Whisper 30-60 Aquarium Filter Replacement Impeller

thingiverse

While cleaning my hang-on-back Whisper 30-60 aquarium filter a few days ago I noticed that the impeller was missing half the vanes that are what creates water flow. I looked on Amazon and they run around $30-$40 for a replacement. I was close to clicking the buy button when I realized I have a 3D printer and plenty of filament and I should at least try making my own before buying one. And so that's what I did. And now if you have a Whisper model 30-60 aquarium filter that needs a new impeller, try downloading this one and take it for a test drive. Printed with PLA using a 0.4mm nozzle with 1mm layer height. I don't recall the rest of the particulars, but it was pretty standard. I tried printing with a 0.2mm nozzle first using ABS but it didn't end well. In hindsight I probably just needed to level the bed, but now that I have my filter back up and running I'm content and don't feel like messing with this any more. Exported design was "upside down" compared to how I wanted it to be for printing and I couldn't figure out how to invert the model in Fusion 360, so I uploaded it to Tinkercad, flipped it 180 degrees then exported the .stl and used that to print. Note: The opening through which the plastic shaft slides into the impeller was a little too tight, but it was nothing that a few rotations with a pocket knife wasn't able to take care of. That's all there is to it, hopefully this will be able to help somebody out there some day!