# Mistking Troubleshooting



## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Hey all. Did a search through the forums and I don't think that the issue I am having has been really discussed. Hooked up my mistking system to my new frog cage and unfortunately is not functioning.

I have the Ultimate Misting system. The pump is connected to two nozzles. It's not like it's connected to 20 nozzles or something. No misting.

I followed the appropriate instructions for the direction of flow and the setup. I even tried to flip the zipdrip valve around thinking I had mixed up the direction of flow on that to no avail.

The pump is 4 feet below the nozzles. I lifted up the bucket of water connected to the pump to make sure sure the water was going into the pump adequately and to see about 'priming' the system. The pump is certainly working, it's humming rather quietly. No misting.

When I disconnect pipes I know that water is flowing completely through the system. It's just for some reason there isn't enough pressure to get the water through the nozzles.

Do I need to have the pump underneath the hood and thus at the same level as the nozzles? I don't think having a five gallon pale on top of my hood is a good idea... but is it going to come to that so it will mist? 

I even did the extreme and took off the zipdrip valve and did a non-zipdrip valve setup like was shown in the mistking example. No misting.

Mistking is so freaking awesome and I love the system it's just because I upgraded it's dealing with a cage that is higher than previous and also new nozzles. I would contact customer service - cuz Mistking Customer service does rock, but it is a holiday weekend. So - Dendroboard buddies I need your help!

I know the system works great (it did on my previous cage).


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

Try priming the pump, all you do is take the end of the line that connects to the mist nozzle and put your finger over it. Also make sure you put the zip drip back the way it came it is suppose to be like that. If priming doesn't work email Marty and he will help you out.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Maybe I am making it just far too difficult than it needs to be...

Does the pump being 4 feet below the nozzles matter?

Here's the diagram I am following:









When you say 'put your finger over' the hose... where in the diagram? Sorry for being a little slow at this point. It just feels like I have been trying everything the last few hours and it shouldn't be this hard.

Thanks.


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## chinoanoah (Mar 9, 2009)

Do you hear a click sound when it is supposed to come on?


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

Four feet should not be a problem. Mine is about 4' and I have 8 nozzles going. When you prime the line do it where the tube meets the first nozzle from the pump. It is kind of like a spray bottle that has trouble pumping water. You put your finger firmly over the nozzle on the spray bottle and pump till water spurts out. This may be another issue for you but that is my two cents. I had the same kind of problem when I first got my system.



pygmypiranha said:


> Maybe I am making it just far too difficult than it needs to be...
> 
> Does the pump being 4 feet below the nozzles matter?
> 
> ...


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

No click sound. It makes a slight whirring noise and vibrates. But it is pretty silent.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

jeffdart said:


> It is kind of like a spray bottle that has trouble pumping water. You put your finger firmly over the nozzle on the spray bottle and pump till water spurts out. This may be another issue for you but that is my two cents.


Thanks so much that sounds like a good option. I'll give that a try!


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

Also after looking over your diagram again, does the system connect in one circuit? My system is a little older so I have a different zip drip.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

jeffdart said:


> Also after looking over your diagram again, does the system connect in one circuit?


What do you mean by one circuit?


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

In your diagram it shows the tubing coming from the reservoir to a t which looks like the zip drip is connected to. Then through the pump up to the misters and back down to the zip drip.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

That's correct. The flow goes from the reservoir to the "T" connection to the pump to the nozzles to the zipdrip valve.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

That is different then mine. The old style zip drip mounted to the top of the pump. I would end the flow of water at my last nozzle.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

MistKing Misting Systems by Jungle Hobbies Ltd


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## Bcs TX (Sep 13, 2008)

Marty is traveling now but I will e-mail him this thread, he should respond as soon as he can.

-Beth


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

sounds, like it needs to be primed.

Make sure the pump is not higher than the reservoir. Fill up your reservoir, unplug the nozzle and turn on the pump. Water should come out in spurts. When the stream is decent without air bubbling out plug it back into the nozzles and you're done. Make sure the arrow (under the valve) on the ZipDrip points back to the reservoir and not to the nozzles. The ZipDrip valve works only one way.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Thanks so much Marty for the quick reply, but still no go. 

The only time that I get water out the hose is when I raised the reservoir up to where the nozzles are. I'm not sure if the pump is possibly not pumping with enough pressure. Could it be that the pump needs to be replaced? I haven't used it more than a year.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

How long have you had it?


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Got it for Christmas from 'Santa' 9 months ago.

Ran it for a couple months then I moved to Florida.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

Well then it could very well be something else. I thought you had just got it.


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

check that the zip drip is correctly installed and that it is on the side of the reservoir and not the side that goes to the nozzles. Let me know how it goes. At any rate, you don't have to stress over this (not that you are , if something needs to be replaced it won't be a problem.


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Many thanks Marty! Nah I am not too worried. I will do some more troubleshooting and such tomorrow. It is an amazing system I just want to be sure that it isn't operator error.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

Have you tried it without the zip drip?


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## pygmypiranha (Jan 1, 2009)

Yep. No good.


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

I do service work and troubleshooting is pretty straightforward. You have to know what's supposed to happen and you can go from there. So, you know the pump is supposed to take water from the bucket, pressurize/pump it to the nozzles and it sprays. 

The only thing I would really do is disconnect the outlet hose from the pump and run it to see if it indeed pumps water. If so, disconnect the nozzles to see if the water gets pumped up the hose. If water is getting to the nozzles you may have clogged screens or nozzles. If you get no water the pump is bad.

Those pumps they use are Shurflo type diaphragm pumps and aren't really the best. I work on alot of Slurpee machines and other beverage machines that have those pumps and they fail alot. My guess it's just a failed pump unless there's some sort of failed check valve somewhere.


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

Hi JaredJ.... if this pump failed, it will be the first one. I had aquatec pumps fail for me before and I replaced few shurflow pumps, but I find these ones are extremely robust. You can run them wet or dry, plug them in and they work, so it's really interesting to see what the problem is here... of course it's possible that it failure too. Not sure about slurpy machine applications, so maybe it's the usage. At any rate pygmy, can you email me your phone number and maybe we can troubleshoot this over the phone. marty at mistking.com also if you could email me few photos of your setup it would be helpful.


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## jeffdart (May 21, 2008)

I'm with Marty, this pump is a champ. Mine has been running for well over a year, every day to 8 misting nozzles. Very good system!


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

I'm curious also. Thats why I say disconnect the outlet tubing and see if the pump is even pumping. I doubt theres anything in the pump causing a blockage and you're right, you should plug in the pump and it should pump away. I hope it gets figured out and post the result. I have a rainmaker Jr. that I used before and I hated that pump, it always got so hot.


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## somecanadianguy (Jan 9, 2007)

check the lil screen filters in the nozzle tips , if u cant blow air with your lips thru em that could be the issue


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## singhm29 (Jun 28, 2009)

Hate to dig up an old thread but im having the same issue. My pump does not seem to want to regain pressure. The reservoir had been an empty for a day and after refilling I noticed that I was getting a weak trickle from my 4 nozzles. I have no zipdrip and my system was been working fine for just over a year now the way it is so I wouldnt say the setup is the problem. 

I went ahead and disconnected the line from the mist nozzles to see how the flow was. Like Marty said it should come out in spurts which it did but it just keeps coming out in spurts never gaining a steady spray. Could I be the lucky one that had a mistking system break on him?


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

doubt it  Make sure that your pump is at the same level as the bulkhead on the reservoir. Do not put the pump higher. Idea is that you want gravity feeding the pump. Even though the pump is self priming, it will have hard time re-priming itself when fighting the check-valves in the nozzle tips. Having it at the level of bulkhead should fix the problem.


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## singhm29 (Jun 28, 2009)

Thanks for the quick response Marty. The two are the same level, I actually couldnt do it any other way because I had run out of elbow connections. I tried debugging it today when i had some free time and ran 4L of water through the pump but it still was shooting out spurts of water. Any other thoughts?


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

the stream will never be totally solid, like from a tap. That's the nature of the pump. it should be semi-solid stream. If you want, grab a video of it and send it to me at marty [at] mistking dot com


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## tattoomc (Aug 23, 2012)

black plug to stop flow on mistking....i am having problems getting mine to run in a loop.....not sure why...i can hook up one mister and plug and it mist fine...but how do i add the plug to the close loop setup? i am running a zip drip and not sure if i have it right.....please help this is making me mad...


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## singhm29 (Jun 28, 2009)

So I decided to test out my pump again today after two weeks of it not running and it seems to be doing its job again! Glad I wasn't the one to break mistkings streak of flawless pumps guess my pump just needed a vacation.


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## Giga (Mar 31, 2011)

Sorry to hijack but I notice when I plugged the timmer in it gets warm on the back side wether something is plugged in or not is it supposed to do that?


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## braydens (Sep 13, 2011)

i was experiencing the same problem of no suction just air. Just need to make sure all the tubing is inserted as far as possible and all connections are tight in the collet locks between the reservoir, the zipdrip, and the pump. Worked fine after i figured that out


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## kaylaloomis71 (3 mo ago)

Marty said:


> sounds, like it needs to be primed. Make sure the pump is not higher than the reservoir. Fill up your reservoir, unplug the nozzle and turn on the pump. Water should come out in spurts. When the stream is decent without air bubbling out plug it back into the nozzles and you're done. Make sure the arrow (under the valve) on the ZipDrip points back to the reservoir and not to the nozzles. The ZipDrip valve works only one way.


 When you say unplug the nozzle what do you mean? The end that sucks up the water and do I unplug just the metal end piece or the whole pipe? And what is zip drip what part is called what none of these terms for which part is which make sense to me is there a diagram with these labeled?


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

kaylaloomis71 said:


> When you say unplug the nozzle what do you mean? The end that sucks up the water and do I unplug just the metal end piece or the whole pipe? And what is zip drip what part is called what none of these terms for which part is which make sense to me is there a diagram with these labeled?


If you have a mistking system there was a manual that came with the system that explains what all of the parts are, and gives you the names of the components. Also, when in doubt, check the manufacturer's website for instructions...

https://www.mistking.com/instructions.html


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

kaylaloomis71 said:


> When you say unplug the nozzle what do you mean? The end that sucks up the water and do I unplug just the metal end piece or the whole pipe? And what is zip drip what part is called what none of these terms for which part is which make sense to me is there a diagram with these labeled?


The nozzle is the part that sprays water.
The zip drip is an optional component (at least it was when I bought mine) that is a valve plumbed into the line to release the water pressure when the pump isn't running. It's purpose is to release the water from the line when the pump shuts off so that the nozzles don't drip water for a few minutes after every mist cycle while the water pressure in the line equalizes with the air pressure outside of the line.
Diagrams for a zip drip and nonzip drip installation here:


https://www.mistking.com/MistKing-Connection-Types.html


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Good advice here, as usual, but since this thread was started 12 years ago and at least some MK components have been changed/upgraded in that time, to avoid confusion and misinformation please start a new thread. Thank you.


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