Chugger problems

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I have this Chugger pump for over a year now and never had problems until today
I had the seized chugger pump this morning, would not turn, first off thought maybe it was frozen, run 180f water into it, still nothing, i could hear the motor hum, i contacted Chugger and Mike replied instantly, offered to replace
While I was in the middle of my Fullers 1914 AK brew day, i dismantled the pump, removed the head, cleaned it up, didnt see anything that looked suspicious, put it back together and sure as can be it started working
I contacted Mike at Chugger back and thanked him for his quick response
Thanks
 
So the results from today's brew are:

HLT PUMP

170 strike water - brief squeal that corrected itself

185 sparge water - Made it through about 4.5 gallons of water fine, then constant sqeal. Every 30 seconds or so I had to stop/start the pump. I did see a bubble rise back up the tube to the HLT each time, so I bled the lines of air each time and got the same result. My system is leak free, so not sure if this is decoupling, cavitation, or ??? Very frustrating though.

WORT SIDE PUMP

Worked great with 150* wort. Pumped out MLT with no problems. Although the squeal the instant it reaches the bottom is disconcerting.

On the positve, I was able to recirculate through the CFC for the last 15 minutes at a full rolling boil without issue. The pump did have a rattle sound while at full boil, but never squealed or decoupled.

While pumping to the fermenter, the pump was very quiet and pumped great. Quieter than my March actually.

I would have no problem keeping these pumps on my system if I can figure out the issue with the pump on the HLT side.
 
When did you get this pump again? Also, would you agree that the pump seems to like (can) pump wort at higher temps than plain water?
 
Just received them on Wednesday. And yes, it pumps wort fine. Hot water was terrible.

One pump wouldn't pump 185° water for more than 30 seconds at a time, the other pumped wort at a rolling boil fine for 15 minutes.
 
Mine is similar. Water at 192F failed, did not fail at 180 or so the other brew day. So failure on water in-between those.

Mine cannot boil wort a rolling boil however. Fine as soon as flame goes out though.

Maybe that helps...

I have the original Chugger stainless head (the one with the offset inlet and outlet holes and burred threads), but have never even taken it out of the box. Meant is as a emergency replacement if the march got damaged.

Maybe I will try that head on the chugger and see how it pumps. If the impeller fits.
 
Anyone who has a problem with a Chugger please call me or email me at [email protected] we will replace the pump

800-810-1053



So the results from today's brew are:

HLT PUMP

170 strike water - brief squeal that corrected itself

185 sparge water - Made it through about 4.5 gallons of water fine, then constant sqeal. Every 30 seconds or so I had to stop/start the pump. I did see a bubble rise back up the tube to the HLT each time, so I bled the lines of air each time and got the same result. My system is leak free, so not sure if this is decoupling, cavitation, or ??? Very frustrating though.

WORT SIDE PUMP

Worked great with 150* wort. Pumped out MLT with no problems. Although the squeal the instant it reaches the bottom is disconcerting.

On the positve, I was able to recirculate through the CFC for the last 15 minutes at a full rolling boil without issue. The pump did have a rattle sound while at full boil, but never squealed or decoupled.

While pumping to the fermenter, the pump was very quiet and pumped great. Quieter than my March actually.

I would have no problem keeping these pumps on my system if I can figure out the issue with the pump on the HLT side.
 
Great offer and proof they'll stand behind their product. Appreciate it Mike!

Didn't someone say in an earlier post, and after speaking with Mike, the company would fix the problem or make it right for the customer? ;)

Homebrewing will be better and less expensive, if homebrewers stand behind the risk takers that are nuts enough to try and make and sell products to such a persnickety customer base.
 
Got an email from Mike at Chugger today. Apparently this problem is caused by a bad lot of magnets. I'm sure they are making sure the magnets are better for the next batch. Seems like he has no problem fixing older pumps with this problem. That being the case, I still plan on giving these guys business and will go with Chugger for my first pump. I'll advise on results when I get a pump from them.
 
Anyone who has a problem with a Chugger please call me or email me at [email protected] we will replace the pump

800-810-1053

That's great. Email has been sent, thank you.

Got an email from Mike at Chugger today. Apparently this problem is caused by a bad lot of magnets. I'm sure they are making sure the magnets are better for the next batch. Seems like he has no problem fixing older pumps with this problem. That being the case, I still plan on giving these guys business and will go with Chugger for my first pump. I'll advise on results when I get a pump from them.

Interesting. I had to roate the head on my pumps and noticed that the magnets on them were much stronger than the march pump. I even took the head off the march pump again and felt the strength of them side by side and the chugger was far stronger, yet I had issues with them. :confused:
 
Interesting. I had to roate the head on my pumps and noticed that the magnets on them were much stronger than the march pump. I even took the head off the march pump again and felt the strength of them side by side and the chugger was far stronger, yet I had issues with them. :confused:

That may only be giving you that impression depending on how many poles ther magnets have compared to ours. One more or less and the poles dont line up correctly and will slip very easily due to not having the proper field strength to stay coupled. :D

-Walter
 
Thanks again for the insight Walter! Great to have you onboard here. So have you started brewing yet???? I see a brew pot in your future...
 
That may only be giving you that impression depending on how many poles ther magnets have compared to ours. One more or less and the poles dont line up correctly and will slip very easily due to not having the proper field strength to stay coupled. :D

-Walter

I'm sticking with the people that already know pumps and the engineering behind them.

Thanks again for the insight Walter! Great to have you onboard here. So have you started brewing yet???? I see a brew pot in your future...

Agreed.
 
That may only be giving you that impression depending on how many poles ther magnets have compared to ours. One more or less and the poles dont line up correctly and will slip very easily due to not having the proper field strength to stay coupled. :D

-Walter

I guess so because Mike at chugger said the problem was with the magnets when I emailed him.

I will back up the props on his customer service. Almost immediate reply to emails and is sending me new pumps with prepaid return for the other 2. Can't ask for more than that.
 
I guess so because Mike at chugger said the problem was with the magnets when I emailed him.

My reply above was only refering to people tyring to place a chugger head on our motor assembly or visa-versa. If one of the magnets (impeller or drive magnet)has different pole amounts between each other you will initially get an attraction between the two magnets. But they will only be able to handle so much torque before slipping....most times it will be MUCH less then orriginal setup.

-Walter
 
Walter.. thanks for the help we remedied the problem ....when can you come work for us ...we could probably do great things together!!!!!
 
call me anytime to discuss the quality of our pumps and service.

mike 732-223-3222

just trying to make a better pump for less money to help out the fellow brewer!!!!
 
Walter.. thanks for the help we remedied the problem ....when can you come work for us ...we could probably do great things together!!!!!

:D no one can pry me away from here. With any luck this will be my last job i work in this lifetime! :D They take good care of me here and i return the favor any way i can ;)

-Walter
 
Wish I could say that about MY employer.:(

Yeah believe me i KNOW how lucky i am to have this job. Its nice knowing that since they have been in business for almost 60yrs now, they have next to no overhead expenses and everything has been paid off long time ago. When the economy took a hit back on 2008 and everyone here was getting nervous, the owners got everyone together out in the factory and told us that it will be business as usual till it all clears up....its been slow but steady and every year we do have an increase in sales...not what they forecast but an increase none the less. And they said even if the orders stopped coming in on that very day, that they could continue to pay all expenses for another 2yrs before they would start laying off employees! :D
In the 11yrs that i have been here now, they have only fired 1 person for not showing up to work, and that guy had some "personal demons" he was dealing with and last i heard was locked away for a few years to sort things out. They have not laid anyone off other then the temp workers we occasionally hire when we get some crazy orders here and there that need to be filled.
Its nice to work for a family run business. My last job was R&D at Motorola in the cellular field and the stuff that went on back then. :rolleyes: ..I'm not surprised to see the company where it is now :(

-Walter
 
we have a ****load of overhead and we are still trying to save the brewer $$$. Brewing is a new passion of mine and I just want to help the local guy at his house ..and save him some money so he can buy the GI JOE with the Kung Fu Grip for his son for X mass.

Good for you March PUMP with Huge profits !!! How Bout helping out the little guy??
 
Don't need the kung fu grip, but I do need a plate chiller, new propane burner, mash tun AND A PUMP FOR CHRISTMAS! (hint-hint Mike!);) Hopefully you'll be in the same boat as the March folks in a few years. Nothing worth having comes easy.
 
I for one will be buying a chugger when they are back in stock just because of this thread... Let us know when they are back in stock
 
We are there now ....So I give you a pump (working of Course) and you become a Chugger Advocate?
 
If we wanted to import stuff from China and turn right around and send it out the door, it can be done. Thing is the owners want to keep it made in the USA as much as possible.
Only thing on our 809's that's from China are the magnets. Which come to us in the raw molded form. We then have to do some machining, mold them up, and then magnetize them here in-house. The motors currently come from Mexico. There were made in St. Louis MO before the company moved the small motor operations down there. Find us someone in the US and we'll be glad to check them out :D
We have had dealings with the "over seas" guys more then a few times not to bother with their product. What they initially give you and what you get in the end can change on a moments notice and with no heads up on their part as I'm sure you have found out!!!
One of our motor suppliers recently moved its motor operations to China...they sent us the first batch without even telling us of the change! Lucky for us our QC dept. caught it before it went out to production.....we tested the motors that were supposedly made to the exact same specs as before. First problem we encountered was the motors ran almost 1.5x hotter then before! When you have a product that rated for continuous 24/7 use that normally runs at 125* max and suddenly you start getting motors that run 180* and are tripping the thermal overloads it can create problems real fast and you loose customers even faster!

-Walter
 
If we can make it in China with Quality and save the US guy a few bucks so he can pay his mortgage or put the money back into the US economy...Where is the problem with that?...over 50% of the March product is from another country!!! Its not like we just call China and say make us pumps....I have spent a lot of time over there away from my family to make this work because I believe it is a good thing and it will help my fellow brewers ...Cheers. I would not expect a company like March to be able to adapt to another countries culture...visit their factory ...it is like walking back into the 60'S.....I believe there is no overhead...nothing has been touched. Visit our place you will see nothing but state of the art equipment ...brand new ....plus we are totally off the electrical grid with 100 KW solar power . None of this is from the Chugger Pump line, we have built the company over 20 years selling all kinds of pumps including the March line. We are great at what we do and will strive to do more for less.

Obviously March has a lot of time to monitor these blogs now that someone has challenged them....
 
If we can make it in China with Quality and save the US guy a few bucks so he can pay his mortgage or put the money back into the US economy...Where is the problem with that?...over 50% of the March product is from another country!!! Its not like we just call China and say make us pumps....I have spent a lot of time over there away from my family to make this work because I believe it is a good thing and it will help my fellow brewers ...Cheers. I would not expect a company like March to be able to adapt to another countries culture...visit their factory ...it is like walking back into the 60'S.....I believe there is no overhead...nothing has been touched. Visit our place you will see nothing but state of the art equipment ...brand new ....plus we are totally off the electrical grid with 100 KW solar power . None of this is from the Chugger Pump line, we have built the company over 20 years selling all kinds of pumps including the March line. We are great at what we do and will strive to do more for less.

Obviously March has a lot of time to monitor these blogs now that someone has challenged them....

To save a bit more money, why not drop the vendor tag and start a new account under the "mikeatchuggerpumps" acct.

You could go on every March pump thread and disrupt the conversation.
 
If we can make it in China with Quality and save the US guy a few bucks


Riiiight....and all the issues to date have proven "their" quality :rolleyes: ...will they eventually get i right? sure...and the next issue that pops up because "they" decided to put less copper in the motor to save $.10 on their end and they start overheating, or change the plastic formulation of the impeller and it starts seizing on the shafts again because the thermal expansion rate is too fast, then what?
And how do you justify taking jobs away from American workers just to have a product made in China for cheaper??


Obviously March has a lot of time to monitor these blogs now that someone has challenged them....

Yep! its called "subscribing to a thread"!!
Its a wonderful thing this "email" it can notify you when there's something new to read!!! ;)
Oh and as for having lots of time....when I'm not answering phone calls or engineering our product i am covering the service and repair dept. because our guy is out on medical leave....nice thing is we get so FEW repairs come back i do have plenty of time to reply to these blogs :)

-Walter
 
Ya know what i'm done with the pettyness. From now on i will only be answering posts to help people with their pumps....be it a March, LG, or any other pump. I think our product speaks for itself in every respect. If any one has questions about a pump, you can call me or PM me and i'll be happy to help in any way i can. :)
 
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