Water pump not sucking up antifreeze

[HappyCamperCanada]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

For the education/edification of members attempting to help, would you mind telling us what you're talking about with "that vacume slide thinger"?

The thinger on the left of the pump before the line enters. Says vacume slide

[HappyCamperCanada]

I think I just didnt tighten one of the fittings tight enough. I didn't see which one was leaking because I was too busy pouring and watching the faucets. A loose fitting would cause it not to suck? Yeah I'll have to find the losse fitting in the spring or it won't suck from the fresh water tank.

[14apex]

Originally Posted by HappyCamperCanada

The thinger on the left of the pump before the line enters. Says vacume slide

"SIDE"

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by HappyCamperCanada

The thinger on the left of the pump before the line enters. Says vacume slide

OK, that must be a French sticker. Mine says "VACUUM SIDE"... meaning the suction end of the pump.


"Thinger"? That must also be regional.

[rollscanardly]

Last week, I installed an antifreeze pump kit into our water pump. This past weekend, I went to try it out.


I blew out the water lines with air. I disconnected the air hose from the air fitting that was installed into the city water port.


I put the antifreeze hose into the bottom of the antifreeze jug.


Turned on the water pump with all faucets closed, figuring that the pump would run to fill the empty water lines. Then I would go around and open each faucet, toilet, etc. one-by-one.



NOTHING!!


I kept trying, checking fuses, power to the pump, continuity between wire nut splices, etc.


NOTHING!!


Then I thought....perhaps the water pump isn't coming on because there's still air pressure in the lines, and the pump thinks that I'm "hooked up to city water".


I opened a faucet, which relieved the air pressure, and the water pump worked fine.


Lesson learned.


Rich

[DustyRoads]

The issue I had was the hose was flush against the bottom of the antifreeze bottle. I repositioned it and all was good. For my Surveyor 251rks I used 1 and 1/2 gallons of antifreeze.

[HappyCamperCanada]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

OK, that must be a French sticker. Mine says "VACUUM SIDE"... meaning the suction end of the pump.


"Thinger"? That must also be regional.

Oops. I Can't read. Thinger is short for thingamabob

[slgjeg435]

Originally Posted by HappyCamperCanada

Ps I left the anode out of the water heater tank but the water heater is in bypass mode. That have anything too do with it?

put the anode back in you are prob sucking air.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by slgjeg435

put the anode back in you are prob sucking air.

1st... the water heater (and the associated plumbing) is on the discharge side of the pump so it has NOTHING to do with pump suction.

2nd... since it is in bypass, it is essentially out of the system.

[Jhut]

This is correct, turn on the bathroom faucet.

[Dovidas1944]

The first time I tried to suck antifreeze I took off the hose cap, put hose into bottle and nothing happened. Performed the normal checking and nothing worked. Eventually I discovered that the cap on the hose actually had two parts and one was still sticking to the hose. It looked like it had a hole in it but the hole was just part of the molding process. Pried the cap off the hose and it worked. No problems since. Not saying you have same problem, but hey worth checking.

[MillMitch]

similar issue this fall. Installed the winterize kit in Sep and winterized at campground. Pump pulled pink stuff out of jug just fine. Then de-winterized in Oct and went out for another 6 days. Tried to winterize at campground at end of this trip and could not get pump to pull fluid. After an hour screwing around with it, I finally dumped 5 gallons in FW tank, winterized, then opened FW tank drain for drive home.
This thread was helpful, now I have a couple other things to check, thanks.

[Gumpster808]

Had the same issue with ours. I use a large bucket with the pink stuff on the ground.

I use a hand pump to suck up pink and push to the pump. Once I get it going works fine and I just leave the hand pump in the bucket with the antifreeze.

Just another method of priming.

[D W]

I'm having a hard time understand some of these comments about having to "push" antifreeze into the pump? If the pump won't pump it out of the jug then you obviously have a leak on the suction side of your winterization fitting. In the normal course of things that same pump has to pump water out of the FW tank. Makes no sense, no sense at all.

[gricardsimplycol]

Do you have the shut off in place for both the fresh water and hot water and if the valve opened for the pump tube?

[1l243]

I think you got it to work by priming the hose but you still got a leak to fix.
I use the same system as you but also a antifreeze pump for the black tank
rince and city water inlet.

[1l243]

I would also add that you will have residue antifreeze in the suction line. You should leave that in their and plug the line. You will be good to go next time.

[LordCosmo]

I have the same kit from Camco and had same issue this fall, not pumping antifreeze from the jug. After trying various things, found out the black plastic connector at the end of the tube wasn't tightened all the way on the brass valve. Seemed like it had tightened down, but alas, needed a little more twist effort to fully seat it. Worked just fine after that.

[Vagabonder]

Had that problem in our freedom express last year. After pulling my hair out I took it back to the dealer. Turned out the valve was installed backwards. They corrected it and it works like a champ.

[Barisad]

Incase this hasn’t been said, turn on a faucet. Pressure in the lines, release the pressure of one faucet.