March Mag Drive Pumps

[JasonY]

Dreamboat sound slike an awesome price, is there anywhere I can download a spec sheet for these suckers. I was supposed to be getting one faxed but it has not shown up

 

[dreamboat]

There is a little pump curve that I have at work, which I could probably reproduce somehow into a format you can see. I was able to find plenty of info before I bought mine, materials, temps etc, but I can't seem to track any of that down at the moment.
Doc, that was the price for the 10R - 10 LPM max, which is a hell of a lot in a homebrew setup. The Guru recommends 1.5 LPM as being heaps iirc...


dreamboat

 

[dicko]

JasonY,
Sold in Australia by Malcolm Thompson Pumps, the y have about 8 offices in the country, Perth, Melb, Syd, Bris etc.
Model is Magplus MG-10R.

has a max flow of 10 Litres/minute, and a max head of 1.5 metres. ie, no flow at a pumping height of 1.5m.


Dreamboat

has a max flow of 10 Litres/minute, and a max head of 1.5 metres. ie, no flow at a pumping height of 1.5m.


A maximum head of 1.5metres is hardly enough with most systems I have seen and by adopting a pump with those specifications you are placing a major restriction on your system and its future development. Couple this to the fact that it is not rated for heat and you might find that you will have problems down the track.
If a pump has a max head of 1.5 metres then you need to consider how viscous the fluid to be pumped is and even at a head of 750mm you will only need a slight air leak or bad fitting and you might find it will battle to do the job.
IMHO you only ever get what you pay for!!

Cheers

 

[Doc]

Yes it was the maximum head of 1.5 meters that I was worried about. The flow rate is definitely enough.

Beers,
Doc

 

[dicko]

With a Mag drive pump used in the home brewery situation the flow rate is neither here nor there as it is controlled by the ball valve on the outlet side of the pump, however if the chosen pump has a small "head" specification then it will battle to pump from say for example - a mash tun up through a Herms coil in the HLT and back.

Now I am not saying that you cant build the brewery to take into account this specification but if you do, you lose any advantage with gravity feeding for parts of your system which means that the pump has got to do all of the work and places a fair sort of a restriction on what you can and cant do.

It is hard to put this in type but if you build the system with HLT Mash Tun and Kettle on the same plane or level then you want to mash out by infusion - you cant because the pump cant take the temperature of the mash out water and if you put the HLT above the mash tun the pump with a head of 1.5 metres maximum is going to struggle to pump the mash through the HERMS.
To recirculate the wort from the mash for clearing you will find that as you draw from the outlet of the MLT there will be a restriction as the grain bed packs down and the wort starts to clear and you need to ask yourself is that restriction going to affect a pump that has a low "head" specification.

If you are going to build a system that you still need to infuse or lauter by hand then you may as well just leave all the gear sitting on the sink and balanced on boxes and the like and save the money.

I consider the pump to be the HEART of my system and after 14 AG sessions on it I still get excited when all I have to do is just turn a ball valve and all product flows exactly where I want it to without me doing anything but flicking a switch and watching it all happen.

Again, this is only my opinion but I always recon that if you need to move a 22 tonne load then you need to have a truck capable of 22 tonnes. If you opt to use a truck of lesser capacity then, sure it will move it, but for how long????

Cheers

 

[user 384]

It is hard to put this in type

Well Dicko I reckon you did a good job of explaining the pros and cons. It's clear from your posting that you've done your homework on pumps, and have well thought through reasons. You haven't just spat out some home-brewers hear-say or simply speculated on a topic you know little about. It's this type of help that we need to see more of.

Top work Dicko!

Cheers
MAH

 

[JasonY]

Well thanks for all the input fellas. I think I may just have to go with the March after all this, main reason being that I will probably get carried away with pumping stuff everywhere and I am thinking of having my HLT & boiler at just above groud level so head capacity will be required as dicko says.

Will have to place an order, I think they are out of stock so I have a couple of weeks to wait.

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[wedge]

i agree Dicko. You Always Get What You Pay For

 

[dicko]

JasonY,
Sold in Australia by Malcolm Thompson Pumps, the y have about 8 offices in the country, Perth, Melb, Syd, Bris etc.
Model is Magplus MG-10R.

has a max flow of 10 Litres/minute, and a max head of 1.5 metres. ie, no flow at a pumping height of 1.5m.


Dreamboat

has a max flow of 10 Litres/minute, and a max head of 1.5 metres. ie, no flow at a pumping height of 1.5m.


A maximum head of 1.5metres is hardly enough with most systems I have seen and by adopting a pump with those specifications you are placing a major restriction on your system and its future development. Couple this to the fact that it is not rated for heat and you might find that you will have problems down the track.
If a pump has a max head of 1.5 metres then you need to consider how viscous the fluid to be pumped is and even at a head of 750mm you will only need a slight air leak or bad fitting and you might find it will battle to do the job.
IMHO you only ever get what you pay for!!

Cheers

IMHO you only ever get what you pay for!!

Your correct Wedge,

I should have said :

"You only get what you pay for"

Cheers

 

[JasonY]

Well its ordered ... ended up getting it from morebeer.com along with a bunch of other stuff ... too hard to resist shopping

Now I just have to wait a couple of weeks! :angry:

 

[dicko]

Hi Jason,
Good move IMO,
One, maybe silly question, you did specify a 240 volt model?
Cheers

 

[JasonY]

yep sure did, don't want any of that 110V shite down under

 

[wedge]

You won't be disappointed with the March mate. You paid a little extra but you got a fantastic pump.

 

[JasonY]

Well my order from morebeer is sitting at the post office waiting to be collected tomorrow! Not bad since I ordered last Wed from Morebeer couldn't have been quicker if I had ordered it from Aus

Should be like a kid at xmas tomorrow ! :huh: :wacko: :blink: h34r:

Just need to plan how to plumb it all up.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Just an update from me on an old but highly informative thread...

I'm looking for a mag pump and I've spent some time looking at the alternatives. From what I've seen here and overseas, the March 809 PL-HS pump is still the best buy, from a cost/performance perspective.

I spoke to Dale at Process Pumps in Melbourne this afternoon and the cost of one of these pumps, including airbagged freight to Canberra is $270.60...Not bad for a pump that can push out up to 7 Gallons a minute and handle fluids up to 176C!

Anyway, it's definitely on my Xmas list, along with 4 Kegs from Brewers Discount!

Cheers,
TL

 

[sosman]

I'm looking for a mag pump and I've spent some time looking at the alternatives. From what I've seen here and overseas, the March 809 PL-HS pump is still the best buy, from a cost/performance perspective.

They are pretty handy. What I find though is that you will have to use some ingenuity to "mount" the pump rigidly if you are connecting it to flexible hose.

Except for the hose connections, there is no easy way to fix it to something, mine always ends up sitting on a lump of 4x2 on the ground. Since the motor windings are well ventilated there is quite a risk of liquid getting into the motor.

PS did you ask for the homebrewers discount?

 

[Justin]

I bought my pump a couple of weeks back in the grain and grape 20% off sale, so mine cost me $215 (sorry I wasn't about to announce the sale on this site, it was a while stocks last one so I may have missed out on my pump). I got a bunch of other stuff so as a whole postage was negligible (ie. my whole order came to $11 postage and that was grains, nutrient, yeasts and hops). I wasn't going to rush out and get a pump but when this sale came up I just bit the bullet and bought it as I knew I'd want one soon enough. Now it's time to change the brewery. Had my first play with my pump last night and it works great so I'm very happy, it's very easy to prime.

But yes, the australian pumps (even the 230V from morebeer) don't come with a mounting plate/bracket. I think I'm going to mount mine by placing mine in a plastic box to protect the windings from inevitable splashes (I saw someone do it on a website somewhere) with just the pump head hanging out. I'll then make some sort of key hole arangement so that I can hang it firmly on the brewery stand but still remove it.

I did have elaborate plans for a metal framed two tier but a meeting with my landlord this morning means that "junk" is not allowed to be stored in view of the rest of the complex. @#$%^%^&. I was most offended, hey that's my brewery buddy! So that means I need to pack up everything after every brew. So now my brewery plans are to have three vessels on legs, like this one-but I'm still going to maintain a two tier set up.

Cheers, Justin

 

[Trough Lolly]

PS did you ask for the homebrewers discount?

Actually as soon as I told him the model, he immediately asked me if I was a brewer! I confirmed, of course, and he told me that he's sold quite a few of these units!

Regarding mounting the pump, does the pump body have any lugs that you can fix it to a baseplate with? I guess some strapping (eg nylon ties) might have to do the job with a spare bit of 4x2 if it doesn't...I see morebeer sells a stainless mounting plate for around US$20.

Cheers,
TL

 

[Justin]

No, no lugs. It's just a round motor. The nylon or steel stap idea would work, that's what I was initially going to do. The more beer mounting plate is for the 110V models with the flat mounting plate attached, so you can slide it it but easily remove the pump of needed.

Grain and grape tried to sell me a mounting bracket but with out seeing it I was jubious, could probably make one easily myself. Can't remember the price (I think ~$30 or so?).

 

[Batz]

A couple of hydraulic pipe clamps onto stainless sockets does the trick neatly and is very firm


Batz