Actually, this is a very good post. Terry Haines seems to be a BIG BACKER of the "Cone Fails and kills the impeller theory". From an engineering standpoint, how do we NOT KNOW that the impeller fails and then kills the cone? (Terry - your posts are great! This is not intended as a flame or attack. Lets just say I am playing devils advocate!
)
As stated before, my impeller let go before I found this site, and I didnt know about the cone thing. I did note, however, that the impeller appeared to have failed from stress cracks emanating from the metal collar at the hub of the cone. There were ZERO signs of impeller damage from hitting anything (such as a lose cone). To me, its a CTE thing (bookoo thermal cycles with differential thermal expansion of the black plastic impeller to the metal hub.) I took my failed impeller in to work and showed it to my fellow engineers, and it was unanamous that this was simply a crappy impeller design. Does this mean the ring detachment has not killed impellers? Heck no.
Look at it this way. You've got 50% more votes saying the ring was attached. If you replace the impeller with a metal one, your probability of failure will DECREASE because you have eliminated the major rootcause failure mode. Now you can have some peace of mind knowing that you have decreased the probability of TRASHING your aluminum motor, getting stranded and embarrased on the interstate, and just plain pissed off by 67%. These pumps crap out right when you need them the most. Just replace the thing and move on.
