NO Sparge Question

As I sit here at work pondering my boredom, I though of how I may further streamline my brewing process. Here is the idea.

I currently have a march pump and have been using it to recirculate my runnings instead of vorlaufing as well as other means. Would it be feaseable to hook up my pump to the mash tun and recirculate into my HLT and have the HLT drain back into the mash tun in one continious flow in order to circumvent the need for sparging. I would figure out absorbtion and final volumes before hand add the water for strike and differance for my final volumes and recirculate the entire thing and then drain at the end of my mash. My HLT is a 5 gal igloo cooler with 2 water heating elements in it. I would assume I would be able to control my mash temps better and perhaps do some step mashes if I added a temp controlers to it as well. Has anyone tried this or would I be better off doing batch sparges??

Yes you can do this. Your efficiency will push down into the 70-75% range.

I just built a system with a similar concept that only needs two pots based on this post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/countertop-brutus-20-a-131411/

Your 5 gal HLT will limit you a bit, that is why I use my BK as my HLT in this system. I built this system out with a 10 gal MLT and a 8 gal BK.