Chugger pump first time use problems

[Patirck]

I sent this to the tech support at chuggerpumps.com but I thought maybe someone here might be able to give me a tip on what I"m doing wrong.

I recieved my chugger pump last friday. I wired it to a plug today and tried it out but it would not pump. I made sure to prime it by placing a funnel on the intake side and pouring water until it was coming out the output side. I then placed the full hose in a pot of water and plugged it in. It did not pump anything but the motor came on.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[klyph]

Just because you filled the housing with water doesn't mean it was primed. So to answer your question, yes.

 

[JonW]

Do you have the pump below the pot of water? Is the hose in the pot draped over the top or is it attached to a (submerged) valve?

Sounds to me like you are trying to get the pump to create the siphon, which it does not do well.

 

[Patirck]

The input hose is draped over a pot of water - not attached to a submerged valve. I guess that makes sense. I'll have to try it with my brew pot filled with water.

 

[Lonnie Mac]

In short of a pump jam itself, if properly primed there should be no issue. I pump 20 gallons up from a can sitting on the floor (below my pots) up to my pots on Brutus every single brew day using my 809's. I should add that my pumps are above the water source too. It's all about priming properly.

 

[klyph]

If the pump is above the supply, you're not gonna have any fun figuring out why it's not working.

 

[Patirck]

So what I'm gathering is:

the pump has to be below the supply
the supply has to be a submerged valve
the pump has to be primed but if I don't have the first two done priming does not matter.

 

[Randar]

So what I'm gathering is:

the pump has to be below the supply
the supply has to be a submerged valve
the pump has to be primed but if I don't have the first two done priming does not matter.

I do not believe the middle statement is necessarily true. If you have the pump low enough to ensure there is natural siphon pressure back to the source water (aka, if there was no pump there, would the water freely siphon into another vessel?) you should be ok. I have never tried it but it makes sense to me.

 

[Patirck]

Yeah - but I don't want to have to start a siphon with wort or mash runnoff. I'll just hook it up to a submerged valve when I get a chance to pull out a kettle.