• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Eheim Pro 3 - worst Eheim ever?

flygja

Member
Joined
12 Mar 2008
Messages
1,260
Location
Penang, Malaysia
Caution, I'm ranting. I bought two second hand 2080s some months ago. Both of them immediately leaked, the known issue of water seeping into the head. Local distributor in Malaysia would not honor 3 year warranty and I had to pay to get one of them fixed, the other was salvagable by generously applying petroleum jelly and not using the primer.

Last week there was a power outage, about 5 hours in length. Both 2080s leaked about 12 litres of water onto my floor. Same problem of water seeping into the head. Had to open the head and tip it around to clear it. I have another tank with an Eheim 2217 and it didn't leak a single drop. Granted it was on a smaller tank of 60L so the pressure on the pipes might not be as great, but the Pro 3 is supposed to be able to handle it!

Energy company said there will be another outage today, lasting up to 9 hours. So I opened up both 2080s to expose the canister to air for O2 exchange for the bacteria. Tap catridge unit placed in buckets in case they leak.

How does one prevent a Pro 3 from leaking during a power outage?

One thing is for sure - I'm never buying any Eheim filter except for the classic ones from now on. Pissed me off enough in the past few months. Bad design, bad support from local distributor.
 
Seals are fine. The filter doesn't leak during normal operation. Its the usual problem of water getting into the head, previously it was theorised through the primer mechanism.
 
Oh blimey,I've just bought a Pro3 350,no problems so far but haven't suffered any power cuts either,seems a good filter to me but I am an unlucky so and so.:(
 
Seals are fine. The filter doesn't leak during normal operation. Its the usual problem of water getting into the head, previously it was theorised through the primer mechanism.


Your probably right on that one, i bought 2x 2080's cheap as they were both leaking from inside the head unit. I discovered it was leaking from the priming mechanism, i tried lubricating it but it still leaked. In the end i made a silicon gasket to sit under the plastic part that holds down the rubber priming ring. The extra pressure it creates when you screw the plastic part down tight 'seems' to of stopped it leaking. I've not got round to doing the other one yet but thats what i'll be doing to that one too. I can get some pics up when i do the next one if you'd like, the same fix might work for you as well.
 
I can get some pics up when i do the next one if you'd like, the same fix might work for you as well.
Some pics would be useful! One of my 2080s was fixed by applying petroleum jelly generously on the primer rubber seals. The other had its intake/output cartridge replaced in order to stop the leaking. These leaks are during operation, still need to resolve the problem of leaking when the power goes out.

My usual method is to sit the canister in a shallow bucket or tray, which would help hold the water if it leaks. My 2217 currently sits in a tray that's about 3 inches tall. But there isn't a tray big enough to accomodate the monstrous 2080s under my cabinet. I have to tilt the canister in order to fit it under my cabinet, so there's no way I can get it into a tray even if there is one.

IMG_20130804_104107_zpsa43f410b.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20130804_104107_zpsa43f410b.jpg
    IMG_20130804_104107_zpsa43f410b.jpg
    232.7 KB · Views: 491
Sanj, it seems like there was a bad batch of them. I've been reading reports all over the internet about Pro 3 filters leaking. The Pro 2 with a center priming button also leaked water into the head from the priming mechanism. If it works then it works well, if it doesn't work then it will never work well apparently. I checked the little O rings on the in/out cartridge and it looks fine too.

Have you had a power outage?
 
I'm running a 2075 model and so far have only good to say about it. Primer works well, flow rate doesn't drop off like the older eheims seemed to do, and loads of media capacity..... Of course if it were to leak all my praise would go out of the window!
 
I'm running a 2075 model and so far have only good to say about it. Primer works well, flow rate doesn't drop off like the older eheims seemed to do, and loads of media capacity..... Of course if it were to leak all my praise would go out of the window!

I hope it doesn't!
 
This is a general problem with Pro3 filters, but i have to say head leaking was there with pro 2 too and pro1 at the electric cables.
From all the pro3 series 2080s are the best ones. Had the less guarantee issues with it also we never get a chance to see broken flow switchers what we see common with 2071,2073,2075

Looks like most of the priming filters hurt by this and seeing our client feedback looks like the more problem comes from areas where the water hardness is larger.

They are great filters, but i could not figure out why the hell they not fixing it forever!
 
So about a year and a half later, one of the 2080s that I have is now leaking badly. About a minute after being turned on, it will start flooding the floor. Set it aside for a month or so out of anger disappointment and went back to it today. I took the head apart and found this...
20986259281_95f510f1d8_b.jpg


Looks like the head has been filling with water so badly that all the metal parts in it are completely rusted.
Very disappointing to see that the screws used were normal metal screws and not stainless steel. Even worse, the two black ones on the left look like normal wood screws to me.
20356215644_656e2f1d79_b.jpg


You can see here how the base of the primer mechanism spring is completely rusted.
20952563796_d519ee2dd6_b.jpg


20952546156_28feca5771.jpg


The motor and primer mechanism are actually one unit. When you press the priming button down, the whole motor moves up and down. The rubber gasket is held by two sets of screws. The inner lip of the rubber is held by 4 screws under the pump head (i.e. inside the canister itself). Thankfully these are real stainless steel screws. Sorry about the icky pic.
20979321735_76a2a684be_b.jpg


The outer lip is held in place by these 4 screws inside the pump head. Completely rusted off. Considering that the screws are about an inch above the bottom of the pump head, there must constantly been about an inch of standing water in the pump head.
20356211054_762b0fee3b_b.jpg


This is with the plastic housing that holds the motor removed.
20357714543_7cfd2794cb_b.jpg


3 of the 4 screws weren't holding the plastic piece in place anymore, which means the rubber seal wasn't effectively doing its job. I think this is where the problem is. So now that the screw heads have completely disintegrated, I guess I'll need to drill out the remains of the screws. The screws themselves are self-threading screws, so I have to get the drill bit size right and get the exact replacement too. I hope that the sealing doesn't depend on the primer spring, since that has lost its lower coils now. Might glue a piece of acrylic tubing in place of the spring to stop it from being pressed anymore.

So much for German engineering.
 
Last edited:
You won't drill those out easily. The drill will want to wander off into the plastic, you'd have to use a very short drill and a drill press. There should be just enough sticking out to get a set of needle nose vise-grips on there and wind them out.
 
That's a problem. I don't have a drill press. I'll try to use a pair of needle nose pliers to wind them out. It'll be hard because the screws are self-threading. Gonna use lots of WD40
 
You'll struggle to get enough grip with normal needle nose pliers, if you haven't got vise-grips I'd try a set of normal pliers as they will grip better. If they are directly into the plastic then they should come out fairly easily without wd40, all the wd40 will do is make the screw more difficult to grip.
 
I've changed my Eheims for JBLs Greenline. Very low consumption and larger filter volume compared to Eheim. Only classic line from Eheim seems to last for decades... :(
Sorry to hear from your problem

Jordi
 
Back
Top