Pond Pump

My tap water is about 75 degrees. I am planning on brewing for the second time this weekend and I am afraid that my prechiller/IC combo isn't going to do enough for me.

With that being the case, I am thinking about picking up a pond pump in order to pump ice water through my IC. What kind of pump should I get? I want one that will give a good flow, but nothing to extravagant.

Recommendations?

I picked mine up from harbor freigth, IIRC about 750gph, the flow isn't too fast, nor really slow, so it allows enough contact time in the chiller to be effective.

I wouldn't get a super high flow pump, just one that will do the job. I spent $30.

One thing that is missed here is that you can siphon ice water through the IC and get the same effect as a pump. That what I do. Just make sure the IC is below the level of the ice water. Cheaper than a pump.

agodfrey11 said:

One thing that is missed here is that you can siphon ice water through the IC and get the same effect as a pump. That what I do. Just make sure the IC is below the level of the ice water. Cheaper than a pump.

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I tried siphoning last time, but the flow was painfully slow. Any specific tips on getting a good siphon going?

That is strange because I have never had a problem. I normally just run the IC with hose water until it gets to 100 degrees or so, then siphon from a cooler that has Ice water in it. I put the cooler on a milk crate, which puts the bottom of the cooler about a foot higher than the top of the wort.

There is normally enough water in the IC at that point to start a siphon, but I normally have to suck (insert joke here) on it a bit to get a good flow. I do find myself having to slow the flow most of the time because the water coming out is pretty cold and if I slow it, the water comes out warmer.

agodfrey11 said:

That is strange because I have never had a problem. I normally just run the IC with hose water until it gets to 100 degrees or so, then siphon from a cooler that has Ice water in it. I put the cooler on a milk crate, which puts the bottom of the cooler about a foot higher than the top of the wort.

There is normally enough water in the IC at that point to start a siphon, but I normally have to suck (insert joke here) on it a bit to get a good flow. I do find myself having to slow the flow most of the time because the water coming out is pretty cold and if I slow it, the water comes out warmer.

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Perhaps I should rephrase. I tried siphoning through the prechiller. Maybe I will try just the IC next time.

What is the temp of your tap water? Mine gets down to45 every time!

drummerguysteve said:

What is the temp of your tap water? Mine gets down to45 every time!

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Down in the south east have 75-80 degree tap water about 9 months out of the year. I know exactly what jawilson is talking about.

Used to live in Seattle - good cold water from the tap!

now, in SC - ground water about 75 in May, it will be 80+ in June, 85 by July. Pre-chillers are required down south.

Wow! I'm so glad to live in the cool rainy pacific northwest! Not to rub it in. I'd imagine a pond pump getting ice water through your IC should work fine though.

I'm in Southern California and I highly recommend using a mid range pond pump. Works great and saves water. Got mine at Lowes

Hang Glider said:

Used to live in Seattle - good cold water from the tap!

now, in SC - ground water about 75 in May, it will be 80+ in June, 85 by July. Pre-chillers are required down south.

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I disagree, here in AZ groundwater can easily be in the 90's at the peak of the summer, sometimes hotter (at least for the frist 5 minutes of running the tap) I think recirculating ice water after dropping temps with whatever the groundwater temp happens to be is the most efficient way here.

20lbs of ice will suffice, and 40lbs for a 10 gallon batch usually does it, the ability to whirlpool with a March Pump, in conjunction with an IC makes a world of difference also.

Sounds like you may be a little ways out from that ( Ijust got my pump box going a few weeks ago and I have been brewing for over two years now), but these are all the little additions you can make to your brewery that will make your cooling, among other things more efficient, and quick.

Good Luck, Cheers!

I also got an El cheapo one from harbor freight. Look in the back on the open box rack i got mine for $10 originally it was for $30. It worked just fine for me. Although i gave up using it. It was a PITA having to lug a large bucket out and fill with ice. on top of that mine didn't flow that well with they way I situate things there was just too much head height.

ryan0914 said:

I also got an El cheapo one from harbor freight. Look in the back on the open box rack i got mine for $10 originally it was for $30. It worked just fine for me. Although i gave up using it. It was a PITA having to lug a large bucket out and fill with ice. on top of that mine didn't flow that well with they way I situate things there was just too much head height.

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FWIW, I use a 70qt ice chest, works like a charm

I live in the South and used to own a house with a pool. During the summer, the pool was basically useless since it was so warm that instead of a refreshing dip in the pool to cool off, you ended up warming up since the water temperature was around 90F.

Schnitzengiggle mentioned 20 lbs of ice (or 40 for a 10g batch). That works out to be 2.5 or 5.0 gallons of water made into ice. Unless you are making a batch every day, it would only take a couple of days to make that much ice even you had minimal room in your freezer so that you could only make 1g at a time. Often when I'm needing ice for cooling things, I'll fill 2-liter soda bottles with water (or salt water) and freeze them. You can often squeeze them into spaces in your freezer that are not large enough (or flat enough) to put ice trays or whatever ice mold you might be using.

agodfrey11 said:

One thing that is missed here is that you can siphon ice water through the IC and get the same effect as a pump. That what I do. Just make sure the IC is below the level of the ice water. Cheaper than a pump.

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Nice idea.
I have question about this: what do you do with water that comes out of IC? Do you pour it back to ice water or dump it?
If you dump it then i assume that you"ll need pretty large container for ice water, so it can siphon long enough...

diS said:

Nice idea.
I have question about this: what do you do with water that comes out of IC? Do you pour it back to ice water or dump it?
If you dump it then i assume that you"ll need pretty large container for ice water, so it can siphon long enough...

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I use the initial hot water coming out of the IC to clean my MLT. After it starts to cool off, I recirc it back into the ice bath with the pond pump in it. After I'm down to pitching temps, my remaining clean water goes into the rain barrel or garden.

This is what I use...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I just use tap water and knock it down to around 90. Then fill the sink up with ice and water. After a few minutes its down to 68 ish. All in all it takes about 20 minutes or so.

ettbeer said:

why not pre-chill the tap water in through a copper coil in a bucket of ice? this isn't my set up but something like this

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Some brew buddies of mine tried this at our last big brew day. Worked pretty well.

Can anyone recommend a pump that will attach to garden hose fittings? The Lowes here didn't have anything that would work in terms of pond pumps. I've also looked at sump pumps, but I'm worried that might be a little overkill and the pressure would blow my current fittings off when it's being used. I just don't want to deal with trying to find fittings and rigging something up to work.

A few years back, I bought a submersible pump from Northern Tool. I needed it to remove rainwater from my cellar. It is #10898 in Northern's catalog. It is currently on sale for $36.99, and can pump 21+ gallons per minute. It has a male garden hose fitting on it. Works extremely well for both my IC and my cellar water!

glenn514

Could you get a big tub of ice water, running your hose through the ice bath on it's way to the chiller? Sort of a pre chiller chiller. The longer the hose the more effective this would be.

RugerRedhawk said:

Could you get a big tub of ice water, running your hose through the ice bath on it's way to the chiller? Sort of a pre chiller chiller. The longer the hose the more effective this would be.

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They sell pre-chillers, its basically just an IC.

I don't think the hose would be able to have a good heat transfer.

diS said:

Nice idea.
I have question about this: what do you do with water that comes out of IC? Do you pour it back to ice water or dump it?
If you dump it then i assume that you"ll need pretty large container for ice water, so it can siphon long enough...

Click to expand...

I don't start doing this until I get around 100 degrees. That water goes to cleaning. Then the water coming from the siphon goes to plants or I recirculate it.

Thanks for idea agodfrey!
I was thinking to make pre-chiller, but ice water w/pump (or gravity siphon) is much more effective. Sure we have to chill wort to 100F and then circulate ice water.

What do you think of adding salt in ice water? That will lower the temperature but can it corrode copper?

Yes to both, but just rinse the copper with fresh water and you will be in the clear.
Been brewing a few years -for the first year I was a stove-top brewer and kept a mop bucket full of ice, my trusty spare pond-pump (I use it to drain the pond when its time to clean the leaves out, and swap out the water to keep the fish and turtle healthy) in the bottom of the bucket. I attached a plastic hose to the pump, the other end (with a clamp) to the home-made IC (just a copper coil) -don't forget the clamp on the inlet and outlet of the chiller -the inlet side may well let loose (mine did) -and the initial hot water will make the outlet soft and pliable, and it too WILL let go -SWMBO almost banned brewing until I could do it outside -she was pretty sore at the amount of mess made by the freely flowing water in her kitchen). Anyway, just put enough water in the bucket to get the pump going -the hot return will melt ice and provide you with more (ice-cold) water.
Salt would certinly kick up the efficiency.
These days I brew outside, but I still use the same method -I put ice in my mash tun (after cleaning it out with a shop vac) and use the rigs' pumps to flow icewater through a counter-flow chiller (therminator -expensive but worth it -and it looks cool too!) and run it right back into the tun to recirculate.
In the winter, I just hook a garden hose up to the water side of the plate chiller