I had a various 6 just randomly stop working on me 3 times in the first 4 months I had it. I was able to restart it and get to run again, but I was very disappointed and worried about its reliability. I too noticed the output was not nearly as good after just the first 2 months. Went from 3 to 5 to keep up with where I had my gate valve set on my bean. It ran Ok for about another month and then one day started making a loud noise - like it was struggling. Like many of said, contacting coralvue for support is a frustrating process. Took pictures, they would not reply - said they did, but I had no reply in e-mail. Of course, I had other replies from them before and after not hearing back. then they wanted me to send it in to be looked at - well it was my only return pump, so that was not possible. I became so frustrated I just gave up. I loved how quiet it was, and stupid me bought a various 8 to replace it. I just really wanted a d/c pump and liked how quiet it was. The only true upgrades for d/c pumps were way out of my price range. Unfortunate seeing as it is the heart of our systems. So far the 8 has been OK - going on 4 months now. It is not nearly as powerful as it was the first month. It has not lowered much more, but I again had to reduce the flow on my gate valve to keep sump level from rising. I have heard that these pumps do not handle head pressure very well and per coralvue - you should use 1.5in plumbing - they don't handle 1in or 3/4 in diameter plumbing well either(mine is connected to 1in which is standard right?) I am glad to hear the new impeller worked. I just wonder for how long? This is a fairly wide spread problem with these d/c pumps. Wish the nicer ones didn't cost as much as my whole system(almost

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