Hi All,
First time poster here, mainly because of some kind of technical problem when i signed up. But any way couple of things i have learnt that i haven't read so far in the topic.
My pump stalls sometimes but to get it going again just switch the pump off give it a light tap (impeller end) switch back on. Repeat if necessary. You will need to take the cover off, mines permanently off. But it will save you having to drain the lot to pull apart the impeller housing to inspect possible blockages etc.
Better efficiency, I've found, is to do a larger mash in water volume with smaller sparge. I believe due to the continual re-circulation most off the sugar's are extracted pre-sparge and from experience the SG is very low half way through sparge. Don't shoot me but works for me. Plus i'm a high gravity kind of kid.
Instead of using the Hop spider during the boil i use it to filter the wort during the five to ten minutes while sanitizing the chiller just before end of boil. I.e outlet of chiller fed into hop spider let liquid pass through hop gunk and trub left in mesh. I stop once or twice to empty gunk. I don't bother with the bottom filter anymore and the only floaties that get through is final hop addition which is easily cleared up when transferring for 2nd stage FV.
After sanitizing your chiller chuck in final hop addition turn off pump and run cold water through chiller this brings the copper coil temperature down dramatically quicker than if you were trying to transfer straight away with hot coils.
As i said i don't bother with bottom filter anymore and the ball and spring from the check valve are long gone. I realize my pump issues are probably due to extra solids getting through but once that filter clogs up, the flow through the chiller is painful. If you have to scrape it, your only pushing it through to the FV anyway. I find it's a much quicker transfer to cold side, since the filter is removed, retains more hop flavour/ aroma rather than waiting for it to all trickle through a blocked filter at higher temperatures.
Any way my 2 cents,
Happy brewing.