Chugger pump SS vs Poly.

Squ1rrel75 said:

:fro:Greetings brewers:fro:

I have a question about the chugger/march type pumps.

Most pro brewers use an all stainless TC type (rotary centrifugal) sanitary pump. We home brewers are stuck with lifting, pouring, siphoning, or in the fancy setups-- using a small hot water pump for transfers.

Personally I have been using the march 809BR (brass head) for a while now. I realized recently that all march/chugger pumps have a polysulfone impeller regardless of whether it's a brass or stainless pump head case.

I plan to dedicate my 809BR to the HLT, to be used for CIP and hot water ONLY and purchased a chugger SS-C for all wort & beer transfers. Imagine my surprise to discover that the stainless pump still has a poly impeller. How annoying.

So my question is sort of also an idea. Why did the people designing these pumps build a cast metal (brass or stainless) pump head, but then neglect to also fabricate the impeller from the same metal? What if any, are the drawbacks to having a stainless impeller? Couldn't we easily make our own stainless impellers? I mean they'd cost about $1 to produce. I just dont understand why this has not been done already.

Okay #2--- can I drill and tap my own bleeder valve in the pump head to aide in priming during transfers when the hot pump loses its prime and quits pulling hot wort?

thanks all,

JR

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chuggerpumps said:

Good question...The Polysulfone/Ryton Teflon ( All food Grade plastics) impeller baldes are used becuase of the magnetic drive. An all Stainless impeller can be used in these pumps, but when the impeller gets heavier due to the solid stainless vanes in it. We have to upgrade the magnets from a ferrite material to Neodynium. We currently have working demo pumps with this design. Unfortunately the cost of the pump would increase significantly due to the upgraded magnet material. As brewers we understand the costs of building a good rig and we are trying to keep the costs of these pumps as low as possible to save everyone $$

Any questions please feel free to call me anytime

MIKE 800-810-1053

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Squ1rrel75 said:

ok, thanks Mike. Yes-- if I had all the money in my hand that I have spent on this brewhaus I could probably buy a new car or something.

that being said, to me it is worth the expense to use top grade parts. I saw the inside of a TC dairy pump and naturally had to ask the question, "why not stainless impeller".

still doesn't answer my question, can I tap a hole and add a bleeder valve? I sometimes have issues during final transfer when pushing from the kettle through the chiller and oxygenation manifold into the fermenter from the bottom up, when there is less than 5gal wort in the kettle and the pump slows down and quits pulling. I have a theory that when the wort slows down the oxygen bubbles back down the line and cause the pump to lose it's prime. So I suppose I could just shut off the oxygen halfway through the transfer--- or oxygenate in the fermenter instead of inline....

having a bleed valve on the pump case could help prime the pump I think, can I do this?

thanks guys,

JR

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