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My dredge pump decided to become a fountain in the middle of the Des Moines River
We were pulling up a load of gravel last Tuesday when the main pump housing cracked with a sound like a gunshot. Water shot straight up about fifteen feet, soaking me and the control panel. I had to kill the engine and radio the barge tender to bring over the spare housing from the shop. Took us three hours to swap it out in the current. Anyone else had a pump fail that spectacularly?
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anderson.jason2mo agoMost Upvoted
Fifteen feet of spray sounds more like a bad seal than a full housing failure... did you check the pressure gauge before it went?
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the_hannah2mo ago
The gauge was reading "oh no" right before it let go. A bad seal would be a polite trickle, not a geyser that soaked my neighbor's cat.
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morgan9151mo ago
Oh man, that's brutal. A geyser like that is a full-on system meltdown, not a simple leak. I had a water heater fitting blow once and it was like a fire hose in my basement. Soaked everything, even my toolbox. Total nightmare to clean up. Hope your neighbor's cat is okay.
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