force priming March pump...

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Dgonza9

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I saw a post a while back where someone used a hose to force water into his March pump inlet to prime it. I'm planning on building something similar, a hose bib quick attached to a 1/2" copper pipe, then a 1/2 tee with one end going to March pump inlet and the second outlet of the tee going to whatever I want to pump.

Any downsides to this approach? Any contamination issues if I used it after the boil to start my CFC?

I have a pump stand with a bleeder valve and it works pretty well, but I do sometimes struggle to prime. I was doing a test of my heat sticks recently and when I tried to drain some hot water from my keggle to the pump, it didn't work. Opening bleed valve didn't work either. I had to turn on valve with pump disconnected. Then reattach hose and it worked. I figure force priming will make this 100% straightforward.

Thanks for the input.
 
I don't see any problem with your plan, but it seems like a lot of trouble to go through to prime the pump. I doesn't understand why the bleeder valve doesn't do the job. I have a bleeder valve on my pump and I NEVER experience priming problems and you shouldn't either. Post a pic and maybe we can pinpoint the problem. This should not be happening.
 
I'm probably the one you are referring to in the 1st post, but I would add that I wouldn't have set my system up like that JUST for the purpose of priming the pump. Priming it that way was something that just naturally became possible after I started assembling my plumbing, so I rolled with it.

The bleeder is probably a lot simpler to do if your goal is simply to get the pump primed.
 
My setup is still in planning stages as I'm moving from outside to my basement and going electric. But my brewstand puts the pump input 6-12" below the keggle valve. I brewed outside with the pump and practiced with it indoors. The bleed valve works, but not always the first time and I lost prime a few times during the brewing. I also ran some water supply lines to my brewing area, so I have a hose available right there and can just put a QC on the hose barb.

If there's no downside to force priming, I'll probably just set it up. It'll allow me to take the pump off its little stand and mount it to my brew stand itself and not worry so much about having enough of a drop from the keggle valve to the pump.

I think I'm changing the design, though. I'm going to face the inlet down and put in an elbow, some straight pipe and another elbow and some straight pipe until I have the inlet piping horizontal. I'm then going to put in the tee. One end will go to a hose barb for force priming. The other will be my inlet for pumping things around. I'll still have the bleeder valve on the outlet side in case I want to go with that.

So, Walker, have you noticed any downside to force priming?
 
I don't see any problem with your plan, but it seems like a lot of trouble to go through to prime the pump. I doesn't understand why the bleeder valve doesn't do the job. I have a bleeder valve on my pump and I NEVER experience priming problems and you shouldn't either. Post a pic and maybe we can pinpoint the problem. This should not be happening.

+1

here is my set up the bottom valve is the bleeder
IMG_0512.JPG
 
Be careful if you prime with tap water pressure... If you have any silicon hoses and expose them to full tap pressure, they will turn into balloons pretty quickly.
 
Yeah, I was noticing that. I'm thinking of putting a ball valve to block this from happening.

I did a test run tonight. Force priming works fine. Most of the time the bleeder works fine. I'm keeping it. I guess I'm just going to add the force priming option and see how it goes. I'm going to reorganize the valves, though. I'll post a pic when done.
 
Be careful if you prime with tap water pressure... If you have any silicon hoses and expose them to full tap pressure, they will turn into balloons pretty quickly.

Yeah, I was noticing that. I'm thinking of putting a ball valve to block this from happening.

Correct. I have to make sure that I only open the valve that lets the tap water into my plubming when I have at least one other valve on the system also opened.
 
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