New to lawn sprinkers. Existing system put new pump in, no water

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Mikelisa0212

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Title somes it up. I bought this house and the sprinkler system has not been used in years. The pump was seized. I replaced it with the exact same pump. (Flotec 1.5 hp). Prime pump, turn it on and nothing. I have a hose on a spicket for direct priming. I tried filling it up and then running it. The pump gets really loud, then I release the spicket and air comes out, and pump gets quiet. but never puts any water into the sprinkler lines. Apologies if this doesn't make sense.

There are two water valves on the other side of the house, that are both turned on. I am assuming that at least one is to turn on water to flow to intake of the sprinkler pump. I just bought this house and never had sprinkler system before, so I am just winging it.

What is the proper way to prime it? Fill it with water, close off all spickets and just let it run, or constantly feed in water while running? How can I tell if water is in the intake line to get sucked up?

Thanks,
Mike
 

Valveman

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Prime the pump. Leave a spicket on the discharge side of the pump open. Turn on pump. If it took the prime it should squirt water out the discharge side spicket.
 

Mikelisa0212

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Prime the pump. Leave a spicket on the discharge side of the pump open. Turn on pump. If it took the prime it should squirt water out the discharge side spicket.

Thanks. It does do that, spits out the water as it is flowing in. Now, do I keep running it that way until it starts flowing out without interruption? Or do I close the discharge and run it? Pump manual says water should come up within 10 minutes. Wondering how many times I should try this.
 

Mikelisa0212

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Ok, I left the water on and it immediately came out. I let it run like that for a few minutes and then closed the discharge spicket for a while, while still pumping water through. After a few minutes of that, I opened the discharge spicket and the same amount of water came out. I turned off the intake (priming) valve and it was running with nothing coming out of the discharge. The whole time, nothing was coming out of the system sprinklers.

How do I tell if water is coming up to the intake through the water pipe? Could there be something else I am missing?

Thanks
 

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Then you are not getting it primed. It should run the same way after you close the priming valve. Maybe your foot valve is not holding or your are not getting water from the well for some reason.
 

Mikelisa0212

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One more question. Is a foot valve the same as a check valve? I am thinking my check valve maybe not working and replacing it. (Google is a wonderful tool. LOL)
 

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Foot valve would be on the bottom of the suction pipe. A check valve would be in the middle of the pipe somewhere. Both do the same thing which is to keep water from reversing when the pump is off.
 

Mikelisa0212

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Ok, I started thinking the intake pipe may not have water in it? What I thought was the valve to the intake pipes of the sprinkler was not. Now, is there normally a turn on valve for the line that goes into the sprinkler? I can't seem to find one around outside of the house, if there is. I have city water, not a well. Just wondering before I start ripping out pipe to replace these foot and/or check valves..

Thanks so much for answering all these questions.
 

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Normally there is a ball valve on the discharge side of the pump system to open to the sprinkler lines, but not always. There should not be a ball valve on the suction side, but if there is make sure it is open.
 

WorthFlorida

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OK, your in Florida where about 90% of the homes have an irrigation system. Is your water from a lake or a well? For priming on either system its the same. Most pumps are self priming and after turning it on only have one spigot open, the pump is priming (or pumping in a sense) the air our of the system and it has to go somewhere. At my church I have one well that always loses it prime and it may take up to five minutes before the water starts to flow.

You lose prime only after it is primed and you turn the pump off. A bad check valve (on the intake side) usually doesn't close so water is allowed to flow back out of the pipe and siphons most of the water out of the pump. Not able to prime usually is an intake problem with either a well or a lake feed.

A common lake feed pump problem is the intake pipe has cracks or one or more old glue joints have failed. Another is the end of the pipe in a lake water is fully clogged with debris. There would be a large slotted pipe at the end in the water that acts like a filter.

Or the well ran dry. You may not know when the well was put in but signs of rust or no rust stains. A well around 40 feet will have iron rust stains on everything. A so call deep well for irrigation is around 70-80 ft, at least in S Florida. However, the water table is only about 5 feet below grade. For deep well there is no point or foot valves. The pipe is rammed down until it hits corral or lime rock well below the surface. The pipe it still rammed but now a drill is inserted to cut the rock until a pocket of water is hit. The drill is pulled out and the open end pipe is all that is left. The water pressure/table will push the water up anywhere between a few feet to not more than 32 feet below the surface. It is impossible to suck water that is more than 32 feet deep.
 

Mikelisa0212

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Wanted to give an update. The ball valve was bad. I replaced it and am not getting prime. Since then, found a few broken sprinkler heads and a few broken pipes/connections. Been fixing them and it is working.

THANKS to everyone on this forum for your help.
 
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