another march pump thread...

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aModestMouse

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yeah i know there is tons of them out there but i can't seem to find the answer i'm looking for.

alright here it goes.. i'm having a hell of a time trying to prime this sob. i have the housing with the inlet facing down and outlet facing up and i've tried many ways to prime it and haven't had much luck so i was wondering how everyone else goes about it. i've heard so much that having the housing N/S is the best way to go but the liquid obviously cannot flow upward on its own so i'm confused on an appropriate way to prime (when it comes to brew days)

probably just being a idiot here but this **** isn't flowing and it's kind of chapping me up..

also, on the outlet i have a T leading to two ball valves, one for purging (also will connect to my CFC when needed at the end of a brew) and the other as the main flow.

anyways..

cheers!
 
Is the pump below the vessel you are looking to pump? Priming a March pump should not be this difficult. I have never had much of a problem priming mine.
 
They can be a bugger to prime sometimes. I had mine oriented like yours, but I changed it back to horizontal...it works better for me. I still have the outlet on the top, but it is oriented horizontally. I have a QD after the ball valve, and when starting a brew session, I remove the outlet QD, open valve, fill pump until I get good flow out of the outlet, close valve and hook up QD. I haven't lost prime yet, but if/when I do the QD makes it easy to make sure the pump is full. I also found out that "throttling back" the ball-valve a little until the pump is air-free when pumping works well.
 
Are all fittings tight, including the fittings in your kettle? Is it possible you have an obstruction in your dip tube. They may take a minute to prime. Not knowing much about your setup it sounds as if you have an air leak somewhere and the air is preventing you from getting a prime. There is not much else to it unless you have a defect in the pump. Have you tried forcing water into the pump to get a prime?
 
I am with Reelale.

I orient the in-out left to right...

I dont start the pump until the OUTlet hose is full, then I start the pump.

The pump CAN operate with some air in it (slower rate) and when that air clears it will pump at full rate.

If you cannot get it to prime at all, then you have something in your plumbing on the outlet that is making it hard for the air bubbles to exit the head.

Maybe you need a larger DROP to the pump. The more head pressure you have going IN to the pump, the easier it is to force the air OUT of the pump head.
 
I have my pumps with the inlet facing left and the outlet facing right, just like in this picture:

429976.jpg

If you look at the design of the pump, the inlet and outlet are set at the top of the impeller and should be oriented as pictured.

The important thing about priming is that they don't prime themselves. Gravity must do it. When you open the valve that goes to the inlet, the liquid should fill the pump completely as well as the tubing beyond it. This is WITHOUT the pump running. There should be no resistance to the tubing upstream to allow gravity to completely fill the tubing to the level of the source liquid.

Once the tubing is filled, turn on the pump and you're good to go. Mine have very little issues priming. They are mounted about 6 inches below the bottom of my vessels. The only time it takes a bit is when there is some remaining liquid left in the upstream HERMS coil that needs to be forced out.
 
I have my pumps with the inlet facing left and the outlet facing right, just like in this picture:

View attachment 14154

If you look at the design of the pump, the inlet and outlet are set at the top of the impeller and should be oriented as pictured.

The important thing about priming is that they don't prime themselves. Gravity must do it. When you open the valve that goes to the inlet, the liquid should fill the pump completely as well as the tubing beyond it. This is WITHOUT the pump running. There should be no resistance to the tubing upstream to allow gravity to completely fill the tubing to the level of the source liquid.

Once the tubing is filled, turn on the pump and you're good to go. Mine have very little issues priming. They are mounted about 6 inches below the bottom of my vessels. The only time it takes a bit is when there is some remaining liquid left in the upstream HERMS coil that needs to be forced out.

This is a key statement... you cannot have RESISTANCE at the oulet or downstream. In my old HERMS, I would disconnect the QD at the HERMS coil and let gravity fill the pump and hose, then reconnect to the HERMS coil and it woud be primed and ready to go.
 
This is a key statement... you cannot have RESISTANCE at the oulet or downstream. In my old HERMS, I would disconnect the QD at the HERMS coil and let gravity fill the pump and hose, then reconnect to the HERMS coil and it woud be primed and ready to go.

Yep. That's exactly what I do if it doesn't prime right away. :D
 
I'll do the same. I actually leave the pump off, connect the in side to my keg, turn on the valve, turn on the valve on the pump and lower my output hose so I get some water/wort in it, then I will tend to recirculate some with no back pressure on the output hose before I hook it up to something like a CFC.
 
Slight air leak at a fitting will ruin your day. Make sure Teflon on all joints and no leaky. When I have prime issues I just disconnect one end of outlet hose and drop it below the pump until the flow starts, then reconnect and good to go.
 
when i open my valve from my HLT running through my pump to my outlet purge valve all i get is a small trickle of water and i think this is where my problem is... i cant seem to get a good enough gravity flow going into the pump to start the initial prime.. i have my pump around 10-12" below the vessels and everything seems to be nice and tight so i don't suspect any air leaks. I am also using QD's on my HLT, MT, and BK but they are only 1/4" as of now ( i ordered new ones from McMaster).. but basically i think my problems is actually getting a good gravity flow started so i can close my purge valve and open the main valve and actually get a flow going.. hah..

any ideas?
 
I'm thinking you have too much restriction with 1/4" QDs or somewhere in your valve set-up. Are they 1/2" valves, or are they reduced? You should get a good gravity flow with 1/2" hose and 1/2" QDs. Even though the QDs are 3/8" ID, I've had no problems with them. I think that 1/4" is too small. Did ya try orienting the pump and/or pump head like recommended?
 
1/4" is darn small.

You will find that with these pumps, the larger your plumbing DIA. the fewer headaches you will have.

Also, when you are priming the pump, is the outlet hose attached to anything? Try leaving the outlet hose DISCONNECTED, open...

If larger diameter plumbing and an OPEN outlet dont help... I am at a loss
 
yeah i know there is tons of them out there but i can't seem to find the answer i'm looking for.

alright here it goes.. i'm having a hell of a time trying to prime this sob. i have the housing with the inlet facing down and outlet facing up and i've tried many ways to prime it and haven't had much luck so i was wondering how everyone else goes about it. i've heard so much that having the housing N/S is the best way to go but the liquid obviously cannot flow upward on its own so i'm confused on an appropriate way to prime (when it comes to brew days)

probably just being a idiot here but this **** isn't flowing and it's kind of chapping me up..

also, on the outlet i have a T leading to two ball valves, one for purging (also will connect to my CFC when needed at the end of a brew) and the other as the main flow.

anyways..

cheers!


This interests me. The fluid DEFINATLY can flow upward on its own. It should flow through the pump and upward to the same height as the fluid level in the source vessel. This is just natural, if it doesnt do this, something in your setup is restricting physics from happening.

Do this for me...
Remove that T, place the valve directly on the pump output, you may be very surprised at what happens.
 
yes the oulet tube im an using is not connected to anything i just have it running into a small pot to collect the water (just doing wet test obviously). i kind of thought that the QD's might be the problem but like i said i have the 1/2" brass QD's coming from McMasters and i hope that helps....
 
This interests me. The fluid DEFINATLY can flow upward on its own. It should flow through the pump and upward to the same height as the fluid level in the source vessel. This is just natural, if it doesnt do this, something in your setup is restricting physics from happening.

Do this for me...
Remove that T, place the valve directly on the pump output, you may be very surprised at what happens.


yup, the flow should go back up to the same level as it is in the source container.
 
also, i rearranged the heading horizontal and still no luck

Remove that T and extra valve...

I have learned that placing T's and extra parts at the pump outlet will kill the ability to prime in many cases. Too many places to trap air, cause enough pressure to kill the prime
 
the plan for the T was to essentially have a line to send to my CFC, how would you suggest doing this without the T?
 
the plan for the T was to essentially have a line to send to my CFC, how would you suggest doing this without the T?

Well, the T doesnt matter much if the pump doesnt pump :D

If you are using QDs... why do you need a T? Just remove the OUT line and place it on the CFC.
 
so i took the T off and now just have a ball valve on the outlet of the pump.. i still cannot get a flow going from my HLT.. the water just seems to trickle down a bit then half of the hose is filled with water and the other half with air.. i r confused
 
Maybe post pics of your setup. I work in tech support/field service and a lot is lost/missed in explanation. Pictures tell what ones explanation may not. Post a pick of your entire setup, with some closeups of the pump orientation as well. It's got to be a misunderstanding somewhere. Physics don't work one way for some people and another for others.
 
Can you get a siphon started with your mouth or auto-syphon? I know that is not what you want to do with hot water, but it might let you know if you have a restriction up the line.
 
will do, ill post some pics this evening.. another test im doing just to see if the pump is actually working.. i funnel water through the main INlet hose and that baby primes/pumps like a charm.. i'm just having troubles getting the INlet hose filled with water from my kettle, but when i force it, it works perfectly.. maybe its those damned QD's (i did this test both WITH the T and WITHOUT, worked great)
 
Physics don't work one way for some people and another for others.

That is just not true, there is a parallel universe where our laws of physics do not apply ;)

will do, ill post some pics this evening.. another test im doing just to see if the pump is actually working.. i funnel water through the main INlet hose and that baby primes/pumps like a charm.. i'm just having troubles getting the INlet hose filled with water from my kettle, but when i force it, it works perfectly.. maybe its those damned QD's (i did this test both WITH the T and WITHOUT, worked great)

I think you've answered your own question. Proper QDs will probably fix it.
 
\I think you've answered your own question. Proper QDs will probably fix it.

possibly... but why will the INlet hose not fill entirely unless water is physically poured into it? i think that is the detail that isn't making sense to me. i have all the valves open so i'd assume once i opened the valved on the kettle.. the water would fill/equalize but that doesnt seem to happen
 
possibly... but why will the INlet hose not fill entirely unless water is physically poured into it? i think that is the detail that isn't making sense to me. i have all the valves open so i'd assume once i opened the valved on the kettle.. the water would fill/equalize but that doesnt seem to happen

I'm not sure of the actual physics involved, but I bet it has something to do with the back pressure of the small diameter hose and/or disconnects exceeding the head pressure of the container.....I dunno. I'll bet you can draw a siphon on your existing hose now and it will flow, just won't "gravity feed". Do you have any larger hose that you can try?
 
I'm using 3/8" silicon tubing and McMaster QD's (which means the barbs, etc. are 1/4" ID). No problems with priming on my rig. Anything on the inside of the vessel restricting flow? Pinched dip tube or something like that?
 
I assume your HLT has a dip tube in it... Do you have the kettle filled up well beyond the top of that dip tube? The more water in the kettle the better/harder it will flow through the tubing.
 

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