Aqua Ultraviolet Wiper Units Rusting

CMO · Dec 3, 2018

After only a few months my Aqua Ultraviolet wiper assemblies are rusting. After speaking with the company they claim this is caused by the way I have them installed with the outlets pointing horizontal which causes them to not fully fill with water. I'm having a hard time believing this to be the case since they run completely silent with no air bubbles in the lines (indicating a solid fill, no?). Given the 3/4" lines on the 2" UV bodies I imagine this would also help ensure they run full. I'm pushing about 300 gph through this setup. I'm contemplating adding a clear coupler to one of the units to see what going on inside but curious what you'll think before I go through that trouble.

Flippers4pups · Dec 3, 2018

CMO said:
After only a few months my Aqua Ultraviolet wiper assemblies are rusting. After speaking with the company they claim this is caused by the way I have them installed with the outlets pointing horizontal which causes them to not fully fill with water. I'm having a hard time believing this to be the case since they run completely silent with no air bubbles in the lines (indicating a solid fill, no?). Given the 3/4" lines on the 2" UV bodies I imagine this would also help ensure they run full. I'm pushing about 300 gph through this setup. I'm contemplating adding a clear coupler to one of the units to see what going on inside but curious what you'll think before I go through that trouble.

I would agree that the units aren't full of water and there would be air trapped in them when running, But, and I say BUT....... Regardless, they should not rust! Being made of stainless steel isn't the best choice of material in a salt environment, but for strength I guess they chose that material. Can you remove the wipers? I would if I could. The glass sleeve would have to be removed anyway to get the calcium build up off, so why design it with a wiper? Who knows.

Running them with the inlets and exits pointing up instead of sideways would eliminate any air pockets.

cromag27 · Dec 3, 2018

that’s bad. i always thought the wipers were a waste of money.

CMO · Dec 3, 2018

Flippers4pups said:
I would agree that the units aren't full of water and there would be air trapped in them when running, But, and I say BUT....... Regardless, they should not rust! Being made of stainless steel isn't the best choice of material in a salt environment, but for strength I guess they chose that material. Can you remove the wipers? I would if I could. The glass sleeve would have to be removed anyway to get the calcium build up off, so why design it with a wiper? Who knows.

Running them with the inlets and exits pointing up instead of sideways would eliminate any air pockets.

Yup that's how they say it should be run, with the outlet up. I tried to remove the wipers and plug the holes with 3/8" npt plugs per their instruction but they wouldn't thread in correctly so I just ordered replacement non-wiper housings. They should really make these out of titanium.

I wonder if there's risk of the lamp not being fully submerged with this setup which could be an issue. I was thinking of threading a nipple on the top of the unit attached to clear tubing to see if it fills up. Do you think that would tell whether there's an air pocket or not?

Matthew Frost · Dec 3, 2018

I had the same problem with mine. Removed the wiper and put a 1/2" nylon threaded cap in the hole. No more wiper no more rust. You just have to be careful when removing the clip at the end of the wiper rod so you can get the "wiper" piece off and remove the rod without damaging the PVC housing because you have to work through the two 2" holes in the housing.

Matthew Frost · Dec 3, 2018

MSB123 · Dec 3, 2018

Matthew Frost said:

I had the same issue and had to replace the wipers. Good luck!

CMO · Dec 6, 2018

Alright. I ordered non wiper replacement housings to transfer my lamps to and got the twist version this time so hopefully I can eliminate the potential for air gaps.

Unfortunately I cannot install like this due to the height which would definitely eliminate all air gaps

But would this also work? While the bottom unit still has horizontal inlet/outlets, the top would have the last outlet facing up. Do you all think this would guarantee the horizontal facing lower unit would not have any air gaps? Flow would be bottom up with first inlet on the bottom right and last outlet on the top right.