Water pump not picking up from tank on it's own

[dfinn]

That did it. The old pump had no suction at all. New pump has water almost instantly at the faucet.

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by dfinn

That did it. The old pump had no suction at all. New pump has water almost instantly at the faucet.

Hmmm. Mine is original (1995) as well. Perhaps I too should upgrade. I thought my problem was the added length of line to my newer tank, but now I wonder.

Glad you got yours fixed!

[Viva]

Not quite the same thing, but I had what really seemed to be a leak (you know how then the pump will run juuuuust a bit more often than it should, and every time you hear it you know you have to fix that!). That said, I couldn't find a leak anywhere. I was dreading a possible leak in the wall somewhere and what that would entail.

I decided to throw a few parts at it first. First I replaced that grey "city/tank fill" valve that is by the tank (hard to find that but SMB parts dept. had it, and at a very reasonable price too), because I read here that that was vulnerable, but that didn't fix it (oh well, I have a spare now). I knew blaming the pump was probably just too easy, but figured, well, it's 15+ years old, and they don't cost all that much, so I did get a new pump and put it in. Voila, problem fixed (and, the real test, it stayed fixed). Ahhh.

[dfinn]

An added benefit is that the new pump is significantly quieter than the old one. It will get a proper test this weekend, heading out to fish the Green river in UT tomorrow morning.

[rionapo]

Our pump is on the fritz thanks to a broken city water valve. It's the new type SMB is installing and it breaks easily. That allows air into the system, I presume, and the pump can't fight it. We're traveling now, don't have the tools to fix the new system and not interested in a $$$ Repair. You're post and the comments make me think I should cut the line below the city valve and cap it. If the air pressure theory is correct, the pump should be able to prime itself and work again (assuming it can handle any remaining air.) If not, no harm as the section of ticking with the valve needs to be replaced anyway.

Don

[dfinn]

I'm kind of thinking out loud here but I think the pump really only needs to have suction from the pump itself (through any filter on the inlet side) to the water. In my case that was only about 4" of hose that was attached to the bottom of my water tank. I don't think it actually needs to build suction through all the lines all the way to the city water inlet? I'm not hydro physicist but that makes sense in my head.