Prime pump without gravity

[JeffWScott]

I bought a simple pump off ebay, but it is not self priming. I plan to use it to pump the wort through a plate chiller.

I don't yet have a Kettle with a value yet so the question is how do I prime the pump without being able to gravity feed it?

I was thinking of T'ing off in-front of the pump and adding on another valve witch I can add some kind of hand pump, to pump the liquid through the hose to the pump. Then closing that value when I turn the pump on. I'm just not sure what type of hand pump I would need (I tried google but I couldn't really find what I wanted). I would need a hand pump that would draw air out of the tube but not pump air into the tube.

Does that make sense or is there a way easier way to do it?

 

[Rockn_M]

Why can't you have the pump lower than wort? If you have or can add a ball valve to your pot just open up the valve and have the pump lower than the wort. That's what most of us do.

 

[JeffWScott]

deleted

 

[JeffWScott]

Why can't you have the pump lower than wort? If you have or can add a ball valve to your pot just open up the valve and have the pump lower than the wort. That's what most of us do.

Like I said in my original post I don't yet have a valve on my kettle.

The kettle I use is rather large, expensive and most importantly borrowed. The owner does not want me drilling into it.

 

[PlexVector]

first off you need the pump lower than the kettle. the hose leading to the pump will need to be long enough to run over the kettle rim and then lay along at least half the inside circumference of the kettle bottom. Use a spring clamp to support the hose at the rim of the kettle such that it does not pinch or fall out. Pre-fill the hose and pump with sanitized/distilled water, close the output valve, and quickly drop into the bottom of the kettle such that the hose rings the bottom circumference and you don't leak any water from the hose or at least minimize it. Start the pump and slowly open valve and when the wort reaches the pump output switch from the bucket to what ever you are pumping the wort too. At least this should give you the idea, which you can play upon.

edit: This still uses gravity by pre-priming the pump and input hose. The more distance between the bottom of the kettle and pump input the better. (with-in reason)

 

[JeffWScott]

first off you need the pump lower than the kettle. the hose leading to the pump will need to be long enough to run over the kettle rim and then lay along at least half the inside circumference of the kettle bottom. Use a spring clamp to support the hose at the rim of the kettle such that it does not pinch or fall out. Pre-fill the hose and pump with sanitized/distilled water, close the output valve, and quickly drop into the bottom of the kettle such that the hose rings the bottom circumference and you don't leak any water from the hose or at least minimize it. Start the pump and slowly open valve and when the wort reaches the pump output switch from the bucket to what ever you are pumping the wort too. At least this should give you the idea, which you can play upon.

edit: This still uses gravity by pre-priming the pump and input hose. The more distance between the bottom of the kettle and pump input the better. (with-in reason)

BRILLIANT!

Thank you so much!