Pump inlet orientation?

For ease of priming, should the inlet of the pump be pointed up, or down?

I have my inlet pointed down...so all air bubbles can rise up and out of the outlet. I also found that installing a dump valve just down stream from the outlet is very handy to burp the pump. I start the pump, let the liquid flow in the pump and out the dump/burp valve then close the dump/burp valve....and it's usually rockin. I had problems getting good flow until I installed the burp valve.

or just put an autovent on the output of your pump

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/priming-march-autovent-200246/#post2541846





-=Jason=-

I just got my pump mounted and its in the North-South position (South being the inlet) and I heard all these horror stories about priming these things so I installed a burp valve like the poster above mentioned and had it primed within 5 seconds of my first time using it. Easy peazy!

As long as you can purge the air on the outlet side (meaning you have a purge valve or the outlet is not pumping to submerged liquid, you should be fine.

I've never had all these priming issues people talk about, so I don't know what the autovents and such circumvent specifically.

IMO, it doesn't matter how you position the inlet/outlet if you have a bleeder valve installed. I have zero problems priming my pump and the bleeder does double duty on my RIMS when I want to grab a wort sample or dump excess volume for any reason. I have no use for an autovent thingy, but that's just me. YMMV blah, blah, blah.

buckeyebrewer said:

I have my inlet pointed down...so all air bubbles can rise up and out of the outlet. I also found that installing a dump valve just down stream from the outlet is very handy to burp the pump. I start the pump, let the liquid flow in the pump and out the dump/burp valve then close the dump/burp valve....and it's usually rockin. I had problems getting good flow until I installed the burp valve.

Click to expand...

Will a 90 degree elbow on the bottom (inlet) cause issues with the air rising through the pump?

Cpt_Kirks said:

Will a 90 degree elbow on the bottom (inlet) cause issues with the air rising through the pump?

Click to expand...

No, or probably not anyway. It is generally recommended to not have elbows positioned within 5 pipe diamters of the pump inlet for optimum performance. It's a minor thing and that distance would only be a couple of inches or so for a 1/2" inlet. The elbow should not affect priming the pump.

IMO, the inlet/outlet positions don't much matter if you use a bleeder valve and have a reasonable amount of positive suction head.