AC200 Rattling / Vibrating

Tyler718

Tyler718

AC Members
Feb 17, 2002
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Stafford, Va
Real Name
David
I'm about to pull my hair out with this thing. :argh I can't get it to stop rattling or vibrating from the impellar area. I have tried everything I could think of to make it stop. I tried reseating the housing a couple of times, cleaning out the motor housing with Q-tips, and clean the impellar itself. Is there anything else I can try because I can't figure it out.

Thanks in Advance,

Dave
 
Did it start after a cleaning? Is it really, really noisy? This is a long-shot that it would be the same problem, but I had that happen once. When you take out the impeller it sits on a long thin pin. Is the pin there? When it happened to me, somehow the pin must have jumped out during cleaning and tried to escape under the stand. The strange thing was the filter still worked without the pin because of the magnet but the pin holds it in one place. The pin sits really tightly in there, I don’t know how it popped out for me that time. I didn’t even realize there should be a pin; I guess I never paid attention the other times I cleaned it. I actually took my filter down to the LFS and he told me the pin was missing. This was many years ago. Again, a long-shot, but thought I'd share.
 
You're sure its the impeller? I thought mine was the impeller, turns out it was the media "basket". You know, the "U" shaped media holder that sits inside. The side vibrating against the filter body sounded like the impeller was messed up. Just pull it out and you'll know in a second if that's it.
 
Thanks Kveeti and beviking. Here is where I stand now. I just checked and the metal pin is in there and I just tried taking the basket out. The loud rattle is still there with out the basket. But I did notice that it looks like the impellar is kind of "jumping" around as it spins.

So I took the motor apart again, it looks like the magnet and impellar are wobbly and real loose inside the motor. Is it possible to by these seperate to give it a try? I've run out of ideas.


Thanks,
Dave
 
I don't know about buying parts for the filters new/retail... Here we have a store called "Pet Traders" where you can buy all kinds of used bits people have sold back when they don't want/need them any more, for all kinds of pet supplies. Look in your yellow pages, maybe there's something similar there?
 
My next bit of advice was going to be buy a new impellar. I bought a 150 at an auction and it had a bad impellar. My lfs had one (don't remember the price ~$5) but that stopped the noise that filter was making. From the sounds of it (impellar jumping around) that's what's wrong with yours. I don't think the larger chain stores (Petco, Petsmart, etc...) carry parts like that. Even if they do, you're probably better off buying a new filter online!$! You probably don't have another that would fit just to try it out do you?
 
Originally posted by beviking
My next bit of advice was going to be buy a new impellar. I bought a 150 at an auction and it had a bad impellar. My lfs had one (don't remember the price ~$5) but that stopped the noise that filter was making. From the sounds of it (impellar jumping around) that's what's wrong with yours. I don't think the larger chain stores (Petco, Petsmart, etc...) carry parts like that. Even if they do, you're probably better off buying a new filter online!$! You probably don't have another that would fit just to try it out do you?
Click to expand...

I called a store here in town and they have the part for $7.50. So I'm going by there tomorrow to get it. I wish I had another filter, but the wife is slowing down the spending some.:D Anyways, I've had this filter for a couple of years now and it has served me well.

Thanks everybody,
Dave
 
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