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Irrigation / I'm tired of replacing my AquaBoost pumps & controllers!
« on: August 14, 2012, 10:03:56 PM »
I have a residential irrigation system with 48 zones. Our water is very expensive so I had a well dug that's 388' deep back in 2001. My driller stopped when he hit water but it turned out that I only get 3.5 gpm so I had to install a 10,000 gal above ground tank and an additional irrigation pump system. The number of sprinklers in each zone vary considerably so I bought an AquaBoost II package with a 1.5HP 3 phase motor/pump 1MC1F2B0 (in 2002). The 2AB2 controller failed the first season and was replaced under warranty. My first pump failed 1 or 2 months after the warranty expired which cost me about $600 to replace with shipping. My 2nd pump (which was about 4 years old) failed 3 weeks ago and I bought a slightly different version, a Goulds 1MC1F5B0, which is more water resistent but much noisier. This set me back $552 delivered. Now my 2AB2 controller failed yesterday. I found one in stock online so I ordered it with 1 day express delivery because we're having a stetch of hot, sunny weather and my wife will kill me if all her shrubs & flowers burn up -- the lawn is already looking a little burnt here & there. This set me back about 800 bucks (delivery was $163)! I want a variable boost system but I'm ready to switch to an alternative and was researching what might be available when I found a blog entry that referenced CSV.
Now I'm wondering what it would cost me to replace the entire system I have or better yet, be able to use the Goulds 1MC1F5B0 motor/pump that I just bought. I want to be prepared to act fast next time one of these expensive components dies or it turns out the I've misdiagnosed the controller as having failed (it has power to the unit but no power to the pump and the unit's idiot light is off).
Seems like every time I have a failure it's at the worst possible time with hot weather and as I mentioned, my water bill can quickly add up to be well over the price of even the high priced AquaBoost components if I have to use our association's water for irrigation. Not only that but it's always a struggle to find the pump in stock around the country because I learned on this go-around that Gould's only builds them on demand.
Any suggestions an switching and advice on what components I'll need would be greatly appreciated.
Now I'm wondering what it would cost me to replace the entire system I have or better yet, be able to use the Goulds 1MC1F5B0 motor/pump that I just bought. I want to be prepared to act fast next time one of these expensive components dies or it turns out the I've misdiagnosed the controller as having failed (it has power to the unit but no power to the pump and the unit's idiot light is off).
Seems like every time I have a failure it's at the worst possible time with hot weather and as I mentioned, my water bill can quickly add up to be well over the price of even the high priced AquaBoost components if I have to use our association's water for irrigation. Not only that but it's always a struggle to find the pump in stock around the country because I learned on this go-around that Gould's only builds them on demand.
Any suggestions an switching and advice on what components I'll need would be greatly appreciated.