How do I get my prime back?

[BB_TX]

Was winterizing yesterday. Put the winterize switch in the on position. Bypassed the water heater. Connected hose to the Winterize connection and put other end in antifreeze jug. Turned on pump and opened a faucet until pink stuff came out. Then other faucets. Sucked one jug empty. Put hose in another jug and started doing more faucets. Sucked jug dry before I realized it and pump sucked air. Now I cannot get the pump to pump any more antifreeze. I assume it sucked all the water out of the line and lost it's prime. How do I get it back?

[H. John Kohl]

I have found I have relieve the air pressure in the lines to regain prime by opening a faucet to let the air out of the line. That means pink stuff in the drain or collect it in a pan. I hope this works. Also watch the spray of pink stuff with the air in it. Good luck.

[BB_TX]

John - I tried that. I turned the pump on and opened a faucet. Even after a couple minutes, nothing came out. I tried holding the antifreeze jug up above the level of the connection to minimize the suction pressure needed to get it started and that did not help either.

[awaywego]

Bill,

Try putting a funnel in the end of the hose and holding it up and pouring a little pink in with the valves open and the pump running. This forces it into the pump.

[H. John Kohl]

Not being there my only other thought is the Pump switch may have been moved back to the tank position instead of the pink jug position. Just a thought. A second thought is to make sure the pickup hose does not have something in it plugging it.
Let us know what works please.
Cheers,

[BB_TX]

I am still in the working world (for 4 more months ). I will try again tonight and let you know what happens.

[waldo238]

Those pumps should be self priming. With that being said I had the same problem and to fix it I opened up each of my low point drains just for a few seconds, closed them and it began to work again.

[richfaa]

Just had that happen to me as I was putting some pink stuff in via the Docking station. My solution was to put some water in the fresh water tank then run the pump to re-establish the prime..Don't forget to drain the fresh water tank when finished...

[BB_TX]

Rich - I actually tried that yesterday, but forgot to turn the winterization switch back to normal. And then wondered why that didn't work. I didn't think about what I had done until about 2 am this morning. If the other solutions don't work, I will try that again with the switch in the correct position. It is in storage and I don't have access to water there so I will have to drag it out again.

[BB_TX]

And the winner is .............. Rex for the low point drain idea. I bought a funnel with a tip that fit tightly in the hose and connected the hose to the winterize connection. Filled the funnel and a little liquid ran into the hose. Hung the funnel up above the level of the connection. Turned the pump on and opened a faucet. After a minute, there was still no flow. Went around and opened one of the low point drains. It blew air then liquid so I closed it. Opened the other and same thing. Then I heard the pump start making a different sound and the funnel began to rapidly empty. Pulled the hose from the funnel and stuck it in a jug and it began sucking it from the jug. Problem solved.
Rex - Just curious. Was the low point drain idea from logical reasoning? Or was it one of those "wonder what happens if I do this" type ideas?

[waldo238]

I figured that this was the quickest way to get any air in the system out at one time, and it couldn't hurt either

[H. John Kohl]

Great news, the low point drain is faster then opening a faucet. Glad it worked.
cheers,