[Col]

I replaced my shurflo pump midweek and I have noticed the battery is draining real fast.
Fully charged battery was down to 10.5 volts after just over an hours work and fully charged again down to 11.3 after half an hour.
I don't have the flow on full probably half flow or under.
Anyone have any ideas please.
I am mostly trad and always bench charge the battery before a job but it never drained like this before.
The pump is a 100psi .

[Spruce]

I replaced my shurflo pump midweek and I have noticed the battery is draining real fast.
Fully charged battery was down to 10.5 volts after just over an hours work and fully charged again down to 11.3 after half an hour.
I don't have the flow on full probably half flow or under.
Anyone have any ideas please.
I am mostly trad and always bench charge the battery before a job but it never drained like this before.
The pump is a 100psi .

Sounds like the battery is either not holding a charge or the charger isn't working properly.
What battery is it?

[Col]

Hi Spruce
Thanks for the reply.
Battery is s Tanya Powerline Extreme.
I am unsure of the specification but the problem has only started since I replaced the pump.
Battery charger is a new Halfords one too.

[Ched]

Silly question but why did you replace the pump?
Depends a bit on what equipment you have to test things.
Ideally check voltage before you start - 100% fully charged should be about 12.7v (rested after charging). Ideally measure the current new pump is pulling.
If you took a battery down to 10.5v it is probably dead or getting to the end of it's life. Again 11.3v (rested not under load) isabout 10% left and as a general rule taking a battery below  30% (11.8v) will drastically reduce it's life. Ideally you should not drain it to below 50% (12.06v) if you want max life out of the battery.

Check all connections are clean, corrosion free and tight. Check the fully charged voltage in case your charger is faulty. If you are getting a fully charged voltage 12.7v (rested after charging) then it is going down to 11.3v in half an hour then I guess you need a new battery.

[Col]

I replaced the pump because the last one I had I bought second hand and had the pressure switch by passed.
I have had the battery for 5 years plus but I can go weeks without using it and it has always behaved itself.
Only noticed this problem since swapping pumps over last week.
I have a wfp job on Monday morning and will see how it goes on a full charge but could be a coincidence it has decided to die just now.
I have checked the battery with a multi meter and is fully charged after being on charger.
If I connect multi meter to battery when pump is running will that tell me how much the pump is pulling?

[Ched]

I replaced the pump because the last one I had I bought second hand and had the pressure switch by passed.
I have had the battery for 5 years plus but I can go weeks without using it and it has always behaved itself.
Only noticed this problem since swapping pumps over last week.
I have a wfp job on Monday morning and will see how it goes on a full charge but could be a coincidence it has decided to die just now.
I have checked the battery with a multi meter and is fully charged after being on charger.
If I connect multi meter to battery when pump is running will that tell me how much the pump is pulling?

If it's 5 years old then you have done well.
If you use a multimeter on the dc voltage scale and the probes on the battery terminals it will tell you what the voltage is not what current the pump is pulling.
If your multimeter has a dc current setting (you usually have to move +ve probe into another slot) and it goes to at least 10 amps (ideally 20 amps) then the multimeter needs to go in series  with the pump, so the +ve that goes to the controller has to flow through the multimeter. That would then give you a current reading that the controller/pump is drawing.

[mac74]

It sounds to me that your battery has lost most of its capacity, ive also had this on batts when they reach their end life. If the battery is old and appears to look fully charged on your charger with no warning lights on it after charging, but it still drops off in voltage fast, i would say your battery needs changing. Example:  Its like say a 100ah batt is only fully charging say 20ah of it because the rest (80ah) is dead because its old and had many cycles already, thats why the battery drops off fast because it probably only has 20% good left in it that works. But it will still look fully charged (12.7 - 12.9v) on the meter, because you may affectively only have 20 amps left in it that charges properly . This is my understanding anyway. Good luck m
 

[Col]

Thank you Ched and mac74 for the replies.
Looks like a expensive week for me I just bought a new reel on top of the pump and now a new battery.
I will see how it goes on Monday but I am mainly trad and won't use the wfp again until the friday.
Off topic but the reason I bought the new pump was I am DI after the pump and I forgot to connect the reel the week before and after a while of standing looking at the brush waiting for water I realised my mistake and having no pressure switch I flooded the van.
After tightening every thing up I still have a pressure leak from the screw top riser on the DI vessel.
I have tried thread tape but still leaking.
Don't tell me I need a new one of them too 😮

[mac74]

Thank you Ched and mac74 for the replies.
Looks like a expensive week for me I just bought a new reel on top of the pump and now a new battery.
I will see how it goes on Monday but I am mainly trad and won't use the wfp again until the friday.
Off topic but the reason I bought the new pump was I am DI after the pump and I forgot to connect the reel the week before and after a while of standing looking at the brush waiting for water I realised my mistake and having no pressure switch I flooded the van.
After tightening every thing up I still have a pressure leak from the screw top riser on the DI vessel.
I have tried thread tape but still leaking.
Don't tell me I need a new one of them too 😮

Check the top of the riser, you should have a rubber sealing ring at the top of it. When you say pressure switch, do you mean the on top of the old pump that failed? if so you can buy a pressure switch kit, which will make the pump work properly again?

[Col]

I will check for the sealing ring.
It is not a major leak but annoying and I just tie a cloth round the top.
Can you buy replacement rings?
The pump came with a second hand wfp fitted van I bought and I have moved it over to my current van.
It was an old Cleantech board it was mounted on and I just got used to it.
Not using it every day it has served me well.
I had a spare pump with a pressure switch from my first Peter Fogwill Aquatech trolley but it had female ports and push fit connectors so I just bought the new one.
Those last few paragraphs have aged me😄

[Col]

Ok so this morning the battery went from fully charged to 10.60v in around half an hour's work.
Finished the job and drove to Halfords and bought a new battery.
Strange that it died on me just as I switched pumps last week but there you go.
I won't be using the Wfp until Friday but hopefully nothing goes wrong then.
On the plus side the DI vessel seems to have stopped leaking.
It was maybe having the flow up too high was causing too much pressure in it.

[mac74]

Ok so this morning the battery went from fully charged to 10.60v in around half an hour's work.
Finished the job and drove to Halfords and bought a new battery.
Strange that it died on me just as I switched pumps last week but there you go.
I won't be using the Wfp until Friday but hopefully nothing goes wrong then.
On the plus side the DI vessel seems to have stopped leaking.
It was maybe having the flow up too high was causing too much pressure in it.

Did you find the rubber sealing ring on the riser?

[Col]

I never had time to look but if it starts leaking again I will have a butchers.