AMS Pump Malfunction

[Dave92014]

I had my AMS 700 CX MS installed on 10/31/12, 10 weeks ago today. I started pumping it myself after my doc visit 3 weeks ago yesterday. When I first started pumping two of the first three times I pumped I started losing my stiffness about 10 minutes after I pumped. I could pump it back up to adequate stiffness though. Then I switched to using the two-handed pumping and depressed the bulb much further on each pump. With that method I never had any loss of my stiffness even after 20 or more minutes of inflation. But when I saw my doc yesterday and he saw how hard I was pressing the bulb, he told me that I should not need to pump it with so much force and I should only use enough force to depress the bulb about 25%.

So last night I did another test pump using the doc’s instructions. It pumped up to adequate stiffness but after about 10 minutes I started losing the stiffness. When that happened I attempted to pump it back to stiffness. But on my second squeeze of the bulb the bulb remained partly collapsed and did not expand to fill with fluid. When I tried to press it more to get it to expand it remained collapsed. It seemed that the bulb was not pulling fluid from the reservoir, either because of a valve failure in the pump or some blockage in the tube to the reservoir.

Next I pressed the deflate button and the bulb immediately filled with fluid and expanded to full roundness. I then attempted to inflate again, but after two squeezes the bulb again remained in the collapsed state and would not pull fluid from the reservoir. I pressed the deflate button again and the bulb filled again. But when I tried a third time to inflate, after two squeezes the bulb again remained collapsed. At that point I gave up for the night.

This morning I tried again to pump. On the first squeeze I felt the bulb suddenly get softer, which it had done in the past on the first squeeze and I think that indicates the pump switched from deflate to inflate. So I continued pumping. But as I pumped, the bulb was taking a long time to recover its roundness, about 5 to 10 seconds on each squeeze. Then after 8 squeezes I was only half inflated and the bulb stopped recovering it roundness, so again it was not pulling liquid from the reservoir. I think it had been pulling liquid back out of the cylinders rather than from the reservoir during my 8 squeezes.

I called my Urologist and unfortunately he is out of town at a seminar so I can’t see him until Monday.

It appears to me that the AMS pump is either malfunctioning or there is a blockage causing it to not be able to draw fluid from the reservoir. Probably the former. I don’t think there is a leak as that would not cause the bulb to not expand.

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem?

I am guessing that the doc is going to need to open me up to either replace the pump or solve a blockage problem. Unfortunately I am leaving a month from today for a two week vacation to Norway. I will be on a ship traveling along the coast, so will have limited access to medical care on the trip. Therefore, I do not want to do any repair that involves opening me up until I get back from the trip. I don’t want to be in a medical recovery during that trip. And it would be very difficult to postpone the trip.

Things were going well for me regarding the implant up until last night. At this point, it appears that I might have drawn the unlucky straw.

[radiodec]

Sounds to me like it could be a slow leak in the cylinders, too. When the reservoir runs out of fluid the pump can't refill from it and the pump will stay flat.Hitting release will get you some fluid back to pump with again.

Here is something to note, 8 pumps at 25% are about equivalent to 2 pumps at full pumping. So the change in the number of pumps with changed technique may not have indicated any change in the amount of fluid moved.

I know not a nice thought before a long vacation. Maybe you will have good luck and it will be a kinked spot in the tubing that miraculously straitens itself out.

Good luck,

Dave

[Dave92014]

Sounds to me like it could be a slow leak in the cylinders, too. When the reservoir runs out of fluid the pump can't refill from it and the pump will stay flat.Hitting release will get you some fluid back to pump with again.

Darn, a slow leak in the cylinders would not be obvious if the pump was fully in the inflate direction. I had not thought of that. My doc said yesterday he could feel my reservoir through my skin. Maybe he can tell by feeling it if it contains fluid to determine if it is empty or not. Maybe his ultra-sound gadget can determine that.

[Dave92014]

Very good news – I tried another pumping last night and it worked perfectly. I don’t know for sure why it worked last night and totally would not work Tuesday night or yesterday morning. I have some ideas but need more experimenting to draw conclusions.

Last night I got into my spa with the water temperature set to 101 degrees. It actually gets up to 102 degrees at times and is usually at 102 when I first open it and get in. I waited about five minutes until the pump and all the plumbing would be well warmed up, thinking that might solve the problem I had Tuesday night. Then I started pumping. I thought maybe the failure Tuesday was caused by me using the “easy squeezing” method my doc had suggested, rather than the “forceful squeezing” that I had been using. So used the “forceful squeezing”. On the first squeeze the bulb was full and resisted the squeeze a lot. The bulb refilled quickly as it should. On the second squeeze, the bulb started out resisting similarly and then did what I call the “big squish”. That is when the bulb suddenly collapses under my pressure. I have surmised that happens when the pump switches from deflate to inflate. On previous days it happened on the first squeeze but yesterday on the second squeeze. I then proceeded to do 10 squeezes, which is what it has usually taken to inflate me, and I inflated fully. I did not have any trouble with the bulb failing to refill quickly from the reservoir, as I had Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I then relaxed and let it set to see if I would lose stiffness, but it maintained the stiffness fine. After about 15 minutes I left the spa, still inflated, took a shower to wash off the bromine from the spa and checked stiffness. It was still adequate but I gave it two more squeezes to improve it a bit. I then decided to use it for the intended purpose, since it was working so well, and jumped in bed with my wife. More than an hour later I still had full stiffness so it had held up for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The fact that all the above works seems to prove that my Tuesday collapsed bulb problem was not caused by a leaking of fluid having drained all the fluid from the reservoir. That is very good news.

I have a theory that my problem Tuesday night was that somehow my pump got into a mode that the bidirectional valve that controls whether fluid is moving into the cylinders or out of the cylinders was in a bad state where it did not open to allow fluid to go from the reservoir to the bulb. I think that possibly the fact that Tuesday I used the “easy squeeze” caused that to happen. My doc had commented that my pump seemed to be stiffer than normal and that it might lose some of that stiffness over time. I am thinking that my pump really does need the “forceful squeeze” to get it fully switched into the inflate mode. I will need more testing to verify that theory.

Another thing that lends evidence to my above pump theory is the deflate experience. When my doc checked me Tuesday he observed that I was not deflated as much as I should be. According to the AMS instructions, one should push the deflate button for four seconds and then squeeze the penis. But my doc told me I should squeeze the penis at the same time as I was pushing the deflate button. This did get more fluid out of the cylinders and allow me to become more flaccid. I had previously ended with a 1/3 woody. This seems to me to indicate that my pump is not working quite to spec as it did not remain fully in the deflate mode after I pressed the button for four seconds.

If I can deduce how to operate my pump so that inflates and deflates reliably on demand I won’t worry about the fact that it works somewhat differently than spec. Given that replacing it would be more surgery, I will go with what works, if I can make it work reliably. I have high hopes that I can make it work reliably but I will need some more experiments to prove that.

[Dave92014]

Very good news – I tried another pumping last night and it worked perfectly. I don’t know for sure why it worked last night and totally would not work Tuesday night or yesterday morning. I have some ideas but need more experimenting to draw conclusions.

Last night I got into my spa with the water temperature set to 101 degrees. It actually gets up to 102 degrees at times and is usually at 102 when I first open it and get in. I waited about five minutes until the pump and all the plumbing would be well warmed up, thinking that might solve the problem I had Tuesday night. Then I started pumping. I thought maybe the failure Tuesday was caused by me using the “easy squeezing” method my doc had suggested, rather than the “forceful squeezing” that I had been using. So I used the “forceful squeezing”. On the first squeeze the bulb was full and resisted the squeeze a lot. The bulb refilled quickly as it should. On the second squeeze, the bulb started out resisting similarly and then did what I call the “big squish”. That is when the bulb suddenly collapses under my pressure. I have surmised that happens when the pump switches from deflate to inflate. On previous days it happened on the first squeeze but yesterday on the second squeeze. I then proceeded to do 10 squeezes, which is what it has usually taken to inflate me, and I inflated fully. I did not have any trouble with the bulb failing to refill quickly from the reservoir, as I had Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I then relaxed and let it set to see if I would lose stiffness, but it maintained the stiffness fine. After about 15 minutes I left the spa, still inflated, took a shower to wash off the bromine from the spa and checked stiffness. It was still adequate but I gave it two more squeezes to improve it a bit. I then decided to use it for the intended purpose, since it was working so well, and jumped in bed with my wife. More than an hour later I still had full stiffness so it had held up for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The fact that all the above works seems to prove that my Tuesday collapsed bulb problem was not caused by a leaking of fluid having drained all the fluid from the reservoir. That is very good news.

I have a theory that my problem Tuesday night was that somehow my pump got into a mode that the bidirectional valve that controls whether fluid is moving into the cylinders or out of the cylinders was in a bad state where it did not open to allow fluid to go from the reservoir to the bulb. I think that possibly the fact that Tuesday I used the “easy squeeze” caused that to happen. My doc had commented that my pump seemed to be stiffer than normal and that it might lose some of that stiffness over time. I am thinking that my pump really does need the “forceful squeeze” to get it fully switched into the inflate mode. I will need more testing to verify that theory.

Another thing that lends evidence to my above pump theory is the deflate experience. When my doc checked me Tuesday he observed that I was not deflated as much as I should be. According to the AMS instructions, one should push the deflate button for four seconds and then squeeze the penis. But my doc told me I should squeeze the penis at the same time as I was pushing the deflate button. This did get more fluid out of the cylinders and allow me to become more flaccid. I had previously ended with a 1/3 woody. This seems to me to indicate that my pump is not working quite to spec as it did not remain fully in the deflate mode after I pressed the button for four seconds.

If I can deduce how to operate my pump so that it inflates and deflates reliably on demand I won’t worry about the fact that it works somewhat differently than spec. Given that replacing it would be more surgery, I will go with what works, if I can make it work reliably. I have high hopes that I can make it work reliably but I will need some more experiments to prove that.

[radiodec]

A couple of helps with your pump. The AMS manual says the the first squeeze should be quick and full or similar words. Anyway the first one has to mean business for the pump to switch. My urologist cautioned me not to squeeze my penis too rapidly or erratically when deflating in that the sudden changes in pressure on the pum might cause it to go back to inflate.

Does your pump buzz or feel/sound like a partially turned on water faucet when deflating? It should have a quiet buzz or sound like a faucet.

My observation has always been that there is almost a pop when I do the first squeeze. Stiff, "pop", rapid collapse to full pump. Then it pumps like normal.

Dave

[Dave92014]

Does your pump buzz or feel/sound like a partially turned on water faucet when deflating? It should have a quiet buzz or sound like a faucet.

I ususally get that but not always. It still seems to deflate when I don't get that. But I should watch for that to see if I get any particular problems when I don't get the buzz.

My observation has always been that there is almost a pop when I do the first squeeze. Stiff, "pop", rapid collapse to full pump. Then it pumps like normal.

I get that too, but not always. That is what I referred to as the "Big Squish". I should watch for cases where that does not happen. I suspect that if it does not happen the valve is not 100% switched to inflate and may allow fluid to slowly leak back from the cylinders into the reservoir. I only got that when I switched to two-hand pumping so I could create a lot of pressure on the first pump.

[Dave92014]

It looks hopeful that the problem with my pump that caused me to start this thread has gone away. I have now pumped on each of the last four days without a problem. When doing each of those pumps I used the two-hand method and squeezed the bulb as hard as I could. I don’t know for sure but I suspect that last Tuesday when I encountered the problem it was because when I squeezed I did it more gently as my doc suggested and somehow that put the pump into a bad state where it would not suck liquid from the reservoir. I am going to continue to use the forceful squeezing because that is working for me. Maybe my pump is stiffer than normal and needs that.

One thing that is still a mystery to me is the “big squish” I sometimes get when I start pumping. I got it on the second squeeze of the first pump of the four successful pumps I did in the last four days. But I did not get the “big squish” during the last three successful pumps. After all four pumps I remained pumped for at least 20 minutes to be sure that the pump was securely in the “inflate” mode and I did not lose any stiffness during that time. So it appears that the “big squish” is not necessary to indicate the pump has switched to the “inflate mode”. I guess as I do more pumps I will get more data on that.

I have also started trying to deflate more effectively by squeezing my penis and pressing the deflate button at the same time. This does get me more deflated. And I have also noted that the next morning I am back to about 25% inflated. If I then squeeze the penis and press the deflate button, I get back to fully deflated. I think the reinflation happens because some fluid propagates from the rear cylinders to the front cylinders overnight. Since I can’t squeeze the rear cylinders they probably don’t get fully deflated. This is no big deal, just something I am learning about how to use my toy.

Another interesting point is regarding the statement I have seen somewhere on FT that one urologist suggested waiting 5 seconds between squeezes for the bulb to fully refill. It seemed to me that if there is no air in system that as soon as the bulb becomes fully rounded that it must have fully refilled with fluid, so feeling for the bulb to be fully rounded is better than waiting 5 seconds. And in my experience the bulb becomes fully rounded very fast. Tuesday when I saw my doc I asked him about this. He told me that there is no air in the system and he agreed that as soon as the bulb becomes fully rounded it is full of fluid.

[Dave92014]

2/1/2013

I have had two more experiences of the pump problem that caused me to start this topic. I will document them in case anyone else has a similar problem.

The first time the problem of the pump not pulling fluid from the reservoir occurred one evening and the next morning. But when I pumped the evening after that morning, the problem did not occur. I have been pumping nearly every day, except for about 3 or 4 days. For the 14 days I pumped after the days I had the problem, I did not experience any problem and after pumping I maintained full stiffness until I pushed the deflate button. I usually maintained it inflated for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

Then last Saturday night when I started to pump I immediately realized that the bulb was very slow in refilling so was similar to the night I had the problem. It usually takes me 12 squeezes to get fully pumped. This time on the eighth squeeze I felt the “big squish” I described in my post above. I thought that had fixed the pump problem so I continued with another 12 squeezes, the bulb refilled quickly, and I appeared to become fully inflated and fully stiff. But after about 15 minutes of foreplay I checked and found that I had lost some stiffness and was only about half-stiff. I then pumped a few more times to reach fully stiff and that seemed to hold.

After that I pumped on three days with no problems.

Then last night I started to pump and on the first squeeze, I again felt that the bulb was refilling very slowly. This time I did something different and immediately pushed the deflate button, hoping to reset the pump and cure the problem. As soon as I pushed the button the bulb filled quickly, probably with fluid from the cylinders. This makes me think that the pump had been mostly in the inflate mode, but not fully, and was pulling fluid back from the cylinders instead of from the reservoir. I then continued pumping, the bulb refilled quickly, and after 12 pumps I seemed to be inflated and fully stiff. But after about 10 minutes I checked again and found I was only half-stiff. I then pumped again a few times to get back to fully stiff. This time, the stiffness held for another 20 minutes until I pressed the deflate button. So it seems when I have the pump problem it does not get fully locked into the inflate mode.

At this point the problem has not been occurring very often and, except for the first time it happened, I have been able to recover from it to use the implant for the desired purpose. And possibly the pump is getting broken in so the problem will eventually go away. Therefore, even if this was diagnosed as a pump problem, I am not willing to undergo surgery to replace the pump at this time, given that it works most of the time for me as is.

[Dave92014]

Another data point is that I sometimes get the "big squish" on the first or second squeeze of a pumping session, but not always. I have now pumped on about 18 days and maintained full stiffness for at least 15 minutes. On about 25% of the days I get the "big squish" but on the other 75% I don't. Whether I get the "big squish" or not doesn't seem to indicate whether the pump will create full stiffness that does not dissipate by itself over time or not.