Brewhemoth Chiller pump

I am wondering what pumps are recommended for a Brewhemoth chiller? The Chiller is 1/4" stainless so the back pressure is pretty high. I plan to use a bucket of water in my refrigerator and some type of submersible pump. Does anyone have experience with this? I don't want to go out and buy a pump to find out it wont work so I would like to rely on the experience of someone who has it figured out already.

I think I would use some kind of march pump. They are made to run continously in hvac applications. Obviously does not have to be high temp so you could probably get one cheap off of ebay. Only negative would be the priming issue.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/17305/103556/Self-Priming_Diaphragm_Pump_for_Beer_Transfers

It's OOS right now, but my LHBS (in Canada) sells the same one. Made by ShurFlo, not sure what the model number is. It's a diaphragm pump, and unlike the March pumps, it's self-priming, which makes it much more ideal for transferring cool wort.

try surpluscenter.com they have several selfpriming diphram pumps from shurflo for around 40-50 bucks.

I ordered this from Norther Tool-NorthStar 12 Volt On-Demand Diaphragm Pump - 1 GPM @ 40 PSI

My fingers are crossed as my only concern would be that it could potentially take 40 PSI to push the water through the small line. I plan to us a Ranco with a 120v in 12v out converter.

Can those pumps take the heat? I saw several say 130F was the max temperature.

You will have to worry about cold - not heat. Hopefully your fermenting wort will not be above 70F. This cooling fluid will never be in contact with the wort. Personally, for this application I would would use a centrifugal pump. That coil will have a fairly high resistance.

I use one of the little submersible pond pumps from Northern Tool on both of mine, they have worked great for 4 batches now. I use 15 gal of water in a chest freezer i cool to 34 and can get 1 brewhemoth to 50 for lagers and the other to 64 at the same time.

carloski44 said:

I use one of the little submersible pond pumps from Northern Tool on both of mine, they have worked great for 4 batches now. I use 15 gal of water in a chest freezer i cool to 34 and can get 1 brewhemoth to 50 for lagers and the other to 64 at the same time.

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To 50 degrees without insulating the brewhemoth? At what ambient temps?

I have mine jacketed in water heater insulation all the way around but haven't run the chiller yet and I'm wondering what temp range I can expect.

Oh, sorry i do have 1/2 pipe insulation around the middle section of the brewhemoths, and ambient is 70.

I have had the chiller up and running with a Ranco and the Tool-NorthStar 12 Volt On-Demand Diaphragm Pump - 1 GPM @ 40 PSI, for about 3 day's now. I Couldn't be happier. A word of caution though, you need a 4-5.5 amp 12v converter for this pump to operate on 110v, but they are easly found on Amazon for $20 bucks.

Another word of caution for those of you thinking of using a diaphram. I wouldn't get one that puts out more than 1GPM or you may find that it meets the max pressure and will cut out before it pumps through the 1/4" coil. Mine is working fine using a bucket of water in the refrigerator.

The 1/4" line is restrictive depending on what kind of flow rate you need to obtain. I don't have a friction loss chart in front of me that has a 1/4" size but to give you a comparison if you used a 1/2" line and tried to get 2 gallons per minute out of it you would see a loss of .0672 per foot of line. If you needed 4 gallons per minute then it goes to .242 loss per foot.
So if you needed to get 4GPM through you system and had a 20' total line length (20' line x .242 friction loss = 4.84 of head height in friction loss) (Divide that 4.84 by 2.31 to give you psi) and you would need a pump that can generate a minimum 2.1psi just to get through that line.....and that's not factoring in the actual head height your working against or any other restrictions like elbows, adaptors, filters etc...

-Walter

Here is what I use.... http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-hp-115-volt-submersible-water-pump-98342.html
Found that a glycol solution was a bit too thick for the cheaper pumps. Built a glycol chiller out of an old window AC and 30 quart cooler. Am able to chill an uninsulated Brewhemoth easily to 50 in a 75 degree room, my insulated Brewhemoth (1/2 inch of foam) will drop into the 30's, can also run both at the same time.

DaleP said:

Here is what I use.... http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-hp-115-volt-submersible-water-pump-98342.html
Found that a glycol solution was a bit too thick for the cheaper pumps. Built a glycol chiller out of an old window AC and 30 quart cooler. Am able to chill an uninsulated Brewhemoth easily to 50 in a 75 degree room, my insulated Brewhemoth (1/2 inch of foam) will drop into the 30's, can also run both at the same time.

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Dale,

HF no longer has that pump on their website. Can you give us details of the pump you got? I would like to try to find something equivalent because you're doing pretty much the same thing I plan on doing.

JP

Just ran across this: http://images.harborfreight.com/manuals/98000-98999/98342.pdf

Dale do you control the flow of that pump somehow?

No flow control on the pump, just on/off.

Is your chiller 1/4" as well? If so how did you adapt it? Thanks for the reply!

Also, how are you guys reducing the 1"/.75"/.5" output down to 1/4" for the immersion chiller. Any tips to reduce resistance?

My plan for this is going to be something like run a GHT to barb, 1/2" hose to the chiller, GHT to compression fitting on the chiller, then same thing out back to the tank. Keep the tubing size relatively big so there is no impedance of flow to the chiller. It's going to have a hard enough time pushing through the chiller as small as the opening is.

I wonder - is a 10-gallon tank sufficient?

No need to reduce using the diaphram. 1/4" id line does it all. 30 lbs of pressure at 1 gallon pushes it through fine. So far I have 2 batches done using this pump. Self priming is a really nice way to go.

If you run the diaphragm sure - not the case with the submersible. Especially true if you're using glycol.

I tested a danner mag-drive submersible on room T water, running through 12' of 1/4''id pvc tubing on both the inlet and outlet. Worked fine. Hope it will work with 50-50 water glycol at -10degF.