Suitable Pumps

[periolus]

Hello!

Okay - replanning part of the brewery design after finding out the garage isn't high enough to accomodate my 3-tier design (plus FV) at bottom.

So - will be adding a pump between the Mash Tun and the boiler, which raises questions:

1. What is the most effective and reasonably-priced pump for transferring liquids at temperatures of up to around 70C from Mash Tun?

2. Can you recommend best fittings and hose? Is it worth using cam disconnects? I guess if I did use these I could use the pump elsewhere in the setup too, but then I would need one that could deal with near boiling liquids, wouldn't I? Could I use a single pump and make everything on one level, simply disconnect/reconnecting between each stage to pump as required?

WOTFINK GUYS?

If I do use a single transferrable pump that can handle 100C water, what would I need to get? March May of some sort?

 

[Svarrogh]

You can use pump like mine. It is very cheap. It's pump from washing machine and it can stand temperatures of 100°C

Buy one 3/4" to 3/4" and one reduction 1/2" to 3/8", glue that with epoxy and you have pump :)







Cheers :

 

[adomant]

Hi

I went though a similar excercise and ended up with a totton pump NDP25/4 which I got on ebay for £48.
I found the March pump was not shielded and stuff will get wet!, the totton is food safe and good for temperatures over 100C, it can pump to a reasonable height with high gravity fluids. On the down side it is not self priming and the lead is far too short.

 

[periolus]

Thanks for the replies guys. How do you have to prime the Totton then?

 

[Wendy1971]

Your best options I think is a solar pump they can stand 140 deg c and are small also the pipe that vossy sells just pushes over the pump easily. They are 25 quid. You can get one from www.solarproject.co.uk.

 

[periolus]

Looks great, Wendy! Are they self-priming? It is right on budget too!

 

[periolus]

At that price I could probably afford 2 and have the whole brewery at one level. That would be quite nice. It's just more to clean isn't it!! How do you keep your pump and tubing clean and sanitised? Do you rinse with boiling water and then sanitise tubing in the usual way? It does add another possible source of infection, doesn't it?

 

[StubbsPKS]

Pre-boil, it isn't a huge worry, so if you're going from MT to boiler, I would just make sure it's clean (i.e. hot water through it a couple of times).

When we went round to Dunfie's for the brewday a couple weeks back he mentioned cleaning the pump and lines before everyone got there, so I'm not sure if he just flushed with hot water or if he added something like VWP as well.

 

[tazuk]

:thumb: sweet i like that idea nice and cheap ish :thumb:

You can use pump like mine. It is very cheap. It's pump from washing machine and it can stand temperatures of 100°C

Buy one 3/4" to 3/4" and one reduction 1/2" to 3/8", glue that with epoxy and you have pump :)







Cheers :

 

[StubbsPKS]

I might have to try that washing machine pump idea... How well does it work, is it just plugged into a normal lead?

 

[Mark1964]

the solar pumps are not self priming but to be honest its never been a problem if you just put the mash tun a little bit higher than boiler it primes itself. Also you will need a 1500ma plug in variable dc power supply or a dimmer switch so you can control the flow it will work from 3v to 12v :thumb:

 

[Svarrogh]

Thank you! Yes, 220V. There is ball-valve on the output, switch for on/off and that's it! Pis ov cake

 

[tazuk]

wot machine was your pump off ???? :thumb:

Thank you! Yes, 220V. There is ball-valve on the output, switch for on/off and that's it! Pis ov cake

 

[periolus]

Okay, a silly question coming!

The solar pump 14/10, I am guessing will fairly easily fit to 15mm copper pipe, although I don't really want to use 10mm pipe at the other end, but understand you can step up and down to fit using fittings.

There is also the 20/20 pump, that allows for more powerful models - how would you best get this to fit both 15mm pipe and 22mm pipe? And are there equivalent sizes of silicone tubing too?

 

[Svarrogh]

wot machine was your pump off ???? :thumb:

Thank you! Yes, 220V. There is ball-valve on the output, switch for on/off and that's it! Pis ov cake

Don't know. Went to the store and asked pump for wash machine. It is self-priming, magnetic. Tested today and it's working like charm

 

[Svarrogh]

I'm sorry, it's not self-priming. You have to let fluid goes into the pump and then start the pump! Sorry for wrong info