Chugger Pump seizing

Yakima 728
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DrPhilGood said:
Same here. I was recirculating last night fine for most of the night. Once it came time to pump the post boil wort through the plate chiller it was a problem. This has happened the last few times we've brewed and its frustrating me intensely. It took me 1+ hours to transfer 5 gallons of wort to the carboy. I lost about 1.5 gallons due to trying to constantly re prime the pump, which I thought was the problem.

I built a manifold on the pump to prevent it from losing prime for this reason. Still doesnt help.

Here is a picture of the setup I had running last night (felt like doing an extract)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/62262/Phil/IMG_20120613_205257.jpg

Everything was great up until 180 degrees +. I didn't know what the issue was, I was even cursing the trub filter thinking it was blocking/slowing the flow rate to nothing. So I of course took it off and splash boiling hot wort all over.

Someone please help me with this before I go clinically insane :drunk:
Click to expand...

Mobile version of homebrewtalk is acting up really bad. I recently built a brewstand and mounted the pump like you have it, with the actually mounting bracket vertical, instead of horizontal like most folks. Ran fine for one brew day, and then couldn't pump anything, cold water, hot water, wort, anything!

Mounted the actual motor horizontal again and have had smooth sailing.

I tried to explain the issue to Mike@chugger but he couldn't picture what I was trying to say, mind if I use your picture?
 
Yea sure no problem. I just want a solution. I always read that people recommended this orientation for better priming/flow with the pumps.
 
DrPhilGood said:
Yea sure no problem. I just want a solution. I always read that people recommended this orientation for better priming/flow with the pumps.
Click to expand...

The head is fine, leave it the way it is, I'm talking about the actual body of the pump.
 
Actually this is a picture of the march pump head assembly. Does it differ much from the chugger? They look identical to me.
 
Something I found with my own Chuggers, one of the welds on the motor wasn't very good one of mine, if I'm not careful and knock the pump, the plate on the front of the motor (the part the plastic skirt attaches to) comes loose, and then my motor stops. Something silly, but could explain some of the problems, especially the ones that are mounting on the side. Mounting the motor sideways should have no impact on performance, but if forces are pulling that weld apart, you could end up with a locked up motor. I've been meaning to put some JB weld on mine, but just keep forgetting, maybe I'll try and snap a pic tonight so you can see what I mean.
 
hatrickwah said:
Something I found with my own Chuggers, one of the welds on the motor wasn't very good one of mine, if I'm not careful and knock the pump, the plate on the front of the motor (the part the plastic skirt attaches to) comes loose, and then my motor stops. Something silly, but could explain some of the problems, especially the ones that are mounting on the side. Mounting the motor sideways should have no impact on performance, but if forces are pulling that weld apart, you could end up with a locked up motor. I've been meaning to put some JB weld on mine, but just keep forgetting, maybe I'll try and snap a pic tonight so you can see what I mean.
Click to expand...

Intriguing. I'll have to look at mine. It was weird that it was good for one brew day but not any after.
 
DrPhil:

Is that a hop rocket before the pump? Maybe you could plumb them in reverse:

kettle>pump>hop rocket>kettle
 
Holy necro-thread! I was having trouble with my pump seizing when used with boiling wort and this thread was the top hit on google. I just wanted to post a confirmation that drilling out my chugger pump's impeller with a 17/64" drill bit (on a press) fixed it so that I can run my pump almost wide open with boiling wort. I was straight terrified doing it because I spent a lot of money on this pump, but man am I glad I did it. Makes me even happier with my purchase.
 

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