Priming the water pump
Hello all- We have a 6 year old travel trailer and over the past few years we have had an annoying issue with the water pump that I am getting really frustrated with now. If the unit sits for a peri...
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A few years ago I found the water pump had been left on in storage. Once the tank level had evaporated enough it was running continuously for days/weeks/months. While diaphragm pumps can be run dry for at least a while, it never was the same. It would no longer prime unless the tank (located below it) was almost full. It would lose prime when traveling.
I cheated for a couple years when I found you could put the winterizing valve half way between settings and suck tank water up into the winterizing tube with your mouth. Then I could get the pump to prime if I opened a faucet, ran the pump while on winterizing mode AND while blowing as hard as I could into that tube. Once it started to take I could switch back to tank and it would prime up. Once primed, it would last the whole time we stayed in that spot and didn’t leak down or run unless a faucet was open.
I took the pump apart 2x looking for issues or debris in the diaphragm but it always looked and felt fine. Finally I decided to swap the pump and it all works just fine again. This was with the same inlet pipe and filter so it wasn’t an air leak. Obviously the diaphragm just couldn’t pull enough of a vacuum when dry.
I cheated for a couple years when I found you could put the winterizing valve half way between settings and suck tank water up into the winterizing tube with your mouth. Then I could get the pump to prime if I opened a faucet, ran the pump while on winterizing mode AND while blowing as hard as I could into that tube. Once it started to take I could switch back to tank and it would prime up. Once primed, it would last the whole time we stayed in that spot and didn’t leak down or run unless a faucet was open.
I took the pump apart 2x looking for issues or debris in the diaphragm but it always looked and felt fine. Finally I decided to swap the pump and it all works just fine again. This was with the same inlet pipe and filter so it wasn’t an air leak. Obviously the diaphragm just couldn’t pull enough of a vacuum when dry.
