Shurflow pump problem UPDATE

Our Flo-jet pump was left on accidentally in storage and when the bit of remaining water evaporated it started to run. It may have been running for weeks. It would still pump up to normal pressure and hold without back leaking but it refused to prime anymore. Now I can say it was directly caused by that. I did find out quite some time later that it would prime with the tank clear full. I took the head apart a couple different times and never found anything. So after having to manually prime it with the winterizing tube dozens of times I finally got around to just replacing the pump. I should have done that years ago.

You may find yours still won’t prime with less than a full tank.

Good info, thanks.

Glad you got it running.

For future readers...
A pump is never shot if the pump is running. It can be fixed. These pumps consist of a motor and a head. The head is typically a diaphram made of rubbery flaps. The flaps might be bad, torn, degraded or clogged with debris, but can be replaced or cleaned. A little spec of plastic bit is enough to keep the flap from closing fully and if it is full of air, not water, then it will not be able to pull nearly as strong as it could pull on water. That one spec of plastic debris is enough to prevent priming in a dry pump.

By filling the tank full you are putting more pressure on the water to be pushed into the pump, so that helps overcome the issue, whatever issue the pump was having to pull.

As mentioned, the pumps are not at all cooled by the water, so can run dry with no issues, the motor does run dry even when pumping water so-to-speak because the water never cools the electric pump anyway. The pump head has water, the motor does not.

Actually a tiny spec will likely just pass on through to your faucet, but it is the debris that is more fish hook shaped that will get caught in the pump head. A filter or just a wire screen thing before the pump will prevent this.

wa8yxm wrote:
These pumps are SUPPOSED to be self priming. However they can Air Lock.
So as one reply. JUST ONE that I saw Said. Open a major faucet. or stand on the toilet flush vlave to relieve all pressure on the pump outlet. YOu should hear it pick up and prime

I also suggest filling the supply tank FULL.

That's basically what I did but I filled the fresh water tank completely, opened the nearest faucet on the cold side and it finally primed and started working

These pumps are SUPPOSED to be self priming. However they can Air Lock.
So as one reply. JUST ONE that I saw Said. Open a major faucet. or stand on the toilet flush vlave to relieve all pressure on the pump outlet. YOu should hear it pick up and prime

I also suggest filling the supply tank FULL.

kedanie wrote:
So, did you just put a little water in the tank or fill it? Tank needs to be pretty full to re-prime the system.

Keith

We have a winner! Filled the tank up and it primed after about 15 seconds of running.

I believe the pump may be shot...It’s for this reason that I’ve always carried a spare pump...

It's about 2/3 full. Will that work?

So, did you just put a little water in the tank or fill it? Tank needs to be pretty full to re-prime the system.

Keith

Ran it for 5 minutes and no water