Why March Pumps? Why not a Mag Drive or something?

Ok, I am very confused why the march pumps are so huge in the homebrew community. They seem very expensive for what they are. When I was looking at one at AHS, they didn't seem any different inside then a Danner MagDrive pump. You can get a 250GPH pump for under $50 and the internals are all ceramic or plastic. I have used them for years pumping hot fluids inside of a coolant system with coolant temps well over 150 at times. You can also get them with a fractioning impeller so it will make millions of bubbles inside of your wort.

Am I missing something?

Food grade, seal-less, high temp (rated above 212º), continuous duty, low cost, and providing a suitable flow rate.

If you have an alternate, we would love to see it.

Most alternate pumps are rated to about 140-160º so most are not comfortable runngin boil liquid through them. The March is as low cost as we have been able to find with these parameters.

godofcheese said:

Am I missing something?

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Yes, one very important point - March pumps are designed to handle 250F liquids.

I tried a pond pump a couple of years ago out of curiosity. It didn't last long at +170F.

That does make since with the temp stuff. I have a few mag drives in the garage. I will try one out. I ran it for a long time at 150 deg, so lets see how it does with not quite boiling wort this weekend.

I know the thing is made out of PET. the only thing that I would think that would give way would be the rubber gasket, but I have replaced that with a silicone one quite a while back.

I think you will have problems with the PET once it gets over 160 F. It won't melt, but it will lose it's stiffness and begin to warp.

What word from yonder garage? Pray tell.

PET does not like high temps...

I was at Menards today and saw some pumps meant for underfloor heating. They pump the hot water through pipes (prolly around 3/4" pipes) under your floor. They were rated up to 250°F, and about the size of a March pump.....$94 bucks for one, either with an integrated speed control, (low, medium, high, off), or without.

Or there is this one:
http://www.drillspot.com/products/70510/Taco_007-F5_Hot_Water_Circulator_Pump

or this one:
http://www.drillspot.com/products/96567/Taco_005-F2-3_Hot_Water_Circulator_Pump

or this one:
http://secure2.data-comm.com/servlet/RBIS/-strse-106829/Pump-Circulator-1-fdsh-35hp/Detail

or this one:
http://www.faucetdepot.com/faucetde...AffiliateID=ChannelAdvisor&CAWELAID=193038588

or this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/#224-OLYMPIAN-M...RCULATOR_W0QQitemZ330351182133QQcmdZViewItema

etc. etc. etc.

shortyjacobs said:

I was at Menards today and saw some pumps meant for underfloor heating. They pump the hot water through pipes (prolly around 3/4" pipes) under your floor. They were rated up to 250°F, and about the size of a March pump.....$94 bucks for one, either with an integrated speed control, (low, medium, high, off), or without.

Or there is this one:
Taco 007-F5 Hot Water Circulator Pump

or this one:
Taco 005-F2-3 Hot Water Circulator Pump

or this one:
Radford Brothers Industrial Supply Pump Circulator 1/35hp

or this one:
Grunfos UP15-42F 1/25 HP Recirculator Pump (59896155) - FaucetDepot.com

or this one:
eBay

etc. etc. etc.

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The first 2 you linked say do not use in potable water systems. So I sure wouldnt use them in brewing. I would guess the others are more of the same

OMJ said:

The first 2 you linked say do not use in potable water systems. So I sure wouldnt use them in brewing. I would guess the others are more of the same

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Well double-yew-tee-eff?? Guess I didn't read enough.

You're right....although one of the ones I posted doesn't say not for use in potable, (and specifically says for household use), when I find the same one on drillspot it says no potable, (but still for household use).

Who is circulating hot water in their house without sending it to taps?! (Other than hydronic heating)...

This one is stable in hot water, should be good for potable, (made of Noryl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , which shouldn't leach..):
Dayton SM-303-NHW Circulator Pump


Also worth noting that this is the one I saw at Menards....also not for potable:
Grundfos UPS15-58FC Circulator Pump

shortyjacobs said:

This one is stable in hot water, should be good for potable, (made of Noryl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , which shouldn't leach..):
Dayton SM-303-NHW Circulator Pump

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Half the Flow rating and half the Pumping distance of the March pump for $10 less.

shortyjacobs said:

Also worth noting that this is the one I saw at Menards....also not for potable:
Grundfos UPS15-58FC Circulator Pump

Click to expand...

Actually, not worth noting as is says DO NOT USE THIS PUMP IN A POTABLE WATER SUPPLY. sorry.

shortyjacobs said:

Who is circulating hot water in their house without sending it to taps?! (Other than hydronic heating)...

Click to expand...

Perhaps they like to reuse shower water?

Those Dayton pumps are produced by Laing Inc. The one you linked will not provide sufficient flow for brewing and in most of our head arrangements will barely give you flow at all. You can find the larger Laing pumps including the stainless head one on ebay from time to time.

The Taco brand pumps and the Grafanos (sp?) pumps are all going to be a problem for potable water plus the fact that they do not have convenient connections.

I looked into this a lot a year or two ago and came the the conclusion that March makes by far the best pumps for our needs.

IrregularPulse said:

Actually, not worth noting as is says DO NOT USE THIS PUMP IN A POTABLE WATER SUPPLY. sorry.

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Yeah, I meant that that pump is the one I saw at Menards and originally posted about.....worth noting that it ISN'T for potable, as I said....

my bad....