Agitation pump below tank?

[bomscho]

So apparently, you need a gravity feed for an agitation pump to work

I was hoping to run pipes over and into the bath. After looking at sswee's pics of his 20 gal setup, seems you need to bore two holes in your bath container, seal and pipe them, and connect them to pump below the bath so the pipes naturally flood. Only then can torque of a Little Giant motor successfully move the electrolyte. Now I feel stupid that I thought it could flood itself in any position.

Is this true? This will mean a lot of teflon tape/pipe sealant and yet another trip to the local hardware, which is notoriously ill-stocked for anything more complicated than hanging a picture.

[spankey666]

providing you prime the pump, you can run pipes over the top

[bomscho]

tried priming it during tests with water by flushing with a hose and capping, but there was only some liquid in when i ran it, both pipes were not completely full. it was a lot of pipe to keep my pump clear of the bath, about 2' of each 1/2" and 3/4", then elbowed 90deg down into bath.

if you ran pipes over the top, would teeing one of them off (with a plug when agitating) so you could pour in electrolyte to flood, work? messy, but can't figure which is easier (pipes over with tee or pipes under with holes bored), but don't want to put holes in my bath container.

(ack, can you tell this is my first time doing anything with pvc? )

[bomscho]

ok, so here's how i plumbed this up with water to test. i opened either and both tees and flooded them before running, plugged them after starting motor. i could hear more movement in the pipes but still no detectable motion at the ends of intake or output.

the motor also made some stalling/choking noises occasionally. figured that was bad, shut it off, though instructions say it can run dry for up to 8 hours (!)

i know it's the weekend, so i'm not expecting very prompt responses, if any ..bought parts to plumb this off the bottom if i have to. worst thing is i lose my bucket-tank.

any ideas welcome..thanks..

[spankey666]

it aint gonna work like that unless you put a non return valve on it.
put the pump on the floor with the tank and it will work. what are the tee's for ? are you trying to get air into the mix ?

[sswee]

The pump is not going to pull fluid up a hill. You can have the pump sitting on the same surface as the bucket and have the pipe go up, over and into the bucket with a T fitting on the pipe going over to prime the pump. That way siphon feeds the pump. The way you have it now, if any air gets to the pump, it will cavitate and loose prime.
SS

[bomscho]

thanks guys, i have changed my setup to reflect your suggestions. it's been buckets, holes and valves all day, i think i've got it with one hole in the bucket to feed the pump intake.

spankey, the T's were for me to pour electrolyte into the pipes to prime them. that didn't work either, too much air.

only remaining question: can i use teflon tape? does it degrade in electrolyte and contaminate? i do have PVC pipe sealant but not sure how well it will bond to threaded hole i made in HDPE bucket. oddly, no threads here about anyone using teflon tape to seal bath holes.

[sswee]

I don't know how much I would trust threading a fitting into a hole in the bucket. I used bulkhead connectors to put pipe through the holes in my tank.
SS

[bomscho]

As ever, the advice was sound.

Put tank on the ground and drilled hole for intake about 4" from bottom of bin. Flooded great.

Had leaks, so I made my own bulkhead connector from a 3/4" bushing and a threaded-to-slip adapter pvc cemented shut. Had to put this into a flat tank wall for a good seal, so no more bucket - using a polypropylene bin.

Tank return pipe goes up tank, over and in. Only needs to go a few inches below surface. Agitation is RIDICULOUS. Remove the elbow down into the tank and it shoots liquid in a 1/2" stream about 3'

Really pleased. Now to do a run with it. Thanks!!