Circulation Pump Wont Prime/move Water

[chadwick02]

Circulation pump wont move any water, a priming issue maybe?

I checked all the connections and they are all tight. The drain plug is tight. I’m thinking it must be a problem with it priming, but I cant seem to get it to pump. I took the pump out, and disassembled the wet end. The impeller looks to be in good shape (don’t really have any experience with pumps…), and the inside of it is clean. The impeller spins up quickly when I apply power to the pump, and it sounds good. The instruction manual says nothing about priming the circ pump.

A few more details:

The tub is a 2001 Artesian Piper Glen

The pump is a grundfos ultra-jet, 110volt

This is a “new-to-me” tub, and I just got it in place and wired and ready to go last week, and started to fill it today. Having never run the tub before, I was afraid that something would not be working properly, and have been having nightmares of filling the thing then having it freeze due to bad pumps or heater. Its cold here, 15-20 degrees today!

I wanted to make sure the circulation pump and heater were working fine before I put 500+ gallons in the tub. So, instead of filling the entire tub I sealed off the filter compartment from the rest of the tub (except for the inlet that goes to the circulation pump) and filled that compartment with roughly 10 gallons of water (mostly full). When I connected power to the tub, the circ pump was running, but would not move any water. I pulled the intake hose of the tub and blew through it and it appears to be a clear path through the whole system and back into the tub.

I drained all the water out of the filter compartment, and blew a little pink anti-freeze through the pipes just to be safe. The pump still sits on my bench in the garage..

Anyone got any ideas as how to get this circ pump to move some water? Was my method of filling the filter compartment somehow goofing it up?

Thanks,

Chad

[TinyBubbles]

I think before taking the pump off and taking it apart, I would have filled the tub the proper way and started it up. There is a priming mode that the spas go through to get everything up and running correctly. If at that point the pump wasn't primed, you could have simply loosened the union until water trickled out and you should have been up and running.

[B0Darc]

I think before taking the pump off and taking it apart, I would have filled the tub the proper way and started it up. There is a priming mode that the spas go through to get everything up and running correctly. If at that point the pump wasn't primed, you could have simply loosened the union until water trickled out and you should have been up and running.

I'm sure a real technician will have more to say but priming is simply getting the air out of the pump. If I understood correctly this is a "used" tub... a 5-6 year old circ pump might likely need replaced. Also remember it has to "pull" water. If that's through paper filters... they could be glogged. Mine looked clean but were loaded with calcium and had same problem. That means you may have shiny white new looking (although used because they came with tub?) filters that are totally clogged. If the impeller is worn it might spin but not pump. Can you simply hook it up to 110 and a hose into a bucket of water? ...spinning not necessarily = pumping. Of course keep the 110V and the H2O separate for God's sake... I mean, so as to not meet him in person.

Bo

[wireman]

Your pump might have bleed fittings on it that you can loosen. These will let you bleed off air in the pump. You can possibly remove the filter and use a toilet plunger without the handle to pump water into the filter intake. These things work for me!

[chadwick02]

Thanks everyone, I think i've got it going. In the process, I broke a pipe fitting, so now I need that... Anyone know of any good artesian parts dealers? My local dealer (50 miles away) was not much help.