Early Failure on a March Pump

Does anyone have any ideas on what may cause a 6 month old March pump (used for about 5 brew days) to fail?

I was in the middle of my brew day on Monday, when one of my two pumps on my horizontal system failed. I have my pumps set up through a control panel using standard household switches. The pump was running to recirculate the mash. I turned it off to move some hoses. When I fliped the switch to turn it back on, I got a faint whirring, but no pumping. Nothing I could do got it to start pumping again.

I called MoreBeer and they sent out a replacement, no questions asked, but I'd rather not replace a pump every 6 months. I installed the new pump in the stand tonight, and it works, so it wasn't the electrical set up.

Does anyone have an idea what killed the original pump? It wasn't running dry. It had been running off and on for an hour, recirculating the mash. I've run it longer while sparging. Everything seemed normal, but it's almost like it seized somehow.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Did you pull the pump head off to verify if the problem was motor related? You could have had something jammed in the head stopping the impeller.

Nope. I didn't think to take it apart and see if anything was stuck. Since it was just recirculating the mash, a blockage didn't occur to me. Has that happened to you?

Thanks again.

It could of been a 30 second fix, i'm surprised you didn't go into it in a heartbeat, I would of.

+1 on opening it up... I would have taken off the pump head to see if the motor was running. I run my pump continuously on my HERMS (70) minutes for the mash alone, another 30 minutes for the sparge... so 100 minutes continuously per session and have not had any indication that there is a problem with running them for long periods, the motor doesnt even get hot.

The motor was definitely putting off some heat, more than the other one that was working normally. If it was blocked, I guess it could have been working harder and putting out more heat.

I'll keep this in mind for the next time something similar happens. Taking off the head would be a lot easier than removing the pump from the stand and undoing the control panel to take out the wiring.

Thanks again everyone.

Have you ever oiled the motor? There are two oil holes at the front and back of the housing. If you never did, the bearings could have seized.

If it sounded like the motor was spinning but you just didn't get any pumping, either the impeller was stuck or maybe you just weren't primed. I've had my pump head apart at least 4 times just to make sure everything was clean. It's not a complex machine by any means. Just use a little keg lube on the gaskets and you're good to go.

From what I remember, MoreBeer recommended oiling every 6 months, so I was planning on doing it very soon.

It's probably going to be a bit more difficult because I have the pumps mounted upside down (hung using the mounting plate from the bottom rail in the stand instead of sitting on top of the rail). I'm guessing this will put the oil holes facing down toward the ground.



Is there an oil that allow me to lubricate it upside down (i.e. spray the oil into the holes from the bottom) or do I need to remove the pumps to add the oil? I'm guessing WD-40 isn't quite going to cut it for bearings.

cdburg said:

From what I remember, MoreBeer recommended oiling every 6 months, so I was planning on doing it very soon.

It's probably going to be a bit more difficult because I have the pumps mounted upside down (hung using the mounting plate from the bottom rail in the stand instead of sitting on top of the rail). I'm guessing this will put the oil holes facing down toward the ground.

Is there an oil that allow me to lubricate it upside down (i.e. spray the oil into the holes from the bottom) or do I need to remove the pumps to add the oil? I'm guessing WD-40 isn't quite going to cut it for bearings.

Click to expand...

wd-40 will gum up after awhile , so that makes it a bad candidate for bearings. Keeping the bearings clean is the most important. I know bearings usually contain a grease, but not sure about that on this pump. I am also along for the ride on what oil would be best . It seems that the head is self contained however.

I also have had a lot of hop debris in my pump on my initial use. I took it apart, and cleaned it out.

The info MoreBeer provides (from March Pumps) states the following:

"The motor should be oiled at least once a year at the start of the heating season with 4 or 5 drops of SAE 20 weight non-detergent oil in each bearing. If the pump is used year around it should be oiled every six months. Do not over oil. No oiling is required on the ball bearing motors."

If I need to use oil and an oil can, I'm going to have to remove the pumps. If that's how it has to be, I'll do it. Is anyone aware of other options?

I think it is NOT a good idea to have the pump oil tubes pointing down as this would drain oil from the bearings instead of to them. I would mount the pumps on top of the rail to give them a chance of survival.

Well, it's looking like it's time for a little re-engineering. I want to keep the pump under the rail, since it also acts as the spill shield for the pump. A bracket welded under the rail that will let me mount the pump correctly might be the ticket though. I have to make a few other tweaks anyway, so I can do that at the same time.

Thank you everyone for the ideas and tips.

Pump wouldn't pump. I took the head off my pump, motor was spinning but the impeller was sticking. I pulled it off shaft and put it back and it spins "ok" now. Should this shaft be greased ? The bearings look ok to me.

No lube is used on the shaft of the wet end of the pump, hardened shaft and carbon sleeve in impeller are self lubricating with water. Probably had small grain particles binding impeller to shaft, could be from normal wear increasing clearance enough for particles to slip in between impeller and shaft. As to oiling the motor bearings there are felt washers that surround bronze bushings and wick oil to bearings regardless of position. Getting oil into the bearing felt wicks in other than top down gravity mode can be a challenge.

I ended up rotating my pumps so that they were mounted with the oil holes on top.



When I removed the malfunctioning pump, it was really greasy. It seems like the upside down mounting could have led to issues with the lubrication for the bearings leaking when the pump got warm.

The "upside down" mounting may or may not have been the cause of the issue but, just to be sure it wouldn't lead to any further problems, I changed the pump mounting. It will make lubricating them easier in the future too.

Glad I found this thread -I'm getting ready to order my march pump in about 2 wks (next pay period) -though my HERMS will be making use of only one pump (my wife would stroke if I tolder her I wanted 2 of them).
My first thought was vaporlock (loss of prime) but since your pumps were low, well below the liquid level, my next thought was that perhaps some grains made their way into your impeller -my understanding is that these pumps are using magnetically driven heads, so the pump motor could very well run but the head not pump.
Having mounted the pump upside down, it starts to sound like your problem pump was probably the result of a number of things, not just any one thing.

Again, I'm greatful to find this thread -once again, this forum is an excellent faunt of information.

kladue said:

No lube is used on the shaft of the wet end of the pump, hardened shaft and carbon sleeve in impeller are self lubricating with water. Probably had small grain particles binding impeller to shaft, could be from normal wear increasing clearance enough for particles to slip in between impeller and shaft. As to oiling the motor bearings there are felt washers that surround bronze bushings and wick oil to bearings regardless of position. Getting oil into the bearing felt wicks in other than top down gravity mode can be a challenge.

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Yeah, it was binding on something. Thanks for the information Kladue; Based on your feedback, I'm sure it will be fine once I put it back together. Anybody have a good source for pump parts for these? I would like to have a few spare parts around just in case.

cdburg said:

I ended up rotating my pumps so that they were mounted with the oil holes on top.

The "upside down" mounting may or may not have been the cause of the issue but, just to be sure it wouldn't lead to any further problems, I changed the pump mounting. It will make lubricating them easier in the future too.

Click to expand...

Great setup for the pumps. Too late for me. Other fish to fry at this point.

Nightbiker said:

Glad My first thought was vaporlock (loss of prime) but since your pumps were low, well below the liquid level, my next thought was that perhaps some grains made their way into your impeller -my understanding is that these pumps are using magnetically driven heads, so the pump motor could very well run but the head not pump.
Having mounted the pump upside down, it starts to sound like your problem pump was probably the result of a number of things, not just any one thing.
Again, I'm greatful to find this thread -once again, this forum is an excellent faunt of information.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm quire certian it was debris between thte impeller and shaft. The pumps are great tools and run beautifully. I probably ran it dry for a bit at some point, and compromised it's conditon. Nothing earth shattering. thanks for the post.

Don't use WD-40 unless you want it to die an early death.

WD-40 is more like kerosene than oil.