Proposed fix for leaking Kamoer pumpheads (including Mastertronic)

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sector9

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Are you sure? I bought 2mm X 4mm. Everything I could find (which wasn't much) suggests the tube inside the head is 2mm X 4mm and it connects to a 3mm X 5mm tube.
Yes there are all sorts of different tubing sizes that Kamoer sells. The one on the MT is the “B08”. See attached file. As long as you are able to calibrate the pumpheads, they would probably work with the 2mm tubing though? As mentioned above, these pumpheads take care of rinsing and waste duties but it is the stepper that actually adds the sample so I think you’d be fine if it will calibrate reasonably for you? I believe the X1 pumps use the B06 tubing so the 2mm ID tubing would be OEM for those!
1664476305557.png
 

Joe31415

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I did measure the tube again this morning and 2.5x4.5 seems correct. The stuff I ordered from Amazon (2x4) just showed up. I guessing it's not going to work, but I have it so I'll at least try.
In the mean time, does anyone know where to get the correct tubing? The only way I can find it, even on eBay, has it being shipped from China and I'd prefer not to wait that long.

I also want to swap the tubes in my Versa pumps, so I'll have to figure that out too.
 

zbryant91

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Here's where I got Versa tubing

I ordered the pharmed from the seller on ebay from china this week. shows ~3 weeks for delivery estimate for me
 

Joe31415

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McMaster Carr never crossed my mind for any of this. Which one did you use for the Versa pumps?

Also, very quickly looking at it, I didn't see any tubing in .5mm increments (ie 2.5mm, 4.5mm etc), so I'm guessing they don't have one that will work for the Kamoer.
 

zbryant91

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McMaster Carr never crossed my mind for any of this. Which one did you use for the Versa pumps?

Also, very quickly looking at it, I didn't see any tubing in .5mm increments (ie 2.5mm, 4.5mm etc), so I'm guessing they don't have one that will work for the Kamoer.
should be the one that opens up. is the 3/16x5/16. Saint gobain e1000 tygon

And no, not that I know of for the kamoers. or the alkatronic tubes. Ordered those from ebay as well.
 

Enderg60

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Im planning to take mine down this week to replace tubes and add those 3d printed bushings.

My pump B already split the hose, so C cant be far behind. Id rather schedule the time to take the dang thing apart instead of it failing and making me do it when I dont expect it.
 

Joe31415

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sector9

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Did you post that on purpose? That was a quote from me upthread.


What happened here? It seems like a number of your posts are that, or something similar to it.
He’s a spammer. Report his posts and the mods will clean him up
 

Joe31415

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He’s a spammer. Report his posts and the mods will clean him up
Now I'm going to have to pay more attention. I've noticed on this board there's a lot of posts that are a quote but nothing else. I just assumed it's a software bug, but I've never looked to see if there's some little tiny text/links that I was missing.
 

Enderg60

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Ok this will be kind of long but here we go.

I have one mastertronic in operation and another brand new one that will be going on my new tank.

After about 280 tests my pump B hose split. While waiting for the warrantied hose to come I swapped in the pump head from my new unit just to keep it running. After about 6-8 weeks I finally got my replacement hose.

During this time I searched around for cheaper hose, as this was obviously going to be an ongoing issue.

I found the hose on aliexpress, its the 4.5mmx2.5mm stuff. Sells for about $20 a meter(as opposed to $20 for 6")
Hose link

Its a pretty close match, here are the hose above, the brand name tube, and the tube removed from the pump.
Mn397nW.jpg

eju3l93.jpg


I also found the 3d printed bushing at the start of this thread. I decided to print some out and install them on all the pumps. This unfortunately requires taking the unit apart to access pump C. It appears you can just cut away some of the casing and you could do it without taking it all apart but I decided to do it right just in case.

At this point the mastertronic had performed about 100 more tests since the leak when I swapped the pumps. It took me about an hour to get the unit apart. I wound up not disconnecting the wiring and just moving the internals until I could get to pump C. The second one took less than 30 min to complete. Here is what I found.

The original pump B failure at 280 tests.
uksx6o1.jpg


Pump C at 380 tests. Boy and I glad I decided to do this now.
cAmoEqo.jpg


Pump B (the one I swapped in at about 100 tests) I went ahead and replaced this hose as well.
rIH8oWA.jpg


Pump A at about 380 test.
ipXJPVQ.jpg


All 3 hoses after removal.
9IeSeDs.jpg


Pump head with a new hose and the bushing installed.
fHuuScx.jpg


And for reference here is a brand new, unused pump.
XMDAdat.jpg


So I have a running mastertronic with "off-brand" tubing and bushings on all 3 pumps. I re-calibrated the pumps and its done a testing cycle without issue. I will be monitoring the hose wear periodically since pumps A and B are easily popped off to look at. I have a few spare bushings and at least 2 feet of hose left.

The new unit has all stock hoses and I added the bushings.

Site notes.

Its obvious these pumps were not intented to need servicing so Im guessing this is a pump design flaw that the bushing hopefully fixes. And hopefully focustronic addresses ASAP.

I have done zero other maintenance to my mastertronic over the past 380 tests aside from 1 pump calibration. Im still rocking the same needles and rubber tops. I plan to run a descaling once or twice and replacing the rubber things over the next week. Needles are fine, Im leaving those alone.
 
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sector9

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Ok this will be kind of long but here we go.

I have one mastertronic in operation and another brand new one that will be going on my new tank.

After about 280 tests my pump B hose split. While waiting for the warrantied hose to come I swapped in the pump head from my new unit just to keep it running. After about 6-8 weeks I finally got my replacement hose.

During this time I searched around for cheaper hose, as this was obviously going to be an ongoing issue.

I found the hose on aliexpress, its the 4.5mmx2.5mm stuff. Sells for about $20 a meter(as opposed to $20 for 6")
Hose link

Its a pretty close match, here are the hose above, the brand name tube, and the tube removed from the pump.
Mn397nW.jpg

eju3l93.jpg


I also found the 3d printed bushing at the start of this thread. I decided to print some out and install them on all the pumps. This unfortunately requires taking the unit apart to access pump C. It appears you can just cut away some of the casing and you could do it without taking it all apart but I decided to do it right just in case.

At this point the mastertronic had performed about 100 more tests since the leak when I swapped the pumps. It took me about an hour to get the unit apart. I wound up not disconnecting the wiring and just moving the internals until I could get to pump C. The second one took less than 30 min to complete. Here is what I found.

The original pump B failure at 280 tests.
uksx6o1.jpg


Pump C at 380 tests. Boy and I glad I decided to do this now.
cAmoEqo.jpg


Pump B (the one I swapped in at about 100 tests) I went ahead and replaced this hose as well.
rIH8oWA.jpg


Pump A at about 380 test.
ipXJPVQ.jpg


All 3 hoses after removal.
9IeSeDs.jpg


Pump head with a new hose and the bushing installed.
fHuuScx.jpg


And for reference here is a brand new, unused pump.
XMDAdat.jpg


So I have a running mastertronic with "off-brand" tubing and bushings on all 3 pumps. I re-calibrated the pumps and its done a testing cycle without issue. I will be monitoring the hose wear periodically since pumps A and B are easily popped off to look at. I have a few spare bushings and at least 2 feet of hose left.

The new unit has all stock hoses and I added the bushings.

Site notes.

Its obvious these pumps were not intented to need servicing so Im guessing this is a pump design flaw that the bushing hopefully fixes. And hopefully focustronic addresses ASAP.

I have done zero other maintenance to my mastertronic over the past 380 tests aside from 1 pump calibration. Im still rocking the same needles and rubber tops. I plan to run a descaling once or twice and replacing the rubber things over the next week. Needles are fine, Im leaving those alone.
Thanks for sharing your notes! I look forward to your updates going forward. To clarify one thing, you did install two bushings per pumphead, correct? One below the tubing, and one above?
 

Enderg60

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Thanks for sharing your notes! I look forward to your updates going forward. To clarify one thing, you did install two bushings per pumphead, correct? One below the tubing, and one above?

Here we have a FUUUUUUUU moment as I realize I forgot to put the bottom bushings in.
 
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sector9

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Here we have a FUUUUUUUU moment as I realize I forgot to put the bottom bushings in.
Ahh dang! I think all of the actual leaks/ hose splitting I have seen have been from the top side of the hose (meaning the visible side when you open the pumphead) but as I was doing my torture testing I noted some damage to the bottom side of the tubing. This may be because the bushings push the tubing the other direction. Therefore I do recommend installing two bushing per pumphead like I show in my YouTube video to prevent any wear from developing on either side
 

Enderg60

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Yup totally agree, Now that Ive done it twice it shouldnt take me long to get the bottom ones installed. Ill take care of it this weekend.
 

Joe31415

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After about 280 tests my pump B hose split.
I think that's just about exactly when mine broke as well. Pump A and B.

I told them A and B were both dripping and asked them to send three replacement hoses. I'm guessing they're only going send one or two, but we'll see.
Are they sending them from within the US or are they overseas? It's been about a week and nothing's arrived (nor even showing up on Informed Delivery).
 

92Miata

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Its obvious these pumps were not intented to need servicing so Im guessing this is a pump design flaw that the bushing hopefully fixes. And hopefully focustronic addresses ASAP.

I have done zero other maintenance to my mastertronic over the past 380 tests aside from 1 pump calibration. Im still rocking the same needles and rubber tops. I plan to run a descaling once or twice and replacing the rubber things over the next week. Needles are fine, Im leaving those alone.
I have a couple kamoer pumps - KEF, KXF, and a couple other different head designs - and none of them are good. I'm continually astounded by the positive reputation they have in this hobby.

And yeah - just popped open one of my hydros dosers - same deal - nice seam running along the tube at one of the rollers.
 

Enderg60

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I went through and added the second bushings to my units. I did notice the start of a crease on the back of the new hoses where I forgot the bushing. Other side looked just fine.

Ill take one out in a month or so to check the wear. Hopefully these do the trick. I do 15 tests a week so 4-6 weeks should be a good indicator since I saw a decent amount of wear on the hose with 100 tests on it.
 

erichuyn

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@sector9 and anybody else running the Sector9 washers, many thanks for fixing it btw, did you do any post-processing of the washers?
Mine have a slight bulge from the seam but only on the in and outside of the ring. Not the flat part.
Will the rollers take care of it or do I risk the rollers or the tubes if I don't sand it smooth.
 

Joe31415

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I finally got around to replacing the Pump C tube. It hadn't split yet, but it was getting there. I also checked the A and B pumps and they, and the washers, still seem to be holding up (but it hasn't been very long).

I'd like to replace all the tubes inside the unit. Some of them are getting pretty full of gunk. Does anyone know what size tubing that is? A very rough measurement gave me 4x5mm, but I'm not sure if that's right.

Also, the silicone vial covers are in pretty rough shape. At least one of them has almost entirely fallen apart. I can even see dried up 'dust' in the vial from it. Do we have a replacement for those? I saw in the replacement parts thread someone had mentioned buying a sheet of silicone and punching them out themselves. I'm guessing that's a lot cheaper than buying premade ones.
 
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