Troubleshooting Tips
Air Lock
WHAT A PAIN !!!
General
Avoid long intakes with vigor, your customer must be warned about the consequences and long term maintenance liability of having long pump intake lines. Do not allow your customer to easily run over sound engineering. Make sure the customer has this warning in writing.
Deal professionally but firmly with other professionals and trades that unknowingly would cause a highly unsatisfactory result upon you the designer or installer, and ultimately upon the owner. Non pump experts are usually not aware of the serious nature of pump intake design and installation. They could easily turn your intake line into a pretzel as you have to go over and under obstacles and into the next building. To the non pump expert there is nothing wrong with routing lines to and from devices, they do it all the time. Educate them that pump intakes are special cases with severe limitations. The pump must be installed as close to the source as possible unless the source is highly pressurized.
Intakes Lifting Fluid From Below the Pump
Install the intake line so that there are no high spots in which air may become locked in. The intake line should not rise and fall even a little. It is advisable to provide a noticeable grade from the pump down to the fluid source (lake, canal, well, etc.). This grade ensures that any air trapped in the intake line will rise quickly to the pump to be removed during the priming process.
Flooded Suction Intakes
Install the intake line so that there are no high spots in which air may become locked in. The intake line should not rise and fall even a little. It is advisable to provide a noticeable grade from the pump down to the bottom of the flooded suction source so that fluid height in the source can push fluid up to the pump from the bottom of the source tank or sump. The upwards grade will force any air in the intake line to rise up to the pump so that the air can be removed during the priming process.
Frequently the line from a flooded suction source is taken over the top of the tank and then down to the pump. This is the air lock situation we are writing this document about. Avoid this type of installation if at all possible.
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