Possible air lock

[Guest john moseley]

Havining drained my A/S Symphony for winter I am having difficulty getting the air out of the system the pump sounds fine .Any advice

[Guest ray]

Hi John, close all taps but one and try to get water through them one at a time. If this fails try priming the pump by pouring water back through one of the taps, probably have to use a length of hose to do it. Will watch progress with interest, its always nerve wracking when re-filling at start of season.

[Guest john moseley]

thanks Ray will keep you posted John

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

John: I believe Symphony has a Shur-Flu 'membrane' pressure-sensitive pump that self-primes (or it should!) I agree with Ray's other advice. I used to put the shower-head in a bucket and turn on the shower hot-water control until air stopped coming out. Then did the same with the shower cold-tap; then treated wash-basin and kitchen-sink taps similarly. If this procedure proves ineffective, another possibility is an air-leak somewhere between the water-pump and the (exterior?) fresh-water tank. First check would be to ensure the connection is sound where the hose from the tank joins the pump.

[Guest petej]

John, I was once told that the best way is to prime all the hot taps one by one first. Then the cold taps. This apparently helps prevent any airlocks in the system. Don't ask me to explain why 'cos I don't know, but I have always done it this way with no problems, worth a try as it costs nowt. pete.

[Guest john moseley]

Thank's to you all for the advice I amm just about to go and try John

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Ray & Petej: Presumably you've both got motorhomes with submersible water-pumps, as diagphragm pumps are one-way devices and water wouldn't flow backwards from tap to pump. The only way ro prime a diaphragm pump would be from the tank end, but, as I said earlier, it definitely shouldn't be necessary. (In fact, I thought all self-respecting submersible pumps also self-primed nowadays.)

[Guest Bill Ord]

Hi Sounds to me as if you've got a non return valve failure in your water pump or an air leak on the suction side. If all the taps are open it should still prime but will take longer. I have no experience of Sureflo pumps but I had a Whale pump fail and it was the rubber non return valves and a kit was available. Did your pump run occasionally to top up pressure when you were not running a tap? if so this was likely to be a non return valve letting water back to the tank and dropping the pressure. This is fine as long as the system is primed but once you've drained down it is often impossible to re-prime. If after trying to prime by opening one hot tap; the reason for this is the hot water tanks needs to be purged of air first. and you can't get a result I'd suspect the pump. I have a spare Wale which is a direct replacement which you can borrow to try as a substitute if you can collect from Banbury area. If you can borrow a pump this is probably the easiest way to eliminate the possibility of pump failure. Can you feel air coming out of the taps when the pump runs? if not you probably have a pump problem as the pump is a positive displacement type and will pump air. Bill Ord

[Guest john moseley]

Thanks for the offer Bill but as I have 2 weeks left on the warranty I have had enough puffing and blowing its gone to the experts thanks again John