Whisper60,Penguin350,AquaTech30-60 Impellers all compatable

[Tiger15]

Yes, it is an old post but useful. I am running 6 Penquin 350 that are 10+ years old and while they are working fine, they are getting noisy with humping and rattling sound in the impellers. I assume that impellers got worn out and need to be replaced. Looing at the PETMOUNTAIN web site, the Penquen 350 impeller costs twice as much as that of Whisper 60, so it makes economic sense to order Whisper 60 impleller in lieu of Peqnuin 350. However, I am not 100% certain that Whipser 60 and Penquin 350 impellers are interchangeable as the size of for the blades look different between the two in the pictures.

Can someone who has both Whisper 60 and Penquin 350 confirms that the impellers are inter changeable before I make the committment to order 6 of them on line.


http://www.petmountain.com/product/...ed-pf-30-60-triad-3000-impeller-assembly.html

 

[Tiger15]

Noone answers my question, and I found my answer by getting hold of a Whisper 60 impeller. It has the same length and diameter as the Penquin 330/350, but the blades are half as wide. It will fit in the Penquin, but won't self start. There is a loud clicking noise when I turn on the power, and I need to disrupt it with my finger to get it started. Once started, it runs smoothly and quieter than the Penquin impeller because it has smaller blades and pumps less water. The fact that it won't self start is enough for me to eliminat it as a substitute for Penquin impeller.

What I found an excellent substtute for Penquin 330/350 impeller is Peqnuin 170 impeller. It fits perfectly with Penquin 330/350 and will self start and run quieter than 330/350 impeller because the blades are smaller. The 170 impeller is a perfect substitute for me because it runs quieter in a 330/350, and costs half as much as a 330/350 impeller. Pumping less water is not an issue for me because the limitation of HOBs is more a media volume capacity than pumping capacity. Pumping faster simply means that the filter will get cloged up faster, given the same media volume.

I took apart an old impeler and diagnosed what caused the clicking noise. The clicking noise came from rotation of worn out magnete/blade assembly on worn out/crooked axle. I conclusively diagnosed the problem by clipping off all the blades and the impeller still makes the same clicking noise even though it is not pumping water. It's like driving a car with off balance tires. Once the impeller is shot, there is no fix except to replace it with a new one. It will still work but you have to tolerate the annoying clicking noise.