Info on pumps

Hey,
Can these pumps also be used for Wort?? For siphoning and such? Just dont know how sanitary they are and how to clean em. What kind of pump should I be on the look out for?

thanks

What kind of pumps are you talking about? If you want to transfer hot wort and liquids during the brew day, a high temperature magnetic drive pump is best. The popular model is the March 809-HS and is available from several retailers online. I believe Austin Homebrew generally has the best price on them. If you are looking to transfer cold side liquids (cooled wort, beer, during fermentation) a diaphragm or peristaltic pump are probably best.

If you tell us what you intend to use the pump for, we can probably be more helpful.

Cheers!

Thanks.

I was thinking both hot liquid, for the boiled wort, and a cold one for later transfer of the fermented wort.

Any recommendations on the cold pumps?

Here is a pump that would work for post fermentation transfer:

MoreBeer | Self-Priming Diaphragm Pump

Is there a reason that gravity is not the thing for you? You could also look into a conical fermenter and transfer with CO2 pressure.

Cruise ebay for a peristaltic, but specifically for a peristaltic that will take fairly decent-sized tubing (and many ads won't mention what size they work with - you often either just won't know, or will have to go to manufacturer's site - don't bid if you're not sure, there will be others...)

Buy either silicone or norprene food tubing. Only the tubing touches the liquid being transferred in a peristaltic, and those can both be pressure-cooked (read autoclave at home) to sterilize them. Norprene lasts a lot longer in the pump.

I have a march pump, a peristaltic pump, and the shurflo self-priming pump.

By far I prefer the peristaltic pump with one exception - unlike the shurflo pump I cannot change the pump speed. The pump is always on or always off. The only way to control the flow is by using a valve on the output.

Besides that... I can place the peristaltic pump anywhere I care to, including above the wet stuff. I also don't have to worry about crud in the tubing - I can pump sludge if I wanted (and some of my wort is!). I can use it with above boiling temps and below freezing if I wanted to. I can easily and inexpensively change the tube for any other material I want when it wears-out in a few years.

Depends on what you buy - many peristaltic drives are variable speed. Mine is variable speed with the potential (as yet unrealized) for computer control. Variable speed is definitely a good thing - so shop carefully.

<edit>However, one thing I have read of people with fixed speed drives doing is connecting them to a darkroom exposure timer - the sort of thing that can be set to run for so many seconds, down to 10ths or 100ths of a second - and running the pump for a fixed time to meter a fixed volume (say 12 oz, or 750ml, if you catch my drift - bottle filling).

Depending on the type of pump head, you may be able to use different diameter tubing of the same wall thickness to get considerable change in effective pumping rate for the same motor speed.

BTW, in the particular case of "Masterflex" pumps, they try to trap you into using "masterflex" tubing, by not giving the spec for anything but ID and claiming that use of anything else will void the warrantee - used on eb*y there usually is no warrantee, and I've proven to my own satisfaction specifically that 5/16 ID 7/16 OD is "the same" as L/S 18 tubing, and a lot cheaper at US Plastics than it is at Cole Parmer, et al. That also happens to be the largest tubing my pump head will take, and a good fit on my standard racking canes, etc. (LS 15 and 24 appear to be 1/8 inch wall - LS 13 14 16 17 18 appear to be 1/16th)

I would love to have a double peristolic pump for sparging because it is a positive displacement pump and a double pump run on the same motor (variable speed) could move sparging water and drained mashtun wort in unison. Your mashtun would always have the same volume throughout the sparge. You could walk away knowing that your sparge would not overflow and that the output was at a slow but steady drain into the boiler.

JVD_X said:

I have a march pump, a peristaltic pump, and the shurflo self-priming pump.

By far I prefer the peristaltic pump with one exception - unlike the shurflo pump I cannot change the pump speed. The pump is always on or always off. The only way to control the flow is by using a valve on the output.

Besides that... I can place the peristaltic pump anywhere I care to, including above the wet stuff. I also don't have to worry about crud in the tubing - I can pump sludge if I wanted (and some of my wort is!). I can use it with above boiling temps and below freezing if I wanted to. I can easily and inexpensively change the tube for any other material I want when it wears-out in a few years.

Click to expand...

Any advice on where to start looking for peristaltic pumps? Looks like they're much more expensive than march pumps and the like. Have you tried or heard of using anything like this for simple mash tun recirculation?

Dave Brown Products - Our Products: Six Shooter Fuel Pump

Did a bit of math, and looks like you could get about 5 gallons per minute cranking pretty hard.

Thanks!