Restoration Blog

Goughs Orchard water feed


by: Andy P.

The last time on site we saw a cycle time of 1.5 minutes vacuum pump off and 1 minute pump back on, to regain the vacuum.  Water does flow through the pipe sooner, even with the high tech little Henry sucking away.  As an experiment we shut the inlet valve to see if vacuum held for longer.  No difference.  Oh dear.

So on the return, all visible joints were taken apart and the pipe relayed in some sections, to help straighten the pipe run.


The collars were freed and moved up and down stream so Marine mastic could be applied on both sides of the flexible seal, as well as your hands, face and clothing-it just does not come off.  It was a case of, put your right joint in, your left joint out, in, out, in, out, there’s mastic all about.

Eager anticipation as we drew the vacuum. No difference.  Oh dear.  Time to go home.  When the vacuum pipe is turned on manually a lot of bubbles were seen immediately. Therefore, after early morning ponderings, at the next visit, we focused on the collar and small pipe work to the pump.  The collar being removed and mastic applied liberally.  Eager anticipation.  We reached the heady height of 2 mins off. Progress. 


More dismantling of the float switch grey box and more mastic applied to the internals.  Eager anticipation.  Wow.  We got to 18 mins off and 15 secs back on. Real positive progress. Still work to do though.