Audio Desk Systeme - Vinyl Cleaner – Repair of Water Pump Failure


After the water pump of my beloved Vinyl Cleaner from Audio Desk Systeme stopped working I searched the web and found that I’m not the only one with this problem. But nowhere did I find a blog or post that would describe a repair procedure – other than to mail the machine back to Germany for an expensive repair.

If your machine is still under warranty you should of course send it back for warranty repair. But if your machine is out of warranty (like mine) and your only option is to spend lots of money to get it fixed, you might want to consider repairing it yourself.

The way the vinyl cleaner is designed does not allow any maintenance or replacement of any component located inside the machine without destroying something. The whole machine is glued together! Something I have not seen before to this extent – especially not on a high dollar item like this. Only the components in the upper compartment where the white cleaning rollers are located can be accessed thru the opening in the top cover.

To get started you need to separate the bottom PVC plate from the bottom of the tank. Both plates are glued together. I used a flat pry-bar to carefully separate the bottom plate without breaking it. Shining a flash light thru the water sight glass you can see the blue water pump thru the drain hole of the tank.

To get to the water pump you need to remove the bottom of the tank (or parts of it) which is glued to the recessed side walls.

Use a permanent marker to draw straight lines on the tank bottom – 5 mm inbound from the side walls. The PVC side walls are 5 mm thick. Try to cut slightly inside that line to not cut into the recessed side walls. I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel.

Once the bottom of the tank is removed you have access to the water pump and all other internal components. To disconnect the pump wires from the main board you need to remove the front panel with on/off switch. Follow the pump cable from the tank and disconnect both wires from the terminal.

In my case it turned out that the pump actually did not fail - it was simply seized up. Once I rotated the little impeller by hand and hooked it up to the 24 V DC power supply in the sink it started to pump fine again.

In case you find your pump to be dead and need a replacement look for “Barwig Tauchpumpe Typ 3 24 V DC”. Price is around 18 EUR (appr. 20 USD) at amazon.de or conrad.com. Unfortunately I was not able to find a supplier who would ship to the U.S.. You may need to be creative – or plan your next vacation in Germany ...

If you use aquarium grade silicone adhesive instead of strong PVC adhesive to put it all together you will be able to undo everything easier in case you need to access the inside of the machine again. 

Feel free to email me if you have questions or need pictures.

Decibell

decibell
One further item regarding this black pump. It is not self-priming. So give that its impeller is not near the bottom as on the other pumps, you need to make sure that there is at least 2” of water in the tank for it to start pumping. Now presumedly the low water level interlock triggered by the float distance will prevent it from starting but its worth noting anyway.
After reviewing the procedure I used to change the pump, there are a couple of thinks I would do differently than described here that I thought I'd share.

When marking the bottom for the cut, instead of using a marker, I would start by first lightly scoring the 4 lines using a razor knife and straightedge. At the 4 corners, I would then drill a 3mm (1/8") hole to define the line ends. Finally I would heavily score the lines in order to create a positive groove to follow with a cut-off wheel or end-cutter tool. This would leave a cleaner cut with protection from going too far to the sides.

The other is that I was uncomfortable in having to totally reassemble and seal the unit to be able to test it especially if I am not using the OEM pump. Once the pump is installed, the unit can be temporarily tested by placing in on a structural foam board or dense foam pad placed in a dish pan/washing tray which can hold at least 2 gals (8 l) and weighted down or clamped with bar clamps. This will allow it to be filled with minimal leakage yet still be able to have the power cord safely attached to test. Once the test is completed, simply unplugging and lifting the unit drains it with the advantage of getting rid of any left over cuttings or debris. This technique would let me test more than one pump with minimal setup.
I did the pump replacement...twice.  The first time I used a pump that was too small, so I had to replace it with a larger pump.  I found the pump on eBay item description: 

900L/H DC 24V Brushless Magnetic Submersible Water Pump Fish Pond Solar Powered

The machine works perfectly.
I had looked at this pump but was concerned it had too much throughput. Glad to hear it works fine as the price is great.