1. Review the manual and familiarize yourself with the pump and it's operation and components.

2. Remove intake and exhaust port covers.  Sometimes there is a threaded plastic fitting in the exhaust port (usually red).  PLEASE REMOVE THIS.  The pump can only intake air, not exhaust it with this plug in place and damage to the pump will occur if the unit is run with this fitting in place.

3. Check the oil level in the oil sight glass.  Adjust if necessary.

4. If the pump comes with bare wires due to amperage requirements for standard line cord have an electrician wire the pump directly into a good electrical box with an on off switch.  

5. if the pump has a line cord and switch then the pump can be plugged directly into a wall outlet.  

6. Amperage requirements of the pumps motor should be noted and compared to amperage supplied by the electrical source.  There should be acceptable amperage available to the pump or starting problems may occur.  The pump draws the most current when starting and especially starting against an already established vacuum pressure.

7.  Determine intake and exhaust port by turning on the unit.  

8.  If available check vacuum pressure to determine if pump is behaving as expected and no shipping damage has occurred to impact the operation of the pump.  Gauge should be attached directly to intake port of the pump called the "blank off" pressure.

9.  If no gauge is present replace intake port cover or place your hand or a solid rubber stopper in the intake port.  Turn the pump on and listen carefully.  The pump should make a gurgling sound and then quiet down pretty quickly.  At full vacuum most HyVac pumps are relatively quiet in operation.  Exception are piston style pumps like a HyVac 1, PressoVac or MegaVac vacuum pump which naturally have a slight knocking sound to them as the vanes actuate.  This is normal for these pumps.