and use the funnel to add water
4 - close the cap
5 - move the close lever down (water should start flowing, and wait at least a full 5-10 minutes)
6 - plug in the filter

If it still doesn't pump right away, try this... (this always happens to my newer XP3)
1- turn the filter off
2 - move the close lever is up
3 - remove the top of the filter
4 - manually add some water to top off the canister
5 - secure the top of the filter again*
6 - move the close lever down
7 - plug in the filter

*This will cause some spillage from the canister.

[wcrimi]

"5 - move the close lever down (water should start flowing, and wait at least a full 5-10 minutes)"

I think this is the issue.

When I move the close lever down, the water doesn't flow into the cannister like it used to (quickly and cleanly). It used to flow heavily right away and then the whole process would kick in. Now only about half or less of the water in the tube flows in and then it just sits there. I sort of have to get lucky for enough to flow in to kick things off.

My long plastic intake tunes are very clean (no clogging) and when I clean the filter I clean the lid, impeller etc... quite well.

The only thing that could possibly be clogged is the plastic intakes from the lid or the attachment to the lid that connects to the long plastic tube . I doubt that's it, but next time I'll clean those also. Other than that, maybe the lever is not opening and closing the filter properly.

I have it running now and the gurgling and swishing seems to have subsided a bit. I'm hopeful it's going to keep running. But next time I clean it I may have the same or a worse problem.

Have you ever had any problem with lever function and do you know how I can test to see if that's the problem?

Any other ideas?

[steve]

It does sound like an obstruction, though that doesn't really happen that I know of. I would try to manually prime it (filling the canister, then the intake tube).