I am still in the process of installing my spindle. I hooked up the pond pump and submerged it in a 5 gallon bucket all per the instructions that came with the kit. i plugged the pump in after adding 2 gallons of windshield washer fluid, and the line filled up fairly quickly. I let the pump run to push the air bubbles out and everything seems fine (no noises, no leaks) but when I checked on it, it looks like the flow is very low, the bubbles don’t move through the lines.
I opened the bucket, and there are no kinks in the hoses, and the hose is securely fastened to the pump outlet, but when I pulled the return line up out of the fluid, a tiny trickle of water is returning to the bucket.
I’m curious what the flow rate is with the pump outlet hose returning directly to the bucket. In other words, if you skip the return hose and the spindle, is the flow much higher? If the flow remains at a trickle you can eliminate the spindle and the return hose as the source of the problem.
I connected a spare section of the hose, and had good pressure and flow. So I figured the pump was good.
I then connected the “return side” to the pump, but still had reduced flow.
Once I got the spindle wired up and running, I now have good flow and pressure…
Our maker system had a pond pump, then a second pond pump. I estimate each pump lasted about 6 hours of use before it failed. Finally we just purchased a chiller for under $200 with all necessary flow and temperature alarms. It has operated for about 300 hours without issue.
My advice, just spend the extra $$ and get a real chiller for monitoring and alarms. Stop wasting time and effort to save $100 on your $5K purchase.
I bought a Vevor CW-3000 for under $200 on Amazon. However, it wasn’t without issue.
When it arrived, the LED’s had fallen out of the lenses, so I had to take it apart and re-install the LED’s.
The fluid fittings are 10mm but the hose to the spindle are 6mm, so 10 mm hose and adapters were needed.
The CW-3000 pumped well but went into flow alarm when pumping was restricted to the 6mm diameter hose. Since the flow alarm level is not adjustable, I had to rig up a fluid loop-back/ T configuration with an adjustable valve on the feedback so the alarm would not signal all the time.