Taco Bronze circulator pump

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conpewter

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I have been trying to stretch my homebrew budget, so I hope this purchase doesn't end up costing me more. I just saw the sale at AHS for the march pump and somewhat wish I'd waited... Anyway

I got this pump on E-bay for $51 It is a circulator pump and is for potable water and good up to 220 degrees.

It is not a magnetic drive pump.

Here are some specs...


Performance Data
Flow Range: 0-10 GPM
Head Range: 0-9 Feet
Minimum Fluid Temperature: 40º F (4º C)
Maximum Fluid Temperature: 220º F (104º C)
Maximum Working Pressure: 125 PSI
Connection Sizes: 3/4” NPT

The Taco 006 Cartridge Circulator is designed for circulating hot or chilled fresh water in open or closed -loop, lower-flow applications.

* Unique, “00” family replaceable cartridge contains all of the moving parts so you can service it easily instead of replacing the entire unit.
* Compact, low-power consumption design is ideal for high efficiency jobs.


Features

* Standard High Capacity Output
* Quiet, Efficient Operation
* Unique Replaceable Cartridge Design – Field Serviceable
* Direct Drive-Low Power Consumption
* Self-Lubricating
* No Mechanical Seal
* Unmatched Reliability --Maintenance Free
* Bronze Construction

Typical Applications:

* Domestic Hot Water Recirculation
* Hydro-Air Heating/Cooling
* Heat Recovery Units
* Water Source Heat Pumps
* Drain Down Open Loop Solar Systems
* Potable Water Systems




I like that it is bronze, i'm not worried about lead (I could always pickle it) I know it can handle the temps and has the flow rates I need.

My worries are that Wort is more acidic than water (shouldn't be a problem...) and I don't know how it will affect it if I restrict the outflow (I think this will be ok, it would be similar to giving it a 9 ft head perhaps).

This guy continually sells these pumps on E-bay so if this works out it could be a cheaper solution than the march pump for those that want to try it.

Thoughts?
 
The fact that it's made for hot fresh water is a plus at least. I wouldn't trust it based on that alone, but it's a start... Hopefully you will be able to open up the pump head and take a look at the construction.

Edit: Here's the manufacturer product page:
http://www.taco-hvac.com/en/product...view=ProdDetail&Product=9&current_category=52

Kind of a weird design, all the moving parts are contained in that little "cartridge" which goes in the pump. I assume the motor housing is a sealed unit containing all the coils, and then the rotor with all the magnets is inside the cartridge, directly connected to the impeller. If that is true, it probably means that the whole chamber where the rotor is (in the cartridge) gets filled with liquid and the rotor runs wet, which could explain why they say it has 'no mechanical seal'. On the Taco page, the pump is even listed under the "wet rotor" category. I had a small pond pump once that worked just like that on a smaller scale.

On the plus side, it most likely means there are no bearings or grease - the rotor probably relies on the water for the necessary lubrication, which would explain their warning not to run it without water in it. On the down side, depending on the design, it may not be easy to keep it clean - although water is allowed into the rotor area, it's probably MOSTLY closed off so that sediment can't easily get into the rotor area, which would then make it hard to thoroughly rinse out the rotor region, so you may get some sticky wort gunk building up in there and getting nasty.

Of course, a lot of that is speculation because I can't find much more detail on their design yet...
 
I'm all
bigear.gif
and very interested in how this turns out.
 
I'll see if I can take the pump head apart tonight to see. Every brew session I plan to be running HLT water through it first, then during the boil I'll recirculate for the last 15 minutes to sanitize everything, then pump through the chiller. After that I'll do a run with cleaning solution (maybe oxyclean) through the boil kettle and pump, then with clean water. That should help to rinse out and keep it from gunking up inside, we'll see :)
 
Alright got it apart and attaching some pictures.

I found out a couple things that will annoy me but can be worked around. There are two leads coming off of the pump. One to start it with a switch and one to start it remotely. The issue is that it has built in temperature sensing (which could be nice but it is not configurable) and the switches only turn it on, none turn it off.

I've messed with the wires on the temp probe and they are able to turn it off, but not back on. I think if I get the right switch (at worst 2 switches) then I can make that work.

Otherwise I can wire an outlet with a switch so I can turn it on and off. I'll basically just keep the temperature probe wires always disconnected.

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As you can see from the pictures it has a backcheck valve. Should be just fine. The holes are large enough that a reasonable amount of hop particles and break should go through. Also I use the Lil'Sparky hop bag so I don't have a lot of hop leaves or particles circulating in the wort anyway.

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I just had a seminar on these pumps. I'm in the heating industry and involved with hydronics. These pumps are wet roter and self lubed with the liquid it pumps. It isn't a pump per se but a circulator and although it will pump a little head, it won't be the same as a March pump with positive displacement.
I have a similar type pump I hope to incorperate into my brewery also.
 
wow great to have someone that actually knows something about these instead of me just fuddeling along with them. If you intend to use one at some point does that mean you think they will work? Thanks!
 
So now that you've got it in hand and working, when are you gonna throw some tubing on it and try pumping some water? :) That's the real test, seeing what kind of head and flow rate it can give you under typical brewing conditions.
 
Yep I will do so, though I need to get some 3/4" NPT fittings to adapt it to some sort of barb. I'll probably order some silicone tubing from McMaster, the thicker walled stuff (I don't know if I can spring for the reinforced stuff...)

I'll do the tests with water, see how it does with that. Then it'll get built into the brewstand, so more results will wait till I have it all together.
 
Hopefully you'll be able to get some preliminary results out before the AHS march pump sale ends, as it could help those of us who are on the fence :p
 
I can't drop the cash on a pump just yet anyways but I'm still wanting to know how well this works and how it handles being held back with a valve.
 
I will do some tests throttling it down for a similar amount of time I'd use to run through my chiller. If I had several of these I'd throttle it down and let it run long enough to break it just to see where that point is... but I want to use this one ;)
 
I'm inclined to go for the March pump at AHS but I was curious if you had a chance to play with this pump over the weekend. No rush if you haven't.
 
I haven't had time yet. If I were to do it over again I'd probably go with the march pump since it is ready out of the box, this one is going to take a little re-wiring and it is not a proven pump etc. I'll use it and report back, but with the good price at AHS I probably would have just bought from them if I'd had the money at the time.

For this one I'll need to buy a couple toggle switches or a switched outlet. I think it will pump enough but I think this one may get more crap stuck in it than the march pump, I'm not sure about that yet, I'll need to do a few brews then take it apart again and see.
 
Thanks for the quick response and honest opinion. I think I am going to go with the other pump but am still curious about how this one turns out. Good luck.
 
Ahhh don't hate me... My rig build has been put on hold due to fall activities, upgrades to my workshop etc. I plan on having it tested by the end of the year (probably this month) if possible.
 
I don't know if this helps much or not, but I can say the Taco pumps are very reliable. The heating system for my house is hydronic and I run 2 taco pumps. Neither are bronze, but one is a Taco 007 and one is a 011. Neither one has given any trouble over the course of 5 years. The 011 has run continuously for 4 years straight, because I heat my domestic use hot water year round with the heating system. The 007 is cycled on and off through a zone valve via thermostat and has performed flawlessly for 2 years.
 
Um check is in the mail?...

So yeah haven't brewed in months, it is very sad. I am in the process of putting together a brewing system in my basement but I'm running low on reserves (well I have one keg of pale ale that I really don't like, but can't yet bear to dump, not bad.. just not good).

Anyway I plan to brew in the next couple weeks, I'll be using the pump, just need to get the fittings for it. Will probably just be pieced together out in my garage, so any priming issues I have won't be useful data.
 
Alright with my current testing I would not buy this pump. It is made to circulate water to get hot water to a far location of the house. Currently I can't seem to get it to run for more than a couple minutes before it shuts itself off.

It would be much simpler to save up some money and get a proper march pump. I also need to get some better tubing, the silicone tubing I have is too thin walled so it will suck closed, but that is a different problem.

I was able to throttle down the output just fine without it having any issues I could find (this is with room temp water) but the fact that whatever I do it turns itself off is making this a very bad buy

EDIT:

I think this pump will be workable. I have connected the two wires that came from the gray sheathing and left everything else connected, that has the pump continually pumping (not turning itself off) now I'll just use an extension cord with a switch (probably light switch mounted in a box) to turn the pump on and off. I'll be trying to do more testing tomorrow during a brew.

EDIT of Edit:

Ok so I connected the gray sheathed wires permanently and then was able to use the white sheathed wires (originally connected to the solid state temperature sensor) and hooked those to the switch, that allowed me to turn it on and off with the control wiring instead of shutting the power itself on and off. So I think this is workable but I'll have more information tomorrow.
 
This pump will be workable, but I wouldn't buy it again.

For some reason I have to actually suck on the output hose to get it to prime, this is with it well below the level of my HLT.

Edit: I think the reason is that these pumps are expected to be used in a pressurized system instead of gravity prime
 
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