Water Pump and Watering System

Peciacake said:
Rice, unfortunately the Permatex joint compound you recommended hasn't done the job. It arrived yesterday morning after being ordered on-line (nil stock in Surin) and used to assemble the pipe union and pump inlet. I must admit I was dubious straight away due to the low viscosity of the sealer.
As per instructions, left it 24 hours for it to harden (solvent to evaporate). Fired up the pump a short while ago.

NBG - see below. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck. Back to the f*cking drawing board....

I admit defeat and will ask Taen, our local boilermaker / heavy equipment mechanic, who originally diagnosed the problem, to take over.

Shaking my head while I walk away...
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Possibly the problem is bonding PVC to cast-iron metal ...as opposed to glueing (bonding) PVC to PVC.

(I'm not an expert...a plumber should know. Operative word - should.)

Sounds as though Taen is your man. ;-)
 
Coffee said:
Possibly the problem is bonding PVC to cast-iron metal ...as opposed to glueing (bonding) PVC to PVC.

(I'm not an expert...a plumber should know. Operative word - should.)

Sounds as though Taen is your man. ;-)
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NEW PUMP. ;;big smile;;
 
Peciacake said:
I must admit that crossed my mind earlier when @Rice recommended Permatex Pipe Sealing Compound. Rice was okay with it - see Page 2.
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Some brands of PVC pipe are so far out of specification there is just no way of sealing them. But the Permatex should of worked if you started fresh and there was no other contamination in the thread. I used to use it to seal stainless on mild steel tubing for Hydrogen no less and that is next to impossible to contain.
 
Rice said:
Some brands of PVC pipe are so far out of specification there is just no way of sealing them. But the Permatex should of worked if you started fresh and there was no other contamination in the thread. I used to use it to seal stainless on mild steel tubing for Hydrogen no less and that is next to impossible to contain.
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The thing I have noticed is the diabolical tolerances in threaded fittings sold here, FFS, most are a rattling good fit, as loose
as a Pattaya bar girl with almost no effective way of achieving a leak proof fit up.
Good luck getting your pump sorted.
 
FERRET said:
The thing I have noticed is the diabolical tolerances in threaded fittings sold here, FFS, most are a rattling good fit, as loose
as a Pattaya bar girl with almost no effective way of achieving a leak proof fit up.
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This sums it up pretty well. The unions (nipples???) I've tried are, as you say Ferret, as loose as a bar girl's fanny. That's why I was so keen to use an O ring. At least it would seal the shoulder of the union against the pump housing.
 
Rice said:
Some brands of PVC pipe are so far out of specification there is just no way of sealing them. But the Permatex should of worked if you started fresh and there was no other contamination in the thread.
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Agree, the union thread is loose. Both threads were very clean.
Permatex Thread Sealant looks a better option given how loose the thread is.
 

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Taen the village boiler maker / heavy machinery mechanic came over this morning and methodically went through a fault finding & rectification process. Changed a coupling. Cleaned both threaded sections. Wound on copious turns of thread tape. Screwed it in to the pump housing: still too loose, removed it and wound on more tape before he was satisfied. Then we replaced the inlet line (again) despite me having replaced it last week. Did a pump test (pumped like a new one) then tightened everything up once more, to be sure. Bled / primed the inlet line and crossed our fingers. Had to re-prime it a few times as there was an airlock in the inlet / suction line which refused to budge. Finally late this afternoon the pump started pumping like it did when we first installed it. The photo below shows two sprinkler lines running- 22 sprinklers in total. Hope it stays that way. Total cost ฿600. Well done Taen. He is a gem.
 

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Peciacake said:
The photo below shows two sprinkler lines running- 22 sprinklers in total. Hope it stays that way. Total cost ฿600. Well done Taen. He is a gem.
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@Peciacake , besides sticks (just joking) what is it exactly that you have planted, avocados ?

Edit: spell-king
 
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Coffee said:
@Peciacake , besides sticks (just joking) what is it exactly that you have planted, acocados ?
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Trying to plant the full alphabet:
Avocado, bananas, durian, kaffir lime, lemons, lychees, mangoes, rambutan, mangosteen, thai cherries, star apples, nectarines plus several other native Thai fruit trees.
Then there's 160+ teak trees, 15 mahogany and another 15 Tropical hardwood trees.
Plus Yuri has a range of different vegetables and herbs in her garden beds.
 
Peciacake said:
Trying to plant the full alphabet:
Avocado, bananas, durian, kaffir lime, lemons, lychees, mangoes, rambutan, mangosteen, thai cherries, star apples, nectarines plus several other native Thai fruit trees.
Then there's 160+ teak trees, 15 mahogany and another 15 Tropical hardwood trees.
Plus Yuri has a range of different vegetables and herbs in her garden beds.
Click to expand...

Apparently someone is ambitious. (Thumbs up.)
 
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