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Hwale

72 posts

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#324614 4-May-2026 15:19
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I have a Grundfos Scala2 supplying water to a small domestic household. The water source is a large rainwater tank. 

 

Over the last few months the pump has been running more and more often, unneccessarily. 

 

I know that a common cause of this problem is that the internal (air) pressure tank loses pressure and needs to be recharged. There's a schrader valve on the pump to allow this. 

 

When I measured the pressure I found that there was no pressure at all, cool I've found the problem then. But the weird thing is that it takes very little air to get the internal tank up to pressure, and being a schrader valve the full volume of air I pumped in just escapes when the pump is disconnected from the valve with a loud and very brief PSHHHT. This is identical to the loss of a very small amount of air just like a bike or car tyre when you remove the line, but because the tank is so small it's ALL the air escaping. 

 

This seems odd - how do you pressurise a tank so small that all the air escapes due to the design of the valve you use to pressurise it?

 

Also a note on the behaviour of the pump - it turns on when we run water and turns off when we stop. Good, that's what it's meant to do. But then 5 minutes later it runs again. It starts slow, gradually increases in speed, slows down and stops in a cycle that takes about 10 seconds. It repeats this start stop cycle for 5 to 20 minutes. 

 

There are no leaks anywhere. 

 

 

 

I haven't even found a plumber locally who sells or services these pumps - the only one who had any familiarity at all said they have to get their parts for this pump from Singapore and don't have any in stock. 

 

Grundfos NZ haven given very little support so far. How does this pump seem so common but so unsupported?

 

Does anyone have experience with this pump who can offer advice?


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MuzaNZ
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  #3487374 4-May-2026 15:35
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The pump you've got uses a VFD module to control the speed of the pump. The idea behind this is that it can match its speed to the flow of water needed, making it more power efficient, but also reducing the number of on/off cycles. The cycle you're seeing with the speeding up and then down again is fairly normal.

 

The pump only turns on once it detects a pressure drop in the line, and the bladder tank just acts as a buffer so that pressure changes in your system are more gradual.

 

 

 

The pump turning on by itself (regardless the health of the pressure tank) would indicate that there is a small leak somewhere in your system.

 

Do you have a pressure gauge connected near the pump? If you do i would recommend running the pump to build up pressure, then turn it off and close valve on the outlet of the pump. Check it after an hour or so and see if the pressure has changed, if its dropped you've got a small leak somewhere.




tweake
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  #3487471 4-May-2026 20:05
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what pressure are you setting it to?

 

make sure you drain the water first. then put the pressure, plus a tad more as you loose a bit when you disconnect. however also keep in mind the bellows tend to split with age.

 

i'll bet there is a tiny tiny leak somewhere. the hot water tank pressure relief valve is a common one.

 

 


pih

pih
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  #3487474 4-May-2026 20:33
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Yeah, I agree with this:

 

tweake:

 

what pressure are you setting it to?

 

make sure you drain the water first. then put the pressure, plus a tad more as you loose a bit when you disconnect. however also keep in mind the bellows tend to split with age.

 

i'll bet there is a tiny tiny leak somewhere. the hot water tank pressure relief valve is a common one.

 

 

You shouldn't pressurise the tank while it's connected to the system, because it will be full of (incompressible) water. Switch off the pump, depressurise the water line, then ideally remove and drain the tank and repressurise it to spec. If that's too hard then you might be able to get away with isolating the pump, opening a tap valve and repressurising the tank slowly with air.

 

If it still leaks you might have a leaky Schrader valve. Try tightening the valve core.

 

A pressure gauge is definitely a useful addition if you don't have one. And remember that leaks may not be visible. I had a similar problem and after an afternoon of digging half a dozen holes in the lawn I finally found a leak in one of the underground joins. 


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