I was thinking of getting a cheap aquarium/fountain pump to recirculate ice water for my immersion chiller, since my tap water temps will be going up with the warmer weather (and to save water). How many ft of lift would I need to be able to drive water at a decent flow through 25ft of 3/8 copper tubing?
Aquarium pump requirements for 25'x3/8" Immersion Chiller
- Thread starter reshp1
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abracadabra
Well-Known Member
In my opinion you are going to need something more along the lines of a small sump pump or fountain pump. Nothing I've seen for aquarium is even going to come close to doing the job.
RodfatherX
Well-Known Member
This is what I bought to use in a PC water cooling setup. I ended up never using it though because I just bought a really nice CPU heatsink. Its a low end model, but there are guys who run it 24/7 to cool their PCs. If it can go through all the tubing, water blocks, and the radiator for a PC water cooling setup, I bet it would work great for wort chilling. You can run it inline or as a submerged pump.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=via+aqua+1300&category0=
Hope this helps.
Thats the low end of the spectrum........you can pay up to $80 for a very nice pump.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=via+aqua+1300&category0=
Hope this helps.
Thats the low end of the spectrum........you can pay up to $80 for a very nice pump.
abracadabra said:
How about something like this?
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...+501542+90075&marketID=90075&locStoreNum=1913
Or this?
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...+501542+90075&marketID=90075&locStoreNum=1913
If you don't think aquarium pumps will do it, you've never kept a large tank. Some of the mag drive pumps like the MAG5 or 7 (700 GPH) or the Iwaki pumps would definitily do it but I do like the pond pumps with the included garden hose adapter.
You should still use your "warm" tap water to get the wort down to 120F or so because water out of the tap is WAY cheaper than ice.
You should still use your "warm" tap water to get the wort down to 120F or so because water out of the tap is WAY cheaper than ice.
I've used my Little Giant pond pump, which I believe is rated at 300 gph and 4 feet. That's close to what the Beckett Medium puts out.
One trick is to have the ice water close to the same level as the inlet/outlet of the cooler. That cuts the head. If you can't do that, put a hose on the outlet that runs down to the water. That adds some resistance, but it balances the lift & suction.
One trick is to have the ice water close to the same level as the inlet/outlet of the cooler. That cuts the head. If you can't do that, put a hose on the outlet that runs down to the water. That adds some resistance, but it balances the lift & suction.
EdWort
Well-Known Member
Lowe's sells a 200GPH pump for around 30 bucks that has garden hose fittings. Works great for me.
That's on my list of must haves once the ground water warms up some.EdWort said:
Tired of dragging out the pre-chiller in June.
EdWort said:
I have one and used it for pumping out koi ponds, etc.
This thread made me realize I could use it for pushing ice-water through my chiller, so I'll have to give that a shot. Anything to make the work day easier!
I guess I'll rig it up plugged into a power strip so I can turn it on easily. Maybe I'll grab some cheap plastic quick-snap garden hose fittings so I can switch from hose water to ice-water quickly.
That little pump could really crank the water and was forgiving enough if I made it run dry a bit. The only thing it hated was catching a small fish in it's works.
