Sizing a new pump

[mas985]

There is very little discharge pressure when priming. Just look at your filter pressure gauge as the pump is priming. So changing that probably won't help much.

The pump you have now is probably pretty typical of a high head pump so that is about as good as it gets for priming lift. I don't think another pump is going to be better. Most residential pumps have a max lift around 8' and even that is pushing it so the valves are critical when priming but may not always work well at 10'.

I would fix the priming issue before moving to a different pump because that is not likely to fix the problem.

Is the equipment pad elevated or does it sit on ground level?

Does the pump basket drain when the pump is off?