eHLT: Recirulation Pump or Stir Motor?

P-J said:

The motor I referenced does require a capacitor (it ships with the motor). The cap must be wired as it provides the motor start torque and sets the direction of rotation.

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Hi Pj,
I just received the motor you used.
Is the capacitor inside the motor? I assume not?

I did not receive a capacitor with the motor thus I am not sure how to wire this.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks Kevin

haeffnkr said:

Hi Pj,
I just received the motor you used.
Is the capacitor inside the motor? I assume not?

I did not receive a capacitor with the motor thus I am not sure how to wire this.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks Kevin

Click to expand...

Kevin,

The capacitor should have shipped with the motor. You might want to contact the vendor (Herbach & Rademan) and ask them about it. The other option is to buy one locally. It is 5 MFD - 370V cap. Also, there is a wiring diagram on the motor label.

I hope this helps you.

P-J

P-J what keeps your top from turning when the motor is on? What Are you using for your shaft that goes on the motor and the propeller.

Hi,
I am not PJ but here is what I just came up with for this motor.

I welded a short 1/2" iron nipple to one of the gears that came with the motor.
Then I used a copper for the rest and screwed the 2 together.
1/2 copper female - 1/2 pipe adapter, then a short piece of pipe then made a propeller contraption from a old cheap stainless bowl.
I cut it out with a tin snips and soldered it to the pipe.

I just sat the motor on a piece of plywood with some holes in it for the mounting bolts and shaft... not even bolted tight.
I just hand tightened the copper shaft to the motor assembly for easy cleaning ... it ran for an hour and did not fall off or get loose.

My efficiency went up 3% also.

It worked GREAT.
My ebiab setup never worked better than today.
FINALLY no stratification... my temps were the same all through out my kettle.

thanks PJ for posting this !!!

enjoy the pics

???
Just plain - excellent & very well done.
Congrats.

P-J

It would seem from the above posts that the answer to the OP original question is that most people prefer a stirring motor to a recirculating pump. The question is why. Better control, cheaper to implement, easier to implement or none /all of the above?

nealm said:

It would seem from the above posts that the answer to the OP original question is that most people prefer a stirring motor to a recirculating pump. The question is why. Better control, cheaper to implement, easier to implement or none /all of the above?

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You are right that the original question is which is better. One of the earlier posts mentioned that he lost a few degrees while the water went from the output on the HLT to the pump and back to the top of the HLT. Of course if you used a stir motor like what P-J uses and the others, the water never leaves the tank and if insulated you may find that it holds the temp better and requires less heat to be applied.

For the money $20-30 you have the stir motor that P-J did or if you want a pump you could go with one of those cheap solar pumps. I was thinking about a solar pump or saying the heck with it an getting another March or Chugger pump. The more I look at what P-J did I am now looking at a stir pump. The stir pump can be controlled from my panel just like a traditional pump. The benefit is that you don't have the heat loss in the lines and pump with that route.

I need to sit down with my drawings and notes again to go over my process. If there is a stage where you need two pumps to accomplish what you want, that makes the stir motor less appealing as you need two pumps anyhow. If the second pump in your process was only for HLT re-circulation then maybe you are better off with a stir motor.

It seems to have been skipped over by most of you but I think the idea of agitating the water at the bottom of the HLT with air bubbles from an aquarium pump to be pretty ingenious and cheap.

I use a recirc pump with HERMS and like it a lot. I continuously recirc throughout mashing, measure the temp of the returning wort, and use this temp to regulate HLT temp.

An added advantage of recirc over stirring is you get a very nice vorlauf. The result is very clear wort that after hot break contributes very little trub. I save yeast from most batches and don't even bothering with yeast washing. There's very little post ferm trub to worry about.

PLOVE

PLOVE said:

I use a recirc pump with HERMS and like it a lot. I continuously recirc throughout mashing, measure the temp of the returning wort, and use this temp to regulate HLT temp.

An added advantage of recirc over stirring is you get a very nice vorlauf. The result is very clear wort that after hot break contributes very little trub. I save yeast from most batches and don't even bothering with yeast washing. There's very little post ferm trub to worry about.

PLOVE

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I think you misread what is being discussed. I would imagine that everyone doing either a HERMS configuration would be using a pump to recirculate the wort as you mentioned. This isn't where the stir motor is being used. It is a discussion on the best way to keep the water in the HLT not the wort, agitated via bubbles, stirring or pumping (with a 2nd pump). The idea behind this is if you don't agitate the water in the HLT that temperature variations in the water of the HLT can develop. By creating movement of this HLT water, it creates a more uniform heat of all water in the HLT and what is being transferred to the wort as it is being recirculated through the coils of the HLT.

So it is more a question of is it better to add a second pump for this, a stir motor or some other means of agitating the water.