wildebus
Full Member
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There is a question in here, and if you don't want the preamble but to cut to the chase, then skip to the "TL:RD" heading (but don't then ask a question which is covered in the preamble though!)
Preamble
Had an annoyance from Day 1 in my new-to-me Motorhome where the Sureflo pump wouldn't prime after running dry.
The pump had worked fine when I first got it, but the problem happened on my first proper trip away. Thought the pump had failed so I removed it and checked it with a pipe into a bucket of water and that was just fine
Put it back in the Motorhome and wouldn't work.
I spoke to the previous (and only) owner the first time it happened after testing the pump as above and he said it happened to him a couple of times after his wife (always someone else ) used all the water and he also changed the pump and found it made no difference, but ... he told me how to get it sorted...
Open a tap and then undo the pipe from the Pump OUTLET and that gets the water flowing and the pump priming.
Tried this and it worked And I found I had to do this each time the water ran dry - so occasionally when away, but always after the winter as I drain down the tanks of course. But each time it seems to have taken longer to get going and more of a faff.
Now because the previous owner said he tried a new pump and that made no difference, and the pump worked when I removed it, I never considered a new pump. However, this spring when I couldn't get the water running doing the usual faffing around I decided to just get a new pump and whack it in just in desparation. If it fixed it, great. If no, well, got a spare pump. (my solution if the fault persisted was to manually prime the pipe from pump to tank via a funnel, which I am sure would have worked and got me water at the taps again).
Put in the new pump - another Sureflo (a higher PSI (30 instead of 20) just as that was available) - and the system primed in around a minute! So it did seem to be the pump that was at fault after all. Ran the water dry (testing the tap leaking fix) and then dumped the remaining water and ran the pump till dry. Then refilled and again pump primed system within a minute.
TLR
Symptoms:
The old pump once 'manually' primed works perfectly and is not loud in operation and no leaks
The old pump will prime itself when in a test setup - bucket of water to suck from; open outlet to spew water out of.
But the old pump will not prime when installed in a system with longer pipework to pull water in from, and pipework with taps to outlet to. The filter is clean and does not get wet when pump left to prime - so it is not sucking up the water.
The new pump primes very fast in that same system - using all the same connections so the only change to fix the issue is the pump itself.
Because the old pump works apart from this priming issue, is there some service possible on a sureflo pump for this issue. Thinking may be there is a pressure issue that stops it working at full power and not quite enough to prime through air, but ok to push water around?
It would be a shame to throw what seems to be an otherwise ok pump and could be handy to fix and keep as a spare?
Preamble
Had an annoyance from Day 1 in my new-to-me Motorhome where the Sureflo pump wouldn't prime after running dry.
The pump had worked fine when I first got it, but the problem happened on my first proper trip away. Thought the pump had failed so I removed it and checked it with a pipe into a bucket of water and that was just fine
Put it back in the Motorhome and wouldn't work.I spoke to the previous (and only) owner the first time it happened after testing the pump as above and he said it happened to him a couple of times after his wife (always someone else
) used all the water and he also changed the pump and found it made no difference, but ... he told me how to get it sorted... Open a tap and then undo the pipe from the Pump OUTLET and that gets the water flowing and the pump priming.
Tried this and it worked
And I found I had to do this each time the water ran dry - so occasionally when away, but always after the winter as I drain down the tanks of course. But each time it seems to have taken longer to get going and more of a faff.Now because the previous owner said he tried a new pump and that made no difference, and the pump worked when I removed it, I never considered a new pump. However, this spring when I couldn't get the water running doing the usual faffing around I decided to just get a new pump and whack it in just in desparation. If it fixed it, great. If no, well, got a spare pump. (my solution if the fault persisted was to manually prime the pipe from pump to tank via a funnel, which I am sure would have worked and got me water at the taps again).
Put in the new pump - another Sureflo (a higher PSI (30 instead of 20) just as that was available) - and the system primed in around a minute! So it did seem to be the pump that was at fault after all. Ran the water dry (testing the tap leaking fix) and then dumped the remaining water and ran the pump till dry. Then refilled and again pump primed system within a minute.
TL
RSymptoms:
The old pump once 'manually' primed works perfectly and is not loud in operation and no leaks
The old pump will prime itself when in a test setup - bucket of water to suck from; open outlet to spew water out of.
But the old pump will not prime when installed in a system with longer pipework to pull water in from, and pipework with taps to outlet to. The filter is clean and does not get wet when pump left to prime - so it is not sucking up the water.
The new pump primes very fast in that same system - using all the same connections so the only change to fix the issue is the pump itself.
Because the old pump works apart from this priming issue, is there some service possible on a sureflo pump for this issue. Thinking may be there is a pressure issue that stops it working at full power and not quite enough to prime through air, but ok to push water around?
It would be a shame to throw what seems to be an otherwise ok pump and could be handy to fix and keep as a spare?
