New Pump Question

[LizardBrew83]

I just got a new march pump and I am having a bit of trouble. My question is will/ should the fan turn even if it is not primed properly? I test ran with water the first time and tried to prime it with gravity as I had the pump on the floor going from my Mash tun which is about 5 feet high to my boil kettle which is about the same height. I primed it by allowing some water going through it and then plugging it in. I thought it was working at first as I got a little less than a gallon of water in my BK, but noticed the fan/ motor never spun and was starting to get hot to the touch. After looking up some things I am going to do the tee fitting on the outlet thing, but shouldn't the motor still be spinning even if it isn't primed properly? I know that they can seize if they are not oiled enough, but this is brand new and there is no information on the instructions that it has to be oiled before use, so I figured it was oiled at the factory. Maybe it is defective? Also, can the pump pump into the ball valve of the boil kettle with a dip tube or does it have to go to the top of the BK? My thought is that there will eventually be back pressure that the pump will not be able to handle. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Nanobru]

When the pump has power, the fan is blowing, and the impeller is turning. If your fan is not operating, Id be worried. The pumps are gravity fed, so they must (are supposed to) be positioned with the in port on top, and the out port on bottom. We get around this by various methods, I use an inline valve to bleed the air, which also doubles as my port that I attach my hose to during knock out. I brew 10 gallon batches on a RIMs system and experience no problems pumping from the mash to the kettle through the bottom port, or pumping from the kettle through 50 ft of coil (chiller) on its way to the fermenter (although it is noticeably slower). Return the pump for another one.

 

[LizardBrew83]

Thanks for the response. Seems it's defective I'll have to send it back.