Cascade canister

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Yeah...doesn't sound right at all. The motor doesn't 'blow' it 'sucks', meaning that the water free-flows into the intake and the impeller forces it back through the out tube. It sounds to me like some part has broken free and is actually stopping the water from flowing past a certain point near the inflow of the head unit. Since the pump-start feature wasn't working, my guess would be that what you are seeing is related to that part not working.

Say for instance that the pump button, when you push it down, forces a spring-loaded bladder of some type down, and then when you let go it creates a vacuum to 'suck' the water into the inlet tube - or it could create the vacuum when you push it in, either way...let's say that whatever is supposed to move one way and then back is 'stuck' in one spot. This would cause the water to stop at that spot.

The fact that you can blow air through it mean that it must be something that, when the water gets to it, seals the passage due to the pressure, like a backflow preventer.

Wait...this may sound stupid, but do you have in/out reversed somehow? You have to suck on the outlet, if you suck on the inlet, you would get water to the head and then it would hit the backflow preventer (assuming there is one).

Still I'm guessing that something is wrong in the head unit. I think you can remove that assembly and you should be able to see the primer plunger assembly, the channel for routing the intake water, the impeller, everything. I remember because I took one out of the box to check it out.
 
I see what you're saying Floyd and thats a really good idea! Perhaps there is a little peice of plastic blocking the water in the head unit from flowing to the rest of the canister. The in/out tubes are impossible to mess up as they are color coded. Stick blue hose in blue nozzle and black hose in black nozzle.
The head unit is all sealed up with several screws, but it couldnt hurt to unscrew everything and poke around a bit. The reason I havent tried that yet is that in case I need to send this whole thing back, I dont want to void any warranties.
 
Yep! About three days ago. Eventually I just gave up all tinkering and sucked on the output hose to fill it that way. It worked like a charm and the filter is doing nicely.
The primer on this system just doesnt seem to work. Big Al sent me a new power unit thinking that could be the trouble but it brought no new results. Before that I tried filling up the filter manualy with a glass, but I suppose that didnt work because there was still a small bit of air trapped in the cannister. The only sure way to get the thing to run was to fill it completely via sucking on the output hose.
Thanks for all your help! Now to post questions about my cycling :)
 
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