cooling water hook up for sihi?

[whitetail farms]

hello I have a sihi 3404 that im trying to hook up the water coolant line, I tried to see if the pump could suck up the water a few inches from my tank, but it didn't work I also tried priming the pump by putting water in the chamber first and turning it on and still no luck, should the pump be able to suck water up or does it have to be gravity fed into the pump? thanks Nick

[GeneralStark]

You are better off putting the tank above the pump and using the head pressure to provide a continuous feed to the pump. Put a ball valve in the feed line to control the flow. It is generally recommended to start the pump and then open the valve for the feed water. Different LR pumps require different flow rates, so being able to adjust the feed water is ideal as you can adjust the flow to get the highest performance out of the pump. Keep the feed water as cold as possible as this also affects the pump's performance. You will learn to hear differences in how the pump is running.

[Amber Gold]

Something not right because it should suck it up no problem. I've sucked it up a few feet vertically with mine, and I know of someone who mounted his pump over an old groundwater well and is drafting at least 10' vertical. If you can, make sure the pump's spinning the right way, and that you can isolate the system down to just the pump, the cooling line, and maybe a short length of pipe on the inlet end.

[whitetail farms]

its spinning the right way, and I was getting vacuum I put my hand over the top of the pump and it sucked it in but I don't think any water was getting in could be because I didn't have it hooked up to the releaser so all the vacuum was just go out and it couldn't suck the water up?

[Amber Gold]

I found this out recently when I oversized my vacuum lines with my new releaser/moisture trap/pump setup. Until I sealed the system off completely, it wouldn't draft the cooling water...took some troubleshooting before I figured it out. The system needs to be sealed tight for it to build enough vacuum to suck the cooling water up. Once it has built a vacuum, it'll be fine and you can open things up.

[whitetail farms]

okay ill give that a try,then how did you find out how much water was entering your pump?

[Amber Gold]

Few different ways.
Get a water meter on your water feed line. The pump's owners manual will tell you what flow rate you should have for the vacuum level you're to attain.
Get a measuring cup and measure how much water is being discharged in a given minute, adjust as needed.
Get a 3 phase motor and run the motor on a VFD. The VFD will give you an amperage readout (or hertz) and you set the amperage based on what the motor's rated for...i.e. I have a 1.5hp motor rated for 4.6 amps at 230V. I adjust the water flow until I'm about 4.6 amps. More water = more load on the motor, and vice versa. This is what Tuthill told me to do.

I have noticed that small changes in the water flow can impact my vacuum level. You basically want enough water to cool the pump and create the seal, but not too much that you're flooding the pump (and over working the motor)...more water = less room to move air out of the tubing.

[whitetail farms]

okay thanks for all of your help!!!!

[pipeline]

pump will also not pump water if you have to much air flow into pump or leaks in your woods found this out with ours . pump will get hot due to not pumping water..also need coolant flow to create vacuum.

[whitetail farms]

okay I closed up the system by just putting a piece of tubing on the vacuum intake and plugging it to hold vacuum , and I still couldn't pull the water up into the pump then I tried to pour water into the output to see if I could get a flow going and it still didn't suck up water, any ideas on what else I should try?

[ToadHill]

Nick, Make sure that the water level in your tank is half way up the shaft of the pump. Don't go over that or you will damage the pump. That will put enough liquid in the pump so that it will start drawing a vacuum. I just remembered that I was going to get you the instructions. I will do that soon. Randy

[WMF]

The factory water inlet port on the side of the pump is for pressurized water and will not work reliably if pulling water into the pump. You need to cap this port and tee the water right into the inlet of the pump along with the air the pump is pulling.
It will reliably pull all the water you need from several feet lower than the pump and will need a valve to throttle the water to about 1 - 1 1/2 gpm.

[whitetail farms]

okay so can I just let the water run by gravity through this port?and Randy I don't think I had to much water in cause nothing was coming out of the exhaust

[ToadHill]

WMF, That is another way to do it, but the way I proposed is one of the options in the pump instructions. I've run three 3 hp pumps this way for over 10 seasons without an issue. Doing it this way doesn't require a valve to throttle the flow. It's really the simplest way to do it.

[whitetail farms]

the only problem Randy is the water comes out of the top of my tank so mine cant really be set up like yours.

[ToadHill]

Hey Nick, I e-mailed you the Sihi instructions.

[vtmapleman]

I had the same problem with my pump a couple of years ago and what I found was that some gunk had plugged the water inlet into the pump. I took my air compressor and blew it backwards - from the exhaust side - had to put my hand over the inlet side. Not sure what plugged it but some crap came out - has worked fine since.