Running water pump overnight with no water in the tank ...

AnOldUR

... will it damage the pump?

AnOldUR

My routine is to drain the fresh water tank after our last stop. Returned from a short trip yesterday and parked our 320S in the garage. Went out this morning and noticed the pump running. Normally don't refill the tank until next trip and don't want to add water just to check it, but might have to. Anyone else make this mistake? Any problems develop from it?

ScottG

The pump (at least my model) is designed to run dry. Don't know about all night, but I'd say if it's still working ok then forget about it and camp on!  :-)

AnOldUR

Thanks @ScottG. My worry was running the pump dry and burning something out. The pump was still running this morning, so I'm hoping mine (like yours) is designed to run dry.

It's just me being lazy and not wanting to add water before heading out again. By opening the fresh water drain valve, I like to think that all the bouncing will completely drain the tank on the ride home. The idea is that there would be less chance of anything growing in the tank between trips. Probably not true since there might still be some moisture left.

YanniLazarus

 a year or two ago I left my pump on overnight by mistake-  trying to prime itself.  It was dead in the morning... and I had to replace it.  IF you do need to replace yours in a 320-  you might consider relocating it slightly to fit in a Camco winterizing valve while you're doing the work. 

AnOldUR

Curious @YanniLazarus. When you say it was dead in the morning, do you mean it was no longer running or that it would no longer prime after you added water?

The only good that could come out of this is that it may motivate me to make improvements as you suggested.

YanniLazarus

Dead as in burned out trash dead. I Amazon- purchased a replacement and mounted it a couple of inches over and it was perfect. I find it super easy to winterize with the after market camco valve and tube. (2020 320S).

AnOldUR

After some additional searching I found a link here on the forum that gives me a little more confidence that my pump should be OK. Fingers crossed.

edit:
Just noticed the picture below is for 2088 series, not 4008 ... but the 4008 also says, "Can run dry without damage".

https://blog.kleen-ritecorp.com/understanding-how-the-different-types-of-shurflo-pumps-work/

pthomas745

As many times as this sort of question comes up: if the Shurflo pump couldn't handle being "run dry", then we would have tons of posts about how to replace a burned out pump.

Sorry to hear about Yanni's pump, however.