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This article describes how to prime a water pump to restore water pressure to a building. Readers of this document should also see Water Tank Types and before assuming that a water problem is due to the well itself, see Water pump and pressure tank repair diagnosis & cost an specific case which offers an example of diagnosis of loss of water pressure, loss of water, and analyzes the actual repair cost. Page top sketch courtesy of Carson Dunlop.

© 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

If your water pump is a two-line jet pump and if it's running but there is no water delivered to the building, the problem could be that the pump has lost its prime. This pump needs to send water down into the well (and through a special valve at the end of the water pickup-pipe in the well) in order to bring water back to the building. See   WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE for help in determining why you have no water or no water pressure in a building. If the diagnosis determines that you need to re-prime the water pump, the instructions are provided in this article.

If your water pump is a submersible unit the pump is located down in the well itself. In this case if you have not got water pressure, the problem may be with the pump or the well itself, but it's not a loss of prime - submersible water pumps are self-priming.

If your water pump is a one-line jet pump, it is sucking water from a shallow well; you probably don't need to do so, but the instructions below show how to prime the well pump and they should work equally well for either a one-line jet pump or a two line jet pump.

If your water pump keeps losing prime, a shallow well jet pump well line could have a bad foot valve (in the well WELL PIPING FOOT VALVES) or there may be a bad check valve on well piping at or near the water tank or near the above-ground water pump (CHECK VALVES) and so be losing prime.

A leak in the well line piping itself can also lead to loss of prime. If priming the well water pump using one of our methods shown below seems to fix the problem but soon the well pump loses prime again, your plumber will want to check for a bad foot valve in the well or a leak in the well piping between the well and the building. See WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE.

But where a jet pump is installed, you may have lost prime at the pump. The pump motor will run but no water is delivered. If this happens it is possible to re-prime the pump with water from another source. Check valves installed at the proper location at the pump and perhaps elsewhere can help prevent loss of prime on this system. (Other problems that can give the same symptom include internal damage to the water pump, a well that has run dry, or a piping leak between the well and the building it serves.)

If your 2-line jet pump (or other above-ground well water pump) loses prime and cannot draw water from the well, don't let it keep running as you may burn up the pump motor or damage the pump internal parts. Take these steps:

Simple & Fast Well Pump Priming Method Using a Garden Hose

The steps below describe how to use an ordinary garden hose connected to another water supply source to prime a well pump. We give very detailed instructions, but actually the procedure is very simple and if it works, your pump will be primed and working in just a few minutes.

If your well pump has lost prime and you are about to try opening a plug on the water pump housing to add priming water you might see that the plug is badly rusted and corroded - or there may be other reasons why you don't want to start taking apart plumbing fittings, such as - it's Sunday night and there is no chance of purchasing any replacement parts if you break something.

Our photo (left) shows the priming plug on a Goulds two-line jet pump. If you click to enlarge the photo you'll see that we might have been able to remove and replace this plug but we decided to try the garden hose priming method first since we didn't want to disturb this rusty part.

• Find a water donor building: If the water pump that needs to be primed is in a building close to a neighbor who has running water, this procedure will often get your well pump running again with the absolute least trouble and cost. Make sure that the neighboring building is open and available and that its water system is working - that is, you have running water there.
  

• Find a garden hose hookup on the donor building: Make sure that the neighboring building has a hose connection to which you can connect a garden hose.
  
  Our photo (left) shows that we have now connected a black washing machine hose to the cold water faucet in our donor building, and we have connected a green garden hose to the other end of our washing machine hose.
  
  The hose connection at your donor building may be (most convenient) outside on a building wall closest to your own building, or it might be indoors (less convenient) at a clothes washing machine hook-up, a water tank drain valve, or similar fitting.
  
  Make sure that valve is operable and that you can turn it on and off without problem.
• Find a garden hose hookup on the recipient building whose pump needs to be primed: Find a garden hose connection on the building whose pump needs to be primed. Any fitting will do, but close to the water pump, such as a water tank drain valve, would be the very best place to connect.
• Get a garden hose: Obtain sufficient length of common garden hose that you can reach from the water donor building to the pump prime building hose connections.
• Get a clothes washing machine hose: Obtain a short clothes washing machine hose - this is a garden hose that has a female connection (screw-on fitting) on both ends of the hose. You can see a black washer hookup hose in our photo just above. You can borrow one of these right from a washing machine hookup if necessary.
• Turn off electrical power to the water pump at the recipient building. Drain water and water pressure from the system piping.
• Open a plumbing fixture in the recipient building nearest the water tank in the recipient building. This will let the incoming donor building water push air out of the recipient building's piping.

• Connect the two buildings: Connect the clothes washing machine hose to the male end of the garden hose. Connect one end of the garden hose to the donor building water source.
  
  First Flush out the garden hose for a few minutes by running water from the donor building. Then connect the other end of the garden hose to the recipient building. You now have a garden hose connecting faucets or spigots between the two buildings.
  
  Our photo (left) shows our garden hose that was carried from the donor building (where it is already connected) and connected to a convenient faucet near our water pump and tank.
  
  You can see the green hose hooked up in the left of the photo. Following the copper pipe down and to the right you'll see a house water shutoff valve (just to the right of the iron strapping supporting the plastic well pipes at the center of the photo). This valve has to be opened if we want water to run from the donor building into our water pump and water tank.
  
  At the right side of our photo you can see our water pump that sits atop the water pressure tank in this installation. A peek at the gauge shows that after we opened all of the necessary water valves we were successful in pressurizing the water pump and tank to around 40 psi.
• Turn on water at the donor building. Shortly you should hear air coming out of the plumbing fixture in the recipient building. When you see water coming out of the recipient building faucet, close the faucet.
• Listen for water entering the water tank and pump at the recipient building. If the water tank was empty or low on water you'll hear water entering the tank. If there is a water pressure gauge (and it's working) you'll see water pressure rise at the receiving water tank.

• When water stops flowing into the recipient building you will have pressurized its water system (and water pump) to the shut-off water pressure that the donor building is able to provide.
  
  Our photo shows that we've pressurized our recipient pump up to 40 psi using water from our donor building.
  
  Turn off the spigot at the receiving building so that you have in effect closed the connection between the two building. In fact you can turn off the faucet at the donor building as well, but don't disconnect the hose yet - we might need to repeat this process a bit more.
• Turn on electrical power to the water pump at the recipient building. The pump might not begin to run if the water tank pressure is at or above that pump's cut-out pressure.
• Test the water pump operation by turning on water in the recipient building at any plumbing fixture. If you have successfully primed the water pump, you'll hear the pump turn on. When you hear your water pump turn on, turn off the running water and listen to see if the pump reaches cut-out pressure and turns itself off.
• If the water pump turns off at the end of a pumping cycle you have finished priming the pump. Run some water to flush out the system and reduce the chances that you've contaminated the pump or piping with bacteria from your own procedure.
• If the water pump turns on but keeps running for a minute or two, check the water pressure gauges at the pump and tank. If the gauges are not rising in pressure (or if the water tank is not filling with water - is not getting heavier) then the pump has not been successfully primed. What now?
  • Try repeating the steps in this procedure, making sure you're getting water into the receiving building's water piping system, pump, and water tank. If your water tank is a steel bladderless type with a working drain, you might try opening the tank drain to see if water is in the tank. If the tank is dry try leaving that drain open at the start of the procedure so that incoming water can enter the tank by pushing air out at the drain - but when you see water coming out at the drain, close it.
  • Try the detailed step by step Prime the Pump by Priming Plug Opening procedure we describe below
  • Diagnose other problems with the well, piping, water pump, water tank: see WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE

If the above garden hose priming method for your pump is not available or just doesn't work, then follow the water pump priming steps we outline at Prime the Pump by Priming Plug Opening.

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WATER PUMPS, TANKS, TESTS, WELLS, REPAIRS
WATER PRESSURE REGULATOR ADJUST
WATER PRESSURE REPAIR GUIDE & COSTS
  Questions about lost water pressure
  Advice to a homeowner
  Adjusting Water Pump Pressure Control
  Right Repair to Pump & Tank?
  Well Pump & Tank Replacement Costs
  Reliability of Pump & Tank Repairs
  WATER PUMP PRIMING PROCEDURE
WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE
WATER PRESSURE & FLOW MEASUREMENT
  Water Pressure Intermittent
  No Water Pressure
  Well Tank relation to Water Pressure
  Shaking the Water Tank?
  Water Pressure Tank Problems
  Water Pressure Tank Diagnosis
  Water pressure Later Returns "on its own"
  Water pipe clog diagnosis
  Water pipe clog repair guide
  Making the "right" repair
  Typical Water Tank & Pump Prices
WATER PUMPS & WELL TANKS
WATER PUMP & TANK SAFETY
WATER PUMP & TANK CONTROLS & SWITCHES
  WELL PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL ADJUSTMENT
  WATER PRESSURE GAUGE ACCURACY
WATER PUMP TYPES & LIFE EXPECTANCY
  WATER PUMP, ONE LINE JET
  PUMP, TWO LINE JET
  PUMP, SUBMERSIBLE
  PUMP, WATER PRESSURE BOOSTER
  PUMP & TANK REPAIRS & COSTS
  PUMP & TANK SAFETY
WATER PUMP SHORT CYCLING
  SHORT CYCLING PUMP CAUSES
WATER PUMP & WATER TANK REPAIRS
WATER PRESSURE REPAIR GUIDE & COSTS
WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS GUIDE
WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL ADJUSTMENT
WATER PUMP PRESSURE CONTROL REPAIR
WATER PUMP WONT STOP RUNNING
WELL PUMP PRIMING PROCEDURE
  Prime the Pump by Garden Hose
  Prime the Pump by Priming Plug Opening
  Repeated Loss of Pump Prime
WATER SUPPLY & DRAIN PIPING
  CLOGGED DRAIN DIAGNOSIS
  CLOGGED SUPPLY PIPING / Tankless Coil & Hot Water
  PIPING IN BUILDINGS
  SEWER GAS ODORS
  WATER PRESSURE LOSS DIAGNOSIS
WATER TANK TYPES: WATER, OIL, EXPANSION, ALL
  CAPTIVE AIR BLADDER WATER TANKS
  STEEL WATER TANKS
  BIG WATER STORAGE TANKS
  OPEN WATER TANKS
WATER TANK AIR, HOW TO ADD
  WATER TANK AIR VOLUME CONTROLS
  WATER TANK AIR ADD AT AIR VALVE
  WATER TANK AIR ADD BY DRAINING
  WATER TANK AIR HOW MUCH TO ADD
  WATER TANK AIR HOW OFTEN TO ADD
  WATER TANK BLADDERS & CAPTIVE AIR
  WATER TANK BLADDER PRESSURE ADJUSTMENT
WATER TANK LIFE EXPECTANCY
WATER TANK PRESSURE CALCULATIONS
WATER TANK REPAIRS
  CONTROLS & SWITCHES on WATER TANKS
  INTERMITTENT CYCLING WATER PUMPS
  WATER PUMP SHORT CYCLING
  SHORT CYCLING DETECTION
  SHORT CYCLING CAUSES
  WATER TANK AIR LOSS SIGNS
WATER TANK REPLACEMENT
WATER TANK SIZE & VOLUME
WATER TANKS HOW THEY WORK
WATER SOFTENERS
WATER TESTS, CONTAMINANTS, TREATMENT
WELLS CISTERNS & SPRINGS

• Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education, publications, report writing materials, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.

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