▶ Watch the video on YouTube
O-ring replacement time is the best time to clean thoroughly and reassemble with a smooth coat of food-grade grease on the shaft O-rings, to make assembly and disassembly easier later on.
Also look for signs of oil leaks at the gearbox, or excessive wear at the rubber coupling. That shows up as a pile of rubber dust under the coupling cover.
Care and Feeding of a Waukesha
General Use
Prepare your pump for the job by sanitizing and rinsing it with the solution of your choice. Keep the O-rings in good shape to prevent leaks. Annual maintenance should include complete pump head cleaning and reassembly with new O-rings.
REMEMBER: NO D.E. D.E. is the devil. Waukeshas HATE it.
"Our pumps suck." Not my words, and I'm not sure who said it first. In most cases your Waukesha will prime itself, which makes it easier to start most jobs, from pumping out a fermentor to topping barrels.
Rinse your pump after every use. After harvest, plan to tear down the pump head (30 to 40 minutes) and look for trapped solids before it sits for long. That's also a good idea any time the pump has moved anything with high solids.
Maintenance and Upkeep
- Two squirts of regular (non-food-grade) grease in the gearbox fittings each year
- Keep a spare set of O-rings on hand
- O-rings may wear out (you'll see a drip) as often as twice a year, or every two years
- The Waukesha wrench in the gray control box fits the nuts that hold the lobes to the shafts