Vacuum Pump Trouble

[LibertyTree]

I have a 1 year old JB Platinum pump that has worked great until yesterday (when I went to start up a heat pump 50 miles away) Anyway, It fell over in the back of the van for the first time ever and when I got to the job I changed the oil, filled it to the fill line and started pumping away. I let it do its thing for 15 minutes and came back to check the reading, 7000 microns... The pump wasn't making its normal gurgle so I checked the sight glass and found that the oil level was pegged completely above the glass. I turned it off and the oil went right back down to the fill line. I drained a bit of oil out and tried again to no avail. Do you guys have any idea whats going on here? I plan on having it sent back to JB to fix it but I want to make sure there's not something that I'm missing here.

[itsiceman]

You could have sucked oil from the system or depending how the pump is shut down last the level will look like it is going up and down.
You should set or check the level while the pump is running

[monkeyspanners]

Drain all the oil out of it then give it a quick run for a few seconds to get any oil out of the pump chamber. Then fill it to the correct level and see how it goes.

[LibertyTree]

You could have sucked oil from the system or depending how the pump is shut down last the level will look like it is going up and down.
You should set or check the level while the pump is running

System was new and oil filled as usual. I did try to tune it so that it would reach the exact fill level to no avail

[LibertyTree]

Drain all the oil out of it then give it a quick run for a few seconds to get any oil out of the pump chamber. Then fill it to the correct level and see how it goes.

This is a good idea, I will try this. Maybe it tipping over has something to do with it. I wonder if my using it on both R22 and 410a systems messed up a seal

[madhat]

You can cause severe damage to a J/B pump, by running it when the pump body is below 30 F*. "I'm not sure why they don't label the pumps for this, I put a label on mine." *Read the instruction for the operating temperatures for your pump.

If I know I'm going to use the pump the next day I bring it in the house. When I'm transporting it to the job, I put it on the floor on the passenger side, and let the heat blow on it. Once the pump is started, it will keep itself warm.

[LibertyTree]

You can cause severe damage to a J/B pump, by running it when the pump body is below 30 F*. "I'm not sure why they don't label the pumps for this, I put a label on mine." *Read the instruction for the operating temperatures for your pump.

If I know I'm going to use the pump the next day I bring it in the house. When I'm transporting it to the job, I put it on the floor on the passenger side, and let the heat blow on it. Once the pump is started, it will keep itself warm.

Interesting. We rarely get below 30 here but if the pump were working I would have used it a few days ago when it was 27... Good info thanks.

I remembered that the vac pump was one of the only tools I didn't buy off of ebay so Johnstone did an over the counter warranty swap for a new one. I like that about Johnstone, rather than having to wait for a new warranty item to ship to you they will just grab one off of the shelf