What is the advantage to priming a centrifugal pump? Energy efficiency. Over the lifetime of a pump, this can equal very significant savings. A common misconception is that pumps lift liquid when they are primed and must work harder to do so, but centrifugal pumps do not lift liquid. Priming a pump utilizes the power of atmospheric pressure to do the work of a feeder pump for free.

Very good agitation might be the most important step in utilizing liquid manure as a nutrient to grow a crop. If every gallon is homogeneous throughout the pump-out, we have a better opportunity to be successful year after year using manure as fertilizer.

When planning a hose system or pipeline, we must know what the capabilities of our pump are and what the losses in our system will be. In a previous article "Understanding pump performance curves" we learned how to determine the capabilities of a pump. The pump provides energy as Total Dynamic Head (TDH) that supplies the system. Remember, TDH is measured in feet and can be converted to pressure as PSI by dividing by 2.31.