Jobo Pump Trouble

[b.cipolla]

I bought a Jobo CPA-2 on Ebay a few months back and when I attempted to use it for the first time, found that the water pump does not work. I have taken the Job apart to see if there was anything visibly wrong with the pump. Apart from wiping some stringy gunk off of the pump, there appears to be nothing wrong with it. All of the connections inside the unit appear to be fine as well. Does anyone have any advice for this situation. I have heard of people substituting Jobo pumps with aquarium pumps, since Jobo parts can be difficult to find. Should I start looking into this? Thank you.

[Greg Blank]

What is it doing ? Or not? Messing with that isn't advised it runs on a 110 circuit...so be carefull with the connections.


I bought a Jobo CPA-2 on Ebay a few months back and when I attempted to use it for the first time, found that the water pump does not work. I have taken the Job apart to see if there was anything visibly wrong with the pump. Apart from wiping some stringy gunk off of the pump, there appears to be nothing wrong with it. All of the connections inside the unit appear to be fine as well. Does anyone have any advice for this situation. I have heard of people substituting Jobo pumps with aquarium pumps, since Jobo parts can be difficult to find. Should I start looking into this? Thank you.

[Lachlan 717]

My only suggestion is that you make sure that the locating lug on the end of the impella rod is centered in its hole. It is easy to put it off centre when you replace the shroud and, thus, prevent it from spinning.

[b.cipolla]

What is it doing ? Or not? Messing with that isn't advised it runs on a 110 circuit...so be carefull with the connections.

The motor to rotate the drum runs fine. When I go to turn on the pump, nothing happens. I recall there being a little bit of smoke inside the unit, above the water and under the plastic housing near the controls. I have not tested the water to see if the heater works because the pump was not working.

[Sirius Glass]

Please put your location in the profile. Depending on where you are located, I may be able to point you to a repair person who will talk to you over the phone and sell parts if necessary.

Steve

[Greg Blank]

Not good. Although it could be just the pump, the smoke part makes me think short circuit and damaged electronics.

I would not listen to someone over the phone regarding that- anyone that encourages you to do that kind of repair yourself is giving you bad advice. I would not suggest buying parts to fix that yourself. I would recommend either contacting the Joboman in LA or you can deal with me.


The motor to rotate the drum runs fine. When I go to turn on the pump, nothing happens. I recall there being a little bit of smoke inside the unit, above the water and under the plastic housing near the controls. I have not tested the water to see if the heater works because the pump was not working.

[Sirius Glass]

I would recommend either contacting the Joboman in LA or you can deal with me.

That is exactly whom I was thinking of! But I do not like referring someone to him who is on another continent.

Steve

[b.cipolla]

Not good. Although it could be just the pump, the smoke part makes me think short circuit and damaged electronics.

I would not listen to someone over the phone regarding that- anyone that encourages you to do that kind of repair yourself is giving you bad advice. I would not suggest buying parts to fix that yourself. I would recommend either contacting the Joboman in LA or you can deal with me.

Is there a way to determine exactly what the problem may be before ordering new parts? Obviously, I would like to avoid ordering part that are not needed. I'm not sure if I should be looking for a new pump or new parts for the electronics.

[Greg Blank]

Bryan lives on the east Coast, I try to recommend Dave to folks living West of the Missisippi. Here- I don't like the idea of actively soliciting business for myself or anyone else , but I am always willing to help. I am rather matter of fact about things, Dave I trust - I have known him for more than ten years. When I was formally answering questions related to Jobo at Omega Brandess I knew of Four repair people out in the US. Of those Four Dave is the only guy besides myself I would recommend now. As an FYI -I don't believe Dave gives free consultations on electronic repairs. Would you be willing to discuss your photo techiques with us at length,... for free- there might be something pf value ? ;) I know photographers like to doing that free part, so where do you start :)


That is exactly whom I was thinking of! But I do not like referring someone to him who is on another continent.

Steve

[Greg Blank]

The disclaimer is if you electrocute yourself you were warned.

I never advise people to open the unit....but: If you take the cover off make sure its unplugged from the wall. The CPA has a thin wire running to the indicator light, removing the cover you must be care not to open the cover so far that the wire is broken. You need to pull the knobs off carefully with a flat bladed screw driver- use the driver to carefully pry them off the shafts. I set them at rememberable locations like 38.00 before removing, any that have a similar number set, I mark inside where it came from.

The pump has two wires running inside they carry 110 V. Positive and Common. Pull the wires off the stake on's and then use a clipped off pig tail from a power cord. In other words you will directly plug the pump into a house hold 110V outlet and clip the wires from that pig tail using soldered on alligator clips. Make sure the machine is dry when you do this, not sitting in water. If the pump runs their is a circuit board issue and the pump will not need to be replaced. Circuit board issues, well then you will need to send myself or someone else the machine. Beyond that you won't be able to fix it yourself. If its just the pump, I can most likely get you the native piece. If you are confident you have the mechnical skills to replace the pump, instructions will be available.



Is there a way to determine exactly what the problem may be before ordering new parts? Obviously, I would like to avoid ordering part that are not needed. I'm not sure if I should be looking for a new pump or new parts for the electronics.

[domaz]

In the short term you can put an immerisble garden pump in the water tank portion and have it pump to the upper water tank (where the tank sits). That's what I'm doing lately because my water pump makes a ridiculous amount of noise- so I disconnected the impellor and use the garden pump.

[Sean Galbraith]

Greg: Any repairmen in Ontario, Canada that you know of? My CPE-2 Plus is not longer maintaining heat.

[Greg Blank]

On one hand I admire the resourceful nature of taking on these kind of issues, I have been toying with ideas related to building processors in the event that the parts are NLA, however here is the issue with removing the impellor. It acts as a partial seal to keep water from leaking inside the processor. If you ever turn the pump on without it, its' almost guaranteed that you are drawing some liquid into the bottom and potentially shorting your tranformer board. If you continue I suggest you plug the area around the actual metal spindle of the pump shaft....with silicon at least.


In the short term you can put an immerisble garden pump in the water tank portion and have it pump to the upper water tank (where the tank sits). That's what I'm doing lately because my water pump makes a ridiculous amount of noise- so I disconnected the impellor and use the garden pump.

[Greg Blank]

Canada. I have had several folks send me processors from Canada. You never send the whole processor BTW just the motor controller and heater.

Sad part is that customs tends to open the processors with a screw driver to inspect them. So some people have them shipped close to the border then pick them up and transport them from the closest Fedex depot- etc. I wish I knew someone technical person there but I do not. I'll PM you with some additional thoughts.



Greg: Any repairmen in Ontario, Canada that you know of? My CPE-2 Plus is not longer maintaining heat.

[domaz]

On one hand I admire the resourceful nature of taking on these kind of issues, I have been toying with ideas related to building processors in the event that the parts are NLA, however here is the issue with removing the impellor. It acts as a partial seal to keep water from leaking inside the processor. If you ever turn the pump on without it, its' almost guaranteed that you are drawing some liquid into the bottom and potentially shorting your tranformer board. If you continue I suggest you plug the area around the actual metal spindle of the pump shaft....with silicon at least.

Thanks for the tip- I will take a look at that. Maybe I will try to re-wire it so the impellor can stay mounted but the pump motor won't actually run (but the Jobo will "think" it's running to keep the heater element on).

[b.cipolla]

The disclaimer is if you electrocute yourself you were warned.

I never advise people to open the unit....but: If you take the cover off make sure its unplugged from the wall. The CPA has a thin wire running to the indicator light, removing the cover you must be care not to open the cover so far that the wire is broken. You need to pull the knobs off carefully with a flat bladed screw driver- use the driver to carefully pry them off the shafts. I set them at rememberable locations like 38.00 before removing, any that have a similar number set, I mark inside where it came from.

The pump has two wires running inside they carry 110 V. Positive and Common. Pull the wires off the stake on's and then use a clipped off pig tail from a power cord. In other words you will directly plug the pump into a house hold 110V outlet and clip the wires from that pig tail using soldered on alligator clips. Make sure the machine is dry when you do this, not sitting in water. If the pump runs their is a circuit board issue and the pump will not need to be replaced. Circuit board issues, well then you will need to send myself or someone else the machine. Beyond that you won't be able to fix it yourself. If its just the pump, I can most likely get you the native piece. If you are confident you have the mechnical skills to replace the pump, instructions will be available.

Just tried this out and have determined that it is indeed the pump that is broken and not the circuit board. Only thing is, I'm a little short on money and am getting very impatient with this processor. Someone mentioned using an immersible garden pump as a replacement. Does anyone else have any "cheap" fixes or at least more specific instructions on how to go about using a garden pump with the processor? Thanks.

[polyglot]

The submersible garden (fountain) pumps are just a little black plastic brick containing an impeller and potted motor; should cost about $20 from a hardware store. Don't fiddle with mains electricity unless you're qualified, and it's not necessary in this case any way; leave the cord on the new pump and don't try to wire it into the controller.

Obviously, the pump goes in the bottom trough to suck water up adjacent to the element and you attach a bit of flexible tubing to the outlet so that the pumped water ends into the top trough. You must move the temperature probe so that it's in the outflow of the new pump, not sitting in the stagnated water in the old pump body, otherwise the temperature controller will be unstable and you will get massive temperature swings.

I'm pretty sure the controller has no idea if the pump is running or not, just whether it has applied power to it - note that there's no encoder or anything on the pump motor. So you don't need to fool the controller into thinking the pump is running; you could just disconnect the old pump motor's electrical connections and plug the new pump directly into the powerpoint, completely separate from the controller. And of course, make sure you don't run the heater without also running the pump.

Edit: you could also try cleaning the pump motor very carefully. Mine had completely siezed from gummed lubricants after being stored in a shed for 4 years so I pulled the pump out, disassembled it, unglued the bearings, re-oiled the felt washer, etc, and now it's mostly all good. Takes about 30s for it to come up to speed and draw water to the upper trough (helps if the bottom trough is really really full), but once it's going it's OK. PM me your email address and I can send you the CPP-2 service manual or you can find a link to it on APUG; I think the pumps are the same as used in the CPA-2.

[Sevo]

If the seller credibly claims that the pump worked for him recently, it may also help to fill the processor with already warm water. The pump grease grows more viscous over the course of time, but that may not become evident in a constantly used processor, as it may still be soft enough at working temperature.