A question on aquarium pumps

How many GPH should I be looking for? I plan on recirculating ice water after I've already dropped my wort to below 100°F. I'm in the Phoenix area and sometimes it can get above 115°F here in the summer. BTW, just a few more pieces of gear to get and I'll be going all grain.

what size tube, how long, volume to cool, volume of ice water?

I don't think you want an aquarium pump, as that would never pump enough. I think you'd want a small pond pump.

yeah a pond pump like from Harbor Freight...cheap but enough GPH and head clearance.

most aquarium sized pumps have a poor head clearance and you might not get enough flow unless you spend way too much.

It all depends on how high up you need to pump. Most aquarium return pumps will show the rated GPH at various heights. These are made to pump up from the sump into the display, usually around 4 feet or so. Some nice ones are Ehiem and Waterblaster. Probably too expensive for your application.

I agree aquarium pumps could do a good job... i have some pretty cheap ($20) ones that put 1000 GPH @ 4'

on that note... a pond pump will also work, they are essentially the same thing.

I shouldn't need to pump it very far. I've got a 10 gallon tub that I'll be using that will most likely be on the same plane as the brew kettle. Maybe even higher up by 1'. I'll be doing 5 gallon batches. It's a 50' immersion chiller and the tubing going to the chiller will only be a few feet long.

I should look for a pond pump instead?

dfc said:

I shouldn't need to pump it very far. I've got a 10 gallon tub that I'll be using that will most likely be on the same plane as the brew kettle. Maybe even higher up by 1'. I'll be doing 5 gallon batches. It's a 50' immersion chiller and the tubing going to the chiller will only be a few feet long.

I should look for a pond pump instead?

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I would find the cheapest possible thing to do the trick, which might be a pond pump or possible a mag drive pump. Maybe even a small maxi-jet 1200 could work. Depends on what connections you need I guess.

For an aquarium application, I spare no expense on certain pieces of equipment, potentially thousands of dollars of livestock could be on the line.

For your situation you just want it to do the job as cheaply as possible.

I've been doing ice water recirculation for more than 5 years with this Utility Pump from Home Depot. It works perfectly! I use my tap water through the chiller until my wort is down to 100˚F. Then I change the hoses and use this pump submerged in a 5 gallon bucket of ice water and recirculate until I get to my pitching temp. I usually go through a couple of 5lb bags of ice from the store. I can get to lager pitching temps in a very short time.

I use one that is 190 GPH (i think, maybe more) from harbor freight and it work fine for me. I use it to run through two 20 foot immersion chillers stuck together (my ghetto ribcage chiller).

I use a harbor freight pond pump. It was super cheap and the flow rate is fantastic. no reason to spend a ton of money...I only paid $9 or so when it went on sale last spring.

CrazedArmadillo said:

I use a harbor freight pond pump. It was super cheap and the flow rate is fantastic. no reason to spend a ton of money...I only paid $9 or so when it went on sale last spring.

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This is more along the lines of what I was thinking. I'm going to check out Harbor Freight pumps. Thanks a lot, guys!