Priming pump problems

[HopIt]

I recently bought one of those little solar pumps for my brewery. I have a gravity fed blichmann setup (with a hop rocket and therminator), and have been doing a bit of testing.

Last night I had the whole loop set up and started pumping oxiclean around it from a pan without a tap. I just poured a couple of litres of the liquid into the hose, put the end in the pan and when it got going it was fine and sat there circulating away happily. I then poured out the oxiclean and filled the pan with water. By now there was a lot if liquid in the system and I just couldn't get it to prime. It seemed like the water just kept pouring out when I poured it into the end of the hose.

Does anyone have any tips? I'm planning to circulate starsan around on the brewday after cleaning the night before and I'm worried the same thing will happen

[barneey]

I have never really had too many problems priming a solar pump, however you could always insert a bleed valve in the pipe work to dispel any airlocks.

[HopIt]

Do you prime from a tap or "manually" then put in the vessel?

[Fil]

fwiw i have mine attached to the valve output so is gravity fed by the pot volume and self priming.

if im understanding correctly your filling a feed tube to your pump and then submersing the full tube in the liquid to suck/syphon out the liquid?
solar pumps dont suck too well, and perform best pushing rather than pulling/sucking.
The solar pumps are submersible so if your not attaching to the gravity fed drain you could just drop it in the vessel to pump out. just extend AND seal the power leads.

[HopIt]

In the end I ended up using a bucket with a valve to pump star San round the system. Those pumps really need to be gravity fed to get started.

Thanks for the input