Last week, my Jabsco Par-Max plus model 82600-0292 failed. This is a pretty powerful pump: 2.8 bar, 22.7 l/min, costing more than 270 € these days. I was told that it was put into the boat in 2017 which means it is 4 years old – years of light usage only. Still – all it did now was to produce a quiet, sizzling sound. Now – a sizzling sound in an electric device usually is not a good sign.
When I took out the pump there was some yellow liquid coming out and I found yellow grime in the cover of the pressure switch on the bottom of the pump. I guess that the yellow stuff are some metal oxides… The pressure switch is separated from the pressurized water by a little rubber membrane – which obviously had started leaking water. If you look closely, there is water on the tablecloth on the picture of the pressure switch – that water came from the inside of the pressure switch. The water obviously had made its way through the pressure switch into its cover and the corrosion ate away one of the cable lugs.
I cleaned everything, put some silicone grease on the rubber membrane between pump housing and pressure switch and replaced the destroyed cable lug by a bigger one – the smallest one I could find at Obi Pescara. The pump is running again. Still, I will order a replacement pressure switch – and a spare water pump. The switch, because I suppose that a switch flooded with water will fail at some point. The spare pump, because I learned that a failed water pump on a boat is no fun at all. No washing of hands, no washing of dishes, …
