Water pump for wort chiller

[paintingken]

The waste of water when chilling my wort makes me wince so I was thinking about a water pump in a big tub of ice water which I can recirculate. I have have seen this one in Toolstation for under £40.

Has anyone used this method or any better ideas? My main concern is that it may be too powerful or not powerful enough.

I have also seen a cheap drill powered pump but the reviews look terrible.

Draper 61668 Clean Water Pump 350W

 

[giovanni 47]

That's the about same model of pump that I use but mine is ten years old,works perfectly and when it;'s not cooling wort it's pumping harvested water around the garden,raised beds,polytunnel etc.

 

[paintingken]

That's the about same model of pump that I use but mine is ten years old,works perfectly and when it;'s not cooling wort it's pumping harvested water around the garden,raised beds,polytunnel etc.

Excellent, that's the answer I need to hear.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I have one of those for pumping out my waterfall sump when the annual clean out comes due.
I use one of these (or similar) to pump round my fermenter chiller coil.
Mini Ultra-quiet Micro Brushless Water Pump Car Submersible DC 12V 4.2W 240L/H | eBay

 

[simon12]

The problem with recirculating the cooling water is as the wort cools the cooling water heats up and eventually they will both get to the same temp and cooling will stop. Also is wasting the water worse that wasting the energy to cool water and pump it? Counter flow chillers are much more efficient for water used.

 

[paintingken]

The problem with recirculating the cooling water is as the wort cools the cooling water heats up and eventually they will both get to the same temp and cooling will stop. Also is wasting the water worse that wasting the energy to cool water and pump it? Counter flow chillers are much more efficient for water used.

I did wonder that, so I thought about freezing bottles of water and ice packs to chuck in the tub.
I get your point about the waste of electricity, if nothing else it will stop the rivers of Babylon coursing down my drive. I will look into counter flow chillers.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I did wonder that, so I thought about freezing bottles of water and ice packs to chuck in the tub.

I did try this once. There is a sanitisation issue with chucking the bottles into the wort and had read that you should just spray them with Starsan before putting them in. I thought it seemed like a good idea but as soon as you spray the frozen bottle the Starsan freezes to it and then melts into the wort.
I just use an immersion chiller and collect the hottest few gallons of water from it into a bucket for clean up and water the garden with the rest.