Anyone used a US solar pump TD5?

[shoobs]

As per the title, anyone ever used one of these?

I've been looking for a low voltage DC pump with a stainless head and speed control (I plan on automating some of my brewery). The manufacturer has told me they can do me a custom TD5 with a speed control wire. About $135AUD delivered to my door.

There isn't much info on the net about them, but the specs look good and the few threads I have found about them seem to be positive. Wondering if any AHBers have used one before.

 

[spog]

Can't help,I know nothing about solar electricity etc,but good onya for maybe giving it a go.
Powering any part of your brewing/brewery from a " free " source is a bloody good idea, please keep us all posted as to how it works out for you,warts and all. You are now our Guinea pig !
Cheers....spog....

 

[shoobs]

Can't help,I know nothing about solar electricity etc,but good onya for maybe giving it a go.
Powering any part of your brewing/brewery from a " free " source is a bloody good idea, please keep us all posted as to how it works out for you,warts and all. You are now our Guinea pig !
Cheers....spog....

I don't actually plan on powering it via PV cells. It is more that it is a food grade high temperature pump that'll run off regular low voltage DC. The fact it has a fully stainless head and speed control options is even better.

The only pump I've found that is remotely similar is the March 809, and it is over twice the price.

 

[spog]

Ah hah, gotcha . It's a bit late,and I'm a bit slow only 4 beers today.
Have you considered the "little brown pumps", 12volt, many use them,I have one on my rig for recirc.
They are cheap but not very strong/ tough when it comes to be knocked or bumped but a protective cover of some kind soon sorts that issue .
Being as cheap as they are it is possible to have a couple of spares on hand just in case,which I intend to do when I get my rig resorted and back into AG brewing .
Cheers...spog...

 

[shoobs]

Ah hah, gotcha . It's a bit late,and I'm a bit slow only 4 beers today.
Have you considered the "little brown pumps", 12volt, many use them,I have one on my rig for recirc.
They are cheap but not very strong/ tough when it comes to be knocked or bumped but a protective cover of some kind soon sorts that issue .
Being as cheap as they are it is possible to have a couple of spares on hand just in case,which I intend to do when I get my rig resorted and back into AG brewing .
Cheers...spog...

Yep. Been through two already. They just eventually clog up with gunk and they're not really designed to be cleaned. Not a huge fan.

 

[shoobs]

I guess I'll find out. Ordered two custom TD5s from the manufacturer.

They've said it'll take 4-5 weeks to get through their production because I've asked for a custom speed control wire. Should get them sometime early Feb. Will post some pics then.

 

[MartinOC]

Shoob,

Out of curiosity, why did you request an "extra" speed control wire & how is it used (sorry, didn't explore the site before asking this question)?

I run a LBP on 12V & use one of these to control it's flow: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-24V-Mini-In-Line-LED-Light-Strip-Dimmer-Controller-With-3-Key-On-Off-Switch-/300934504512 (hope the link works!).

It can be a bit fiddly until you get used to it, but you can select any one of 5 speeds on the pump by simply controlling the voltage.

It might be a faster (& cheaper!) solution for running that pump (which looks pretty good, BTW)?

Edit: Yep, link works & it's 5 speeds, not 6..

 

[spog]

Shoob,

Out of curiosity, why did you request an "extra" speed control wire & how is it used (sorry, didn't explore the site before asking this question)?

I run a LBP on 12V & use one of these to control it's flow: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-24V-Mini-In-Line-LED-Light-Strip-Dimmer-Controller-With-3-Key-On-Off-Switch-/300934504512 (hope the link works!).

It can be a bit fiddly until you get used to it, but you can select any one of 5 speeds on the pump by simply controlling the voltage.

It might be a faster (& cheaper!) solution for running that pump (which looks pretty good, BTW)?

Edit: Yep, link works & it's 5 speeds, not 6..

Now that is interesting,the speed controller. I use gate valves to control the flow ,so the pump ( little brown 12 v) is always working .
Have you had any probs with the inline controller ?.
Cheers...spog...

 

[MartinOC]

Hi Spog,

It was an experiment based on an idea I initially got from Yob to simply recirculate the contents of my HLT (& for that, it works a treat), then I tried using it to transfer sparge water when I was trying to re-establish my new brew-rig. I'd post piccies, but they're on my other computer. I'll see if I can find the thread I posted them in initially.

I've only used it a few times to deliver sparge water (before having to dismantle the whole thing again!) before I could dial the whole thing-in properly. I use a March 809 for recirculating mash in my HERMS system, BTW.

Apart from a couple of issues with my own dodgy soldered connections, it works beautifully to control flow. You need to get used to it's foibles, as it has programs for "pulsating" 12V LED lights, which can be a bit annoying, but once you get used to it, it's a pearler & only a couple of bucks..

 

[shoobs]

Shoob,

Out of curiosity, why did you request an "extra" speed control wire & how is it used (sorry, didn't explore the site before asking this question)?

I run a LBP on 12V & use one of these to control it's flow: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-24V-Mini-In-Line-LED-Light-Strip-Dimmer-Controller-With-3-Key-On-Off-Switch-/300934504512 (hope the link works!).

It can be a bit fiddly until you get used to it, but you can select any one of 5 speeds on the pump by simply controlling the voltage.

It might be a faster (& cheaper!) solution for running that pump (which looks pretty good, BTW)?

Edit: Yep, link works & it's 5 speeds, not 6..

Hi mate. Yep, I've run both of my little brown pumps with just a variable voltage power supply (I use one of these with an external knob and a voltage display - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400595983355). Works pretty well for them. I much prefer it over using a ball valve to throttle the output.

This speed control wire takes a 0-5V signal, which directly corresponds to 0 - MAX RPM of the pump. The reason I asked for it is so I can control the pump via a microcontroller. I'd like to be able to do things like autosparge, control recirculation rate, etc. I was also hoping for a feedback wire like on their TL series pumps that'd actually tell me the pump speed so I could detect if it stalled or was cavitating. They couldn't do it on the TD5.

I could just control the input voltage to the pump, but I'm a bit worried the pump itself has some smarts in it that'd bypass my attempt at control. It is designed to run off a wide range of voltages, so my guess is they probably have a built in switchmode supply. It didn't cost me any more to get the speed control wire, I just have to wait a little longer.

 

[MartinOC]

Cool +1!! You're obviously waaaay ahead of me....

Eventually, I'll sort myself-out with automation & all sorts of electronic gizmo's, but for now I'm happy.

 

[Mardoo]

Wow, those look pretty awesome!

 

[leahy268]

I am looking forward to your reviews on those. On to my last lbp..

 

[shoobs]

OK, I got my pumps a few days ago, so here are a few photos and a very short (but not thorough) teardown.

The box they arrived in. Shipped by DHL who took just a few days.

Reasonably well packed using terrible quality bubble wrap. Still, the pump is solid and that should be more than enough protection.

The pump right out of the box. Some instructions and a plastic screwdriver/key for turning a knob on the back of the pump. The pump feels solid in the hand. Most of the weight is probably the cast stainless impeller housing.

The instructions and the key. It looks like the stator housing of the pump is held in place using decent quality stainless screws.

The back of the pump showing the speed control dial, wire exit and vents. Normally this pump comes with just the red and black (+ and -) wires, but I requested an extra speed control wire, being the blue wire. It seems they disabled the speed control via the dial and just connected the blue wire to the wiper of the speed control potentiometer.

An idea of the size of the pump in my hands. Not huge, but quite a bit bigger than the LBP. The stainless threads are 1/2" BSPT.

Four screws allow you to pull off the stator housing. The rotor is fully sealed in stainless chamber, so the only thing your wort ever touches is what is inside that chamber.

 

[shoobs]

Pretty typical looking Chinese manufacturing. Roughly wound stator windings (one is loose), relatively tidy looking PCA. You can see through hole hall effect sensor toward the top of the image used for the brushless control of the motor. The stator is loosely epoxied into the housing, so I haven't pulled it out.

Another view of the stator. You can just see the power FETs for the motor control.

Another four screws and you can open the impeller and stator housing. The impeller housing looks nice and cleanly cast, with a decent Viton sealing o-ring in it. The stator housing looks pressed out of stainless sheet, but is clean and burr free. The impeller itself is high temperature polysulfone running on a ceramic shaft. The impeller is held onto the D shaft with a stainless retaining clip on top of a soft plastic washer. A decent circlip would have been nice.

With the impeller off. The ceramic shaft is running on a carbon graphite bearing, so there is no wet lubricant anywhere to contaminate your wort. The bearing itself is mounted into a polysulfone piece that is press fit into the stator housing. I tried to prise out the polysulfone piece but just broke a bit away - polysulfone is brittle. I'm assured the stator magnet itself is just high temperature ferrite. It looked that way when I peered through one of the holes in the polysulfone piece.

Speaking of the holes - I'm fairly certain they're there intentionally to allow any liquid to drain from the stator housing. I'll have to see how things go with sticky wort. It could be a real pain to clean.

Anyway, the pump looks reasonably well thought out. I love the fully stainless stator/impeller housing and the easy deconstruction. There are probably improvements that could be made to the design to make it even more suitable for brewers. I've briefly fired it up to make sure the speed control works, and it does. I'll get around to doing an actual pumping test at some point, but I need to jump onto a plane shortly.

 

[leahy268]

Been wondering...

How have these gone??

Thanks

 

[shoobs]

Been wondering...

How have these gone??

Thanks

Sorry mate, I haven't actually gotten around to plumbing these guys up into my main system. I did briefly fire them up to see if they worked and what the speed control was like - they seemed pretty good. I'll probably give them a shot on my next brew (just mounted to a plank of wood or something) to see how they go with hot wort.

 

[Burt de Ernie]

My first though is that this pump is a circulating pump and is designed for a closed system. Generally I would have expected circulating pumps to be poor at lifting however the pump curve seems to be reasonable.

I use a circulating pump on my brewery however, it is not to push wort rather 85 degree water over the wort loop. I user a chugger to push the wort itself.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[Tilt]

I'm keen to know how these perform. I've got one I picked up recently tagged as a HLT recirc pump to replace a little brown pump one my next system upgrade.
I have a kaixin set for wort recirc on a new herms and transfers to the kettle but have wondered if this pump could take over the job if needed.

 

[shoobs]

Interesting development. After the purchase, I sent some feedback to the manufacturer telling them that the pumps looked pretty nice, but weren't ideal for brewing beer because of how difficult they were to clean. Ultimately the lack of access to the rotor meant that the pumps could get gunked up with sticky wort and/or grow nasties in them.

They actually took the feedback on board, and have developed and prototyped a new design that actually looks pretty good:



They've effectively developed a low voltage DC, speed controllable mag drive pump with a stainless steel head.

I'm seriously considering buying some samples. Would anyone else be interested if they prove to be decent?