is there any secret to quickly priming my pump? any time I loose the vacuum seal on my lines for maintenance, my pump always has to push a lot of air around and it takes a few minutes to start moving water. have always felt this could really damage the pump due to dry conditions in the head and heat. is there a tip or technique one can use to minimize the primer time, or another way to keep the pump cool while the air is purged? or are the pumps designed to handle this condition periodically?
prime pump
- Thread starter aaron_w_o
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 48,268
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Once you fill an empty pump pot with water, you would hope it would start to prime relatively quickly. In some cases however, you have to remove the lid and refill the pot a second, maybe even a third time with water. If you need to allow the motor to run for a minute or so while waiting for full suction line prime to take place, that's fine. Some pump manuals are clear to state that as well.
The vast majority of pumps can take a minute or two to start moving water. The water already in the pump (prime) will keep the shaft seal safe for the length of time it takes to completely fill the suction plumbing with water and have it start flowing.
It can also be helpful to close your return valves (if you have any of these before the pump) and slowly open them on at a time. That is, start with one 1/2 open, then as water starts flowing well open it all the way, then once the pump catches up, open the 2nd 1/2 way, then all the way, etc until all valves are open... if you get too much air when you open a valve, close it a little. Obviously (I hope), don't run the pump with all your return valves closed. If your filter has a air release valve, it can be helpful to open that as well until all air has been flushed out.