No, the pumps on these machines (any of them) just don't have the power to whirlpool properly. There's nothing sticking out though particularly, so a good swirl with a mash paddle is very easy to do. You'd have to use a different pump though if you wanted to whirlpool with a pump, one with more flow, but that kinda defeats the object of an all in one machine to my mind. Otherwise, well I do have another pump, and silicone hose etc, and could do just that. But I went to an all in one machine to reduce how much kit I was having to wrestle with on brew days.... lol I just use a hop spider, slightly more hops, and a bouncer filter inline when I transfer (just in case, but to be honest it was empty last brew day). I use a plate chiller to cool my wort, so it's VERY important that there's no solid matter circulating with the wort, as it'd just clog up.
An alternative to crushing your own grain would be to try to find a way to make the holes in the bottom plate smaller, something like an Ikea spatter guard fitted into the bottom or something? I couldn't be bothered with all that though, as you'd need to pass the overflow pipe through it etc, and also it MIGHT (just might) cause a stuck mash or something from reducing circulation through the grain basket maybe? I know that folks used to do something similar with the old ACE brewers though. I went with a malt mill myself, fixed the problem and means the grist is fresher when I use it, so win win. I've seen people with the Bulldog Master Brewer (a very similar design) have similar problems, including with the sparge plate getting clogged with recirculated particles from the grain... Milling my own fixed this too. Oh, and not trying to run it with the valve to the recirc pipe wide open helps as well, half way is plenty... lol
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