Quote Originally Posted by David - WI
We have an Intex pool like the one below, and the pump easily pumps water up to and through the solar collectors on the roof of our garage, but the pump does lose it prime pretty easily if it sucks any air when the kids are splashing around or if you aren't careful hooking/unhooking the vacuum unit.

It can easily pump uphill any water that gets to the pump, but in this pic, the pump inlet is below the pool surface and fed by the weight of the water column above the inlet. The pump will easily pump uphill any water that is fed to it from an uphill inlet, but it can't suck water uphill TO the pump from an inlet with piping higher than the tank water surface unless a siphon action is first established.