Hey all,

Looking for inputs on this. Found it for sale and trying to eval if it will work for GL Push-Pull method:

fairbanks morse centrifugal pump
1.5 HP AO Smith motor
110v or 220V single phase
sweet spot is 40GPM
could do up to 60gpm if head if very low but it would be out of its performance curve
inlet is 1.25", outlet is 1"
it has a polycarbonate impellor. is this bad?
inside is cast iron.
has buna rubber seals. they don’t make viton.
not self priming (not surprised)
parts are still available.

thoughts?
is the impellor bad?
right now i have been using the HF pump which has been fine. are those buna rubber seals? any ideas if i can make/fake my own seals or will this not be an issue?

Polycarbonate a.k.a. Lexan?? My experiance with Lexan type products is that it cracks after awhile when exposed to bd.

raften - whats "a while" mean to you?

anyone else have these experiences?

is it posible to take theis pump and swap out their imprellor and put in a better one?

Douglas, my most recent experiance with it was a Nalgene quart container, brand new. Within a month it had developed spiderweb like cracks after being filled and emptied say 10 times with washed bd. I have no idea if it is the same material but I am assuming the container is made of polycarbanate. Anyone know for sure? This was not the standard white Nalgen but a clear bottle.

Just looked at the bottle and it says PET, PETE and is a number one recycle. Who knows about it, is that polycarbonate? If not, my bad.

quote:

Originally posted by Raften:
Just looked at the bottle and it says PET, PETE and is a number one recycle. Who knows about it, is that polycarbonate? If not, my bad.

PETE is polyethelene, number 1 plastic, same material as Dr. Pepper bottles. Polycarbonate is number 7 plastic.

Thats interesting, it sure looks like a 1 and it does say PETE but it develops spider cracks and that has not happened with any soda bottle for me. It is thicker than a soda bottle plus I have a sucker type tube that has developed the same cracks.

so...good to use or not?

can i swap the impellor somehow?

Polycarbonate WILL NOT stand up to biodiesel and the chemicals used to make biodiesel.