Broken Impeller on Ikawi WMD-40RXLT

I am working on the plumbing for my 120 gallon that I got from someone else here, and tonight I decided I was going to clean out the Ikawi pump before firing it up. Might as well start out clean, right...

This is the pump that I got from the same member here that sold me the tank last week. I did some price shopping and the impeller runs $80 plus shipping. Ouch! This was sold as working, and it does move water (he used it to empty his 75 gallon sump) but I was wondering why it was SO noisy at his house, but thought that it was just his setup. An out of balance impeller spinning at high RPM would shake and be noisy as heck. Hopefully he and I can come to some agreement. I don't *think* that he would have intentionally sold this broken, but I certainly was paying for one that was working. I saw that the same model Ikawi with a broken impeller was unable to be sold over at Reef Central about a year ago. Not even for $20. The guy ended up just giving it away. Am I asking too much for the seller to help fix this, or should I just expect to "eat" the cost of an impeller?

 

What did the seller say when you asked him?

 

So far no response, but it has been just overnight. I sent him a PM here since it was about 9pm when I got the impeller out, and then hit my "oh crap" moment. I didn't want to call yet since I am trying to be respectful of people's evening/night schedules. I just thought I would ask here if I should expect something from the seller, or if people think that I am just going to end up eating the cost of a $80 impeller, then I might as well order one, although I will be pretty pissed about it. Just looking to see if I am justified in expecting a working pump.

 

well i know how that is . Now days you need to go over everything when buying used . And if its a 500 gal tank make the seller fill it up . Its sad when you take peoples word for it . GL with everything bud.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IWAKI-L-MD-40RM-NEW-MAG-DRIVE-PUMP-LIQUID-END-LMD40RM-/261034975769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc6e5a219#ht_208wt_934

here is one for 40$

i believe the impeller cross refrences

 

My thoughts are that you should give the member time to settle this privately before coming to the board your grievances.

 

That is why I haven't named anyone and openly stated that I don't think that the seller intended to trick me or anything. I just want to get my system up and running and didn't know if I should go and buy a new impeller to at least get it coming, or wait it out for potentially a few days? I have a business trip coming up in just under a week that will take me to the NE part of the country for 5 days, then the following week I will be in Dallas. I would like to have this issue handled prior to departure, but I guess I will just wait it out. Better than coughing up another $80.

Joshua, I sent an email off to the eBay seller to make sure that it includes the impeller. I asked for photos of the inside too. I would hate to pay for that (about $50 with shipping) to get everything BUT the impeller since the going rate elsewhere for the front and back pieces that can be seen in that eBay listing add up to about $43 for the ones for my pump. That doesn't include the impeller at those places, so I would want to be sure. I am still trying to find a cross-reference part number to make sure that it would even work.

 

Sorry to hear about your luck and just as luck would have it. I had 1 sitting in a box of junk parts from old pumps up til last weeks garbage day. I don't use iwaki anymore after switching to Reeflo.

 

You are just cruel.







Update, we may have a little progress from the seller. Lets keep fingers crossed.



Too bad you couldn't repair impellers. I looked into that last night, and found that (at least for this style) repair attempts were HIGHLY discouraged.

 

Does anyone know if there is a local to Cedar Rapids place to get impellers fo Iwaki pumps? I am looking at $90 with shipping online, but that is from a place that I've never heard of (CustomAquatics.com).

 

i would verify with iwaki on the cross refrence on the impeller i posted a link for. they will know right off the bat weather its the blade or turbine style impeller and on the cross refrence option.


chances are the seller you purchased it from didnt know it was broke either/by the look of the chewed up center of the impeller the noise you were hearing when you viewed it might of been there and when it was powered down possibly could of broke the blade then, (

 

Right. I think I've said that a couple of times. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/tongue.gif





It was noisier than it should have been when I was there, but the setup was somewhat make-shift since he had already taken the tank down and was just using it for pulling water out of his 75 gallon sump, so I blamed the loudness on that. Little did (probably) either of us know that it was a broken impeller. Make sense now, but didn't seem obvious at the time.

 

I just talked to Iwaki (508-429-1440) and of course they can't sell me anything direct (makes sense). Got the part number for the impeller as MD0089.

I also asked about the L-MD-40RM (from the ebay listing mentioned above) and he said that he would not recommend buying that one, that the impellers are not included in the part.

So I am seeing more sources for MD0089 than a direct search by the pump model, but they are all even more expensive.

 

I still think that you need to talk to the original owner and see what he can do for you. You might be better off to return it and start off with a new pump.

 

Long story short, he won't take it back. He offered to pay for about 50% of the impeller cost by the way. I haven't seen the funds yet though, so it is just words at this point.

 

Call me. I have a the same pump laying around. (319) 361 - 8306. I think my magnet is bad but the impeller is fine.

 

The seller gave me, basically, $50 to buy an impeller. Refunded via paypal, and now I am just waiting for the funds to clear. I am having a difficult time finding someone with the impeller actually in stock though, regardless of cost. I talked to ThyRaven about his pump, and might fall back on buying that, but it isn't 100% either. I'm waiting for this company up in Minnesota to get back to me about how much and how quickly they can get me an impeller. They were the closest reseller that Iwaki customer support recommended.

All in all, it will work out in the end. I hate the fact that I have to pay $40 or so myself to get a pump working that I was told was working fine, especially when the seller told me (in response to the broken impeller) "caveat emptor" which means "buyer beware." Wow. That sent me over the top for a while. I mean, it is basically saying "tough luck, I got your money already." I would never want someone to ever say or think that about me as a seller, and this guy said it about himself. Yikes.

On a positive note, I guess, I looked in my tank tonight (which has just enough water to cover the sand and live rock (about 75 gallons so far) and noticed some small "coral" on the rock. Hmmm... I wasn't planning on growing corals, and I don't remember seeing these before. I will have to snap a picture and post them elsewhere here and let a "coral expert" tell me what it is. Hopefully they are actually good and easy ones, and not some nasty hitchhiker or something that I will kill off in my attempt to keep them.

 

What did you have to pay for the pump?

 

thats to bad. Looks like the guy you got it from just got on here to sell the equipment.

 

iaJim, it was part of a bundle, but the asking price of the pump after negotiation, after the "discount" for buying multiple stuff was about $80. Not a bad price for a used one if it was working. As mentioned above, one poor guy at RC couldn't even sell his with a broken impeller for $20 and ended up giving it away. I only know that because it was a search result when searching "iwaki wmd-40rlxt impeller". So it will basically be $120-$130, again a deal for a working pump, just not nearly as good of a deal as I was expecting or paid for.



bearsareawesome, yeah, I see that now that 100% of his posts here are in the single topic thread to sell his stuff. Lesson learned I guess.