TLDR: Use filtered water or be prepared to clean it once a year.We have had our pump for just over a year. We FREQUENTLY comment on how wonderful it is. We use it with 2 jugs in the back shop on our garage fridge. Our new fridge sucks at making enough ice for our family, but our garage fridge was/is a workhorse at making ice. We love in the desert and go through a ton of ice.A couple of months ago it started acting like it was getting air in the line. I made sure everything was sealed, but still it would 'get air in the line'. The ice was hollow and the pump would run all the time. I couldn't get it to flow properly at all. I turned it off and we lamented we'd have to start buying bags of ice.Today I decided to take another look at it. When I pulled the parts out of the jugs I noticed calcium scale on the pipes. I filled a 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of water and poured approximately 1/4 gal of muriatic acid in. I put both pump pipes in the bucket and ran the return hose back into the bucket.I turned the pump on and it sputtered at first. So much white tinted the water and then the stream of the pump return stopped sputtering and ran clear and strong. I only ran it for a couple of minutes. I emptied and rinsed the bucket and ran the pump with clean water for 20 minutes.I primed it and hooked it back up to the fridge.It is running as if it were brand new. We're beyond thrilled! Yay! Yay! Yay! Back to unlimited ice on hand!