“SILENT GIANT” Air Pump Repair - JIM’S Repair Service

Description

This BUY IT NOW is for contact information consisting of email, phone number, and address on where to send your
NON-working
pump for
repair.
Once you do the BUY IT NOW, I will mail you
,
by USPS
,
my contact information so you can contact me(your choice of how you want to contact me). The cost for repair is for one pump which includes shipping back to you. If you have more than one pump to be repaired please contact for a price.
LIMITED TIME SPECIAL- Your .00 you spent on this BUY IT NOW will be applied to the repair!
This offer is good for 60 days.
Once you get the contact me you can ship the pump to me along with a personal check for .00 in the box. If you desire other arrangements, you can contact me via text or email
or phone.
Once I receive payment and your pump, I will schedule the repairs. Turn around time is usually one to three weeks. When I ship the pump back to you, I will also include copies of old literature about SILENT GIANTS plus
a new
foam air filter.
I have been repairing these pumps from the 1960's and luckily I still have a "stash" of parts and the knowledge of  how to assemble them to make it pump as good as(and many times better)  than when it came out of the factory. All Silent Giants ran on US 120V and 60 cycle which is standard electric current in the US and Canada.
Any questions or it you want me to repair or buy your SILENT GIANTS, please ask.
Also see below
a history of the SILENT GIANTS and about
my repair
service.
HISTORY OF THE SILENT GIANT
Old timers that were into fish keeping know about the legendary SILENT GIANT AIR PUMP.   To new comers who never heard of it and want an air pump - you don't know what you missed!  It was probably the best air pump ever made( well maybe next to the  Dynamaster 2 piston air pump if you really needed lots of air for deep tanks)!  But day in and day out you couldn't beat the SILENT GIANT.
The SILENT GIANT  started out in the 1950's and was a revolutionary  aquarium air pump design and patented! It was first produced in a  metal quart size paint can with a exterior or a light woodgrain vinyl applied to the outside.  It looked ok, but it pumped good!  Later in the early 1960's, the Company came out with a unique looking plastic case that they never changed, except for label design changes and putting on the Zip code when that become necessary in the 1960's.
According to the manufacturer,  Aquarium Supply Co.: " THE SILENT GIANT is an oscillatory compressor, basically a very short stroke piston pump driven by an electromagnet instead of a inefficient electric motor. The stroke is so short that the seal which connects the moving sleeve to the stationary piton is  not subjected to sliding wear."  The pump has a patent no of 2,961,149 and is a model 120.  It only uses 4 Watts of electricity.  It came with a cleanable air filter that fits underneath.
The SILENT GIANT was very quiet and the only sound was a slight hum, unlike other pumps at the time that were noisey.  It also gave off lots of air, as much as to run up to 12 box filters and maybe more, depending of the tubing, valves, and depth of tanks.  It also had pressure in the 4-6lb range so it could pump a deep tank better than most vibrator tanks on the market.  Most vibrator pumps put out about 2-3 lbs pressure. That's when the quality started to go down.  Although  the parts were the same, the attention to detail and tolerances during  assembly suffered.  The Company probably went out of business in the late 1980’s.
I have attached a photo of the three cases that were used over the years. All internal parts were about the same and could be interchangeable if needed.
** JIM’S SILENT GIANT REPAIR SERVICE **
I started in the aquarium business while in high school in the early 1960's and of course started selling the SILENT GIANT  pump.  It originally had a  LIFE TIME GUARANTEE  and seems expensive at .95(Fair Traded) for most.  But  many found it great if they had several tanks and wanted a quiet pump when most were noisy.  It was important that the pump was used correctly which some people has a hard time understanding.
Well, after a few years, pumps began to fail(mostly to miss use).  The customer could send it  in for repair for FREE(you'd paid the postage to the factory) and they'd repair it and send it back for FREE!   But  then you'd be with out a pump!  So I wrote to the Company and asked it I could repair customer's pumps who didn't have a spare pump and needed their pump back fast!  So I became an authorized repair center and the they  provided me with parts and instructions on how to repair them.  Most people were happy to pay me for repairing their pump either the same day or the next day and to get their pump back without sending it in.
After repairing 100's and 100's of pumps over the years, I have figured out many of my own techniques  on how to rebuild the pump.  So below is some info on what I do
I completely disassemble the pump and discard all worm parts.  I ALWAYS replace the flapper valves whether or nor they have failed.  In many cases these flapper valves are the main reason the pump fails. They are  close to 50 years old so OUT THEY GO!  I have obtained some reinforced material that is superior to the original and I make my make my own. I've never seen any of these fail!  Other parts are replaced as needed.
One item I change from the original is a part called the muffler which contains  a length of string that makes the pump sound quieter when not hooked up to pump-a marketing gimmick, IMO.  I've  seen this clog and cause the pump to fail  So I make up my own mufflers and leave the string out eliminating one cause of pump failure.
The working mechanism is completely taken apart and cleaned and any bad parts are replaced.  Upon reassembly  I have developed tests to insure there are no leaks.  The final test is to shim the armature/electromagnet clearance so that they don't contact each other when under full load as this will shorten the life of the pump.  This is time consuming and the only way is to test is with a pressure gauge to get the maximum pressure with the metal parts banging into each other.  This is called "pounding" in the literature and it means there is too much back pressure and, if left to continue, the pump will stop pumping and a good chance of being ruined.  I try to set the pump so this does not occur.
Other repair things I do is clean up the  case to make it look the best I can.  This includes fixing all cracks, replace bad foam rubber feet, replacing missing labels, etc.  In other words, I try to make it look the best I can.  I also will give you a new(reproduction) foam air filter.
You may ask if the SILENT GIANT is such a good pump, why would they fail and need to be rebuilt?  The answer is that people don't use them correctly.  The pump was not designed to run just one air stone  without bleeding off excess air.  Also, since air stones clog over time you should make sure youn can blow threw them without getting red in the face. Accualy, this advice goes for all air pumps and their life will benefit.
I have attached photos of some repairs and parts used in repairing SILENT GIANTS.
*****NOTE*****
F
rom time to time I have repaired SILENT GIANTS listed on eBay.
If you are looking for a rebuilt pump, please search eBay for “Vintage Rebuilt Silent Giant Air Pump”.
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