Mini Pump To Move Hot Water Not Wort

[PistolPatch]

I was wondering if there is a cheap portable pump that will move water (not wort) just off the boil? Preferably I need it to move water about 7 foot horizontally and 5 foot vertically through insulated pipe. If someone could answer this, it will be solve the last major problems of my mini brewery and so I would be forever in your debt!

 

[MHD]

There was a post some time ago on getting a pond pump (one of those submersible jobbies and submersing it in tap water (too keep cool)

 

[razz]

G'day PP. Before I purchased a March pump I used a washing machine pump. It used to recirc at about 4 lts min, but I only had about 2 feet of head It handled the temp no probs. I use to put 95 degrees water through it to clean my system. Try your local repairman, these units aren't expensive.

John

 

[PistolPatch]

MHD - I do have a submersible pond pump which I'm able to use for 2 purposes so far which is great. Unfortunately I just searched on pond pumps and found all the threads referred to pumping cold water (or glycol.) But, I learned a lot about some other stuff so thanks to you!

Razz - Great idea on the washing machine pump. It never crossed my mind and I've fixed a washing machine or two. It's a shame it can't do the five foot of head but I'm sure there must be heaps of uses for such a pump such as recirculation of ice water when using an immersion chiller.

Chippy - You have me fairly excited! If you can post a pic that would be great as I searched the net and LVMotors turns up sites such as, "Diet of the Freshwater Turtle." My goodness! Also, if you could let me know where you got it and the price that would be perfect. Good luck with the Oktoberfest.

Thank you all.
PP

 

[MHD]

Finally found it!

if you get this to work you owe be a beer
http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Gear/GSa...CheapPump.shtml

 

[PistolPatch]

Thanks for finding that link MHD. I'll see if the aquarium shop down the road has it and check the temp rating. Could end up being a goer and I'll be oweing you that beer!

Chippy these are excellent pics. Very nice brewery you have there as well from what I can see. The pump looks and sounds perfect. If you can go to the extra trouble of finding out the brand etc that would be grand of you. And, is it 240V or 12V? I definitely like the look of it. Many thanks.

PP

 

[Franko]

chippy
do you know how much these sell for

 

[Franko]

Just did a quick search a little pricey at $200-$220 for one

 

[PistolPatch]

Chippy, again thanks for going to all the trouble. Looks like there's a dealer 1km down the road from me and perhaps I can bribe him to give me a 50% brewer's discount! I'll let you know what I find out from them. Maybe they have a smaller unit or something. Should be able to do this on Wednesday.

Cheers and thanks,
PP

 

[PhilS]

Had a laugh at your pic there Chippy. seems familiar

 

[Linz]

Chippy,

The March pumps arent bothered at all by the small bits of flotsam that come thru on start up......even have to keep and ear out for a stuck mash too as theres only a slight change in tone, but mebbe cause mines still new

Do they get noisier as they age???

the pumps not the brewers!!!!

 

[Linz]

The other thing is ..they come with a 'plastic' body. When that lets go, if ever one has, theres a Stainless steel body to replace it with....that should make it indestructable bar the electrics

 

[Darren]

Ouch,

Ok then its a march pump for me then. My lower pump has a crack in it and I was hoping I could get one of these cheap.

Can someone tell me how good do march pumps handle the bits of crap you get when you start to recirculate. With the smaller pumps you still have to clear your mash liquid, so no crap gets in an blocks the pump. Do march pumps still have to be precleared manually or do you just hook in. The march pumps seem to have a bigger pump head so the might not get as blocked.

Cheers,

Peter

[post="120542"][/post]​

Peter,
I don't think anything will stop a March pump. A few weeks ago the pick-up tube from my mash-tun came off half wat through the mash. I didn't notice and was pumping to my boiler. It wasn't until I noticed a lot of floaties and picked up the outlet. It was pumping thick mash straight into the boiler. Scooped it out with a strainer so the brew was saved. All in all collected aroung a kilo of mash from the boiler.

cheers
Darren

 

[Ross]

Finally found it!

if you get this to work you owe be a beer
http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Gear/GSa...CheapPump.shtml

[post="120330"][/post]​

Thanks MHD, you've just given me the answer to recirculating my wort, to get better effiency from my immersion chiller - I already submerge a bildge pump in cold water to recirculte the water - now I'll just add one of thse to recirculate the wort at the same time Happy days...

Beer here waiting for you :beer:

cheers Ross

 

[PistolPatch]

I just looked at the AHB Ebay thread for the first time and noticed Tony posted this link there...

Brass Hot Water Pump

As it's $84, is an impeller pump* and has all the right stats, this looks as though it would solve all the above. Also comes with a sensor solenoid** so you just open your tap and the pump will automatically start up. Sounds pretty good to me. Any thoughts?


*I wonder if it's self-priming to some degree as this creates a few more possibilities.

**On second thoughts, pretty sure this feature would be useless in the brewery situation as I doubt gravity pressure would be enough to trigger it.

EDIT: Just noticed the item is not a BUY NOW item. Will email the seller and see if they are still available and also ask a few questions which she may be able to answer better than us!

 

[sintax69]

ok the pump that graham sanders is using in the link above is the same as mine I use it for every thing right up to boiling work as long as it is cooled it will still run and run for hours I have pumped boiling water to clean a CFC once for 1.5 hrs and the only problem was the water it is in got hot. I have mine mounted in a ice cream contaniner . It has served me well

http://www.aquaticlifeaquariums.com.au/
is the mob i got mine from look for SICCA pumps the idra is out of stock but the next one up is there still

 

[warrenlw63]

PP

I've seen these pumps at Winequip and Grain and Grape. They're only about $80. Basically nearly all brass, drill driven and solid as a brick dunny.

This is from their site;

Rover Drill Pumps with Bronze body. These pumps are self-priming under lubrication.

Hope this helps.

Warren -

 

[PistolPatch]

They do look solid Warren! The drill-driven bit would probably turn me off a bit as I use a drill all day and I'd hate to imagine the dust and whatever that must fly out of my drill in a brewery environment - alas, I'm just too straight when it comes to cleanliness - LOL! I wonder if I could attach a handle and manually rotate it at 2900rpm?!!!

Fingerlickin - Found the section you linked (the actual page can't be linked - you have to follow Finger's link then go 'Aquarium Products,' then, 'Water Pumps,' then Sicce Pumps.') Th epump you have sounds like just the right speed etc - 13 litres per minute with 1.2m of head. It's the Sicce Idra Pump and costs $42.35. Pretty damn cheap! THis sounds pretty hard to beat if one only wants to pump hot water as was the original question so many thanks MHD and especially Finger for tracking down where this pump can actually be bought.

Cheers
PP

 

[PistolPatch]

CORRESPONDENCE RE THE BRASS PUMP (Post #15)

I emailed the following questions to Josephine113 who unfortunately turned out to be called Mike!....

Hi there Josephine!

I found the following link by accident regarding the Automatic Pressure Boosting Pump....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AUTOMATIC-PRESSURE-...1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm a member of a large Australian Home Brewing Forum and we were wondering if this pump is still available and if so, at what price?

A few other questions are...

a) What temperatures can it handle? i.e. Can it handle near-boiling water?
B) By any chance, could it handle liquids designed for human consumption (just think of milk!)
c) Is there a warranty?
d) How sensitive is the solenoid switch? For example, if you had a 50 litre coffee urn and then slowly opened a tap, would the pump eventually kick in or not?
e) If not, can this pump be controlled directly via the powerpoint effectively short-circuiting the solenoid?

Sorry for all the questions but could be a good sale!

(EBay limits the amount of space that you can write for a query so I ran out of space. Perhaps AHB could adopt a similiar policy for when I post!)

Josephine (now known as Mike) replied...

This unit will only handle up to 80 degrees C. Yes to all your other questions. Check our add for Recirculating Pump Grundfos Style, which will handle 90 degrees C. This pump comes with no switch gear and would need to be activated either manually or by timer. A flow switch could be purchased separately but these would cost around $200 retail. Do you know Colin Penrose? Mike

So...

Apart from the fact that Mike forgot my main question as to it being available and at what price (he was probably ocupied with Josephine), his answer is quite interesting as he reckons it will handle liquid food and at temps of 80*.

I will try and ring them (or get them to ring me) on Monday to get some clarification on the above, so if there are any questions that you would like an answer to on this pump that I have not thought of, please post away.

EDIT: Who's Colin Penrose?!!!

 

[razz]

PP. If your not pullin the chain, Colin Penrose was/is one of the early movers in Aussie homebrewing circa 1985-1990, I think he was editor of a mag. Can't recall the name.
:blink: