Pump Recommendations

I am looking at upgrading my brew process and adding a pump for various tasks. I brew 5 gallon all mash batches. I need some advice from brewers who use a pump in their system. What size, make, model etc would you recommend? What tasks do you use it for and how do you clean it?

Thanks in advanced.

Dr Malt

I know the biggest recommended one is the March pump. Food grade. As far as flow rate..I've seen different ones. I'm sure someone will be along to give us the right answer.

March 809 is pretty much it for homebrewers.

March 809. It's expensive, but it's the cheapest one that you would want touching your hot wort.

The most popular mag drive pump for home brewing is the March 809. I went another direction an bought a Little Giant pump like this one:

http://www.drillspot.com/products/72471/Little_Giant_3-MD-MT-HC_Magnetic_Drive_Pump

The price for the Little Giant is somewhat higher, but IMO it is also of somewhat higher quality. It runs more quietly than the March, the motor runs on ball bearings and the specs say it can run dry for up to eight hours without damage.

I use mine for a variety of tasks including:

-recirculation on my RIMS, pumping sparge water up to my HLT
-pumping the runoff to the kettle
-recirculating from the kettle through my chiller and back to the kettle for rapid whirlpool chiiling
-and finally pumping from the kettle through the chiller to the fermenter at the end.

My procedure for cleaning the pump, hoses and chiller is to connect all the hoses together with the chiller inline and circulate heated Oxyclean, PBW or automatic dishwasher detergent through a continuous loop with a plastic tub as a reservoir. Usually I will let the cleaning solution circulate for at least an hour and sometimes much longer. I then circulate hot water through the loop to rinse. I've had good luck with this cleaning procedure and haven't had any infection problems at all. I have the pump mounted on its own stand for portability which makes the cleaning routine much easier IMO.

Catt22 said:

The most popular mag drive pump for home brewing is the March 809. I went another direction an bought a Little Giant pump like this one:

http://www.drillspot.com/products/72471/Little_Giant_3-MD-MT-HC_Magnetic_Drive_Pump

The price for the Little Giant is somewhat higher, but IMO it is also of somewhat higher quality. It runs more quietly than the March, the motor runs on ball bearings and the specs say it can run dry for up to eight hours without damage.

I use mine for a variety of tasks including:

-recirculation on my RIMS, pumping sparge water up to my HLT
-pumping the runoff to the kettle
-recirculating from the kettle through my chiller and back to the kettle for rapid whirlpool chiiling
-and finally pumping from the kettle through the chiller to the fermenter at the end.

My procedure for cleaning the pump, hoses and chiller is to connect all the hoses together with the chiller inline and circulate heated Oxyclean, PBW or automatic dishwasher detergent through a continuous loop with a plastic tub as a reservoir. Usually I will let the cleaning solution circulate for at least an hour and sometimes much longer. I then circulate hot water through the loop to rinse. I've had good luck with this cleaning procedure and haven't had any infection problems at all. I have the pump mounted on its own stand for portability which makes the cleaning routine much easier IMO.

Click to expand...

Catt,

The March 809 is really a Hydronic or Circulator Pump designed to be in a closed system with air bled from the system. Thats why lots of guys have trouble. The pump needs to be primed in order to work. Is the Little Giant the same type of pump? It looks as if it is. Since you are a user of the pump I just thought I would ask.

I use a peristaltic pump as well as my march pump.

The peristaltic pump is nearly 100% sanitary since it is one long 20 foot tube (without quick disconnects or other items on the ends) from end to end. It is self-priming and works fine with air in the hose. It has much better head pressure than the march pump... I can pump from my basement to my second floor with great flow rate [if I wanted].

The pump mechanism sits outside of the actual tubing. This means that I can very easily clean it using oxyclean/pbw and be absolutely sure there is no residue in it; running starsan through it makes contact with 100% of the inside.

There are disadvantages... it does not handle restricted flow on the inlet or the outlet in either direction and it is expensive. So for post boil it is great but for pre-boil (where sanitation is not as critical) I use my march pump.

Sawdustguy said:

Catt,

The March 809 is really a Hydronic or Circulator Pump designed to be in a closed system with air bled from the system. Thats why lots of guys have trouble. The pump needs to be primed in order to work. Is the Little Giant the same type of pump? It looks as if it is. Since you are a user of the pump I just thought I would ask.

Click to expand...

Yes, actually they are nearly identical with the exception of slight differences in the motor such as the ball bearings vs bushings and the thrust bearings on the impeller are of a different design. Operationally, they are pretty much the same and you still need to maintain positive suction head and bleed air from the system. I have no trouble at all priming mine. Priming is easy if you have a basic understanding of how they operate and observe a few basic principles of pump systems. I bought mine through W W Grainger about five years ago and it has performed flawlessly with zero maintenance other than keeping it clean. It's a work horse and never complains.

I tried using the stainless housed pump from Harbor Freight. They're only around $35 if I remember but they're 12VDC, not 110VAC. My plan though was to build a nice speed controller and be able to literally dial in the speed or have the flow adjust via an Arduino
Seemed like a great idea.

Problem was that little sucker was so loud and obnoxious it was like having a leaf blower in the brewery the whole time. I took it back and just stuck with my March 809.

Derrin said:

I tried using the stainless housed pump from Harbor Freight. They're only around $35 if I remember but they're 12VDC, not 110VAC. My plan though was to build a nice speed controller and be able to literally dial in the speed or have the flow adjust via an Arduino
Seemed like a great idea.

Problem was that little sucker was so loud and obnoxious it was like having a leaf blower in the brewery the whole time. I took it back and just stuck with my March 809.

Click to expand...

I bought one of those HB pumps. I use it for a portable shower when camping and not for brewing. It's not a mag drive so there is no way to keep it sanitary. It's also only designed for intermittent operation. On the positive side, it is self priming and puts out a lot of pressure for its size. That little sucker does scream like a banshee.

i see that the only March pump mentioned is the 809...i know that they also have the 315 that morebeer sells. which one is the better pump and why? i will be buying one soon and would like to know. i will be using it mash recirc and transfer to my boil kettle, then whirlpool for chilling.
thanks.

extra_medium said:

i see that the only March pump mentioned is the 809...i know that they also have the 315 that morebeer sells. which one is the better pump and why? i will be buying one soon and would like to know. i will be using it mash recirc and transfer to my boil kettle, then whirlpool for chilling.
thanks.

Click to expand...

+1

Also been wondering the same thing

H315 is morebeers internal number for the March pump

samc said:

H315 is morebeers internal number for the March pump

Click to expand...

But which one? Is the 315 the same as the March 815 or the March 809?

There is a difference:

815:
http://www.marchpump.com/documents/815.asp

809:
http://www.marchpump.com/documents/809.asp

Question also arises why morebeer's price is $15-20 more for the H315 than everywhere else sells the 809-HS. This seems to be a red flag that something is different since morebeer is generally competitive on price.

You are correct. It's the 815 if you look at the specs of 7.2 gpm, so it is more potent than the 809, which is more than enough umph for most needs in brewing.

Someone described the March and Little Giant pumps as pretty much the same with some minor differences. I own both pumps and in my opinon the differences are more than minor. To me, the Little Giant has far less priming and air bubble problems as compared to the March. The Little Giant's inlet goes into the center of the pump and is 3/4", with the 1/2" outlet oriented upward. In contrast, my March has both the inlet and outlet side by side oriented upward, both at 1/2". You don't need a mechanical engineering degree to understand that greater volume entering into the Little Giant 3/4" inlet low and then a lesserr volume exiting high thru a smaller 1/2" outlet greatly minimizes (and in my own experience completely eliminated) priming and air bubble issues. The only way I was able to get the March to operate even somewhat dependably was when I took off the cover and inverted the inlets so as to face down towards the floor. While this makes it less troublesome, it still had air bubble issues. To be fair, after some experience, I was able to minimize the issues with the March, but never could eliminate them. I grew tired of its unpredictability, so, I bit the bullet and bought the Little Giant. I have had zero problems since.

legaleagle said:

Someone described the March and Little Giant pumps as pretty much the same with some minor differences. I own both pumps and in my opinon the differences are more than minor. To me, the Little Giant has far less priming and air bubble problems as compared to the March. The Little Giant's inlet goes into the center of the pump and is 3/4", with the 1/2" outlet oriented upward. In contrast, my March has both the inlet and outlet side by side oriented upward, both at 1/2". You don't need a mechanical engineering degree to understand that greater volume entering into the Little Giant 3/4" inlet low and then a lesserr volume exiting high thru a smaller 1/2" outlet greatly minimizes (and in my own experience completely eliminated) priming and air bubble issues. The only way I was able to get the March to operate even somewhat dependably was when I took off the cover and inverted the inlets so as to face down towards the floor. While this makes it less troublesome, it still had air bubble issues. To be fair, after some experience, I was able to minimize the issues with the March, but never could eliminate them. I grew tired of its unpredictability, so, I bit the bullet and bought the Little Giant. I have had zero problems since.

Click to expand...

Live and learn from your past experiences from one brand vs the other, I went thru this myself. It seems the word March is the pump everyone uses instead of looking around for other avaialbe brands. I got into a pissing war becase of this pump brand switch with a miss used word after following what others purchased in pump brand by name instead of thinking on my own. One old used LG pump must have over 3K hours of 24/7 running time it runs with the same performance as when it was brand new plus quiet. It also passes small solids and small sand particles from the well water in the Koi pond.

Who sells little giant pumps?

extra_medium said:

Who sells little giant pumps?

Click to expand...

I haven't seen one rated for boiling temps, so if a model number exists for such, I would be interested in reading more.

Randar said:

I haven't seen one rated for boiling temps, so if a model number exists for such, I would be interested in reading more.

Click to expand...

Catt22 posted it earlier, but here it is:
http://www.drillspot.com/products/72471/Little_Giant_3-MD-MT-HC_Magnetic_Drive_Pump


Don't read too much into the spec sheet re temps. Not only will you rarely (if ever) truly be pumping at 212F, I've been running mine for over 15 years in my rig and it's still running like the day I bought it. I'm not even sure why it's rated as low as it is. The housing and impeller assemblies are made of Ryton, which by itself has a safe operating temp up to 425F. And the March uses a Ryton impeller and they rate their pumps to 250F.

MrH

This is a 200*F 1/8 HP Little Giant pump like i've run the snot out of for years 24/7, it was a gamble gift costing me a cord and pump O'" ring so i'm out $12. Before it became a Koi pump it was used for over 10 hours at 260 to 265*F pumping anti freeze on an engine loading test stand for breaking in motors. Then a new legal cord and "O" ring plus a good cleaning.
For a wild whirlpool on a 20 plus gallon BK it moved plenty of liquid at a high velocity plus volume just what I wanted, added a ball valve to throttle it back vs the guttless under powered pump before. Sad part this old pump is for the Koi pond. I use a valved bypass and Tee for other fluid flow operations at the same time plus the bio filter and waterfall.
If I can get another 1/8 HP LG at a good price I plan to operate with a one pump brewing system. I believe a one 1/8 HP will cost me less than the price of two smaller 1/12 HP pumps plus the head height and flow i'm asking of it. That's my plan while looking for the best prices around.
Here's and example below for specs but not in my price range by this site there must be a lower priced pumps available. Same company as catt22 posted above, they have many other models of magnetic drive pumps.

As you can see the TE-4 pump at 1/10 HP kicks butt over a 1/25 HP pump besides 1" center inlet another plus in performance. One 1/8 HP pump below is cheaper than two 1/10 HP pumps, the reason why I want to operate with one larger pump for my needs.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/74543/Little_Giant_TE-4-MD-HC_Magnetic_Drive_Pump

http://www.drillspot.com/products/71171/Little_Giant_TE-5-MD-HC_Magnetic_Drive_Pump