March Pump - Before or after CFC?

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zombeer

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So, I got a pump and built a CFC. I was planning on giving them a go for the first time this weekend.

I plan on recirc'ing boiling wort to sanitize and then chill.

Is there one way of recircing that works better then the other, i.e. keggle to pump to chiller back to keggle or vice versa?

Scott.
 
Near the end of the boil, I run Kettle->pump->cfc->kettle with water off to sanitize. once the boil finishes, I turn the water on for the cfc and run things in the same order, the goal being to drop the whole volume of wort below 140 as quickly as possible.

Once I get the temps down a little, then it runs Kettle->pump->cfc->carboy.

Generally speaking, I think the march pumps are built for pushing rather than pulling, so you'd want them as close as possible to the source, and then any additional equipment (IE your cfc) after the pump. Aside from the terrible time you'd have getting it to prime, I'd think it wouldn't be too good for the pump to have the CFC first. From what I've read, when attaching a ball valve to restrict flow, you're supposed to do it on the outlet rather than the inlet. I'd imagine having the CFC in line before the pump would have a restricting effect similar to using the ball valve.
 
In the winter when the tap water is cool I go from the pot to the pump and through the chiller then into the fermenter. When the water is warm I cycle back into the pot until the temp is down as far as it will go and then use ice and pond pump for the final cooling.
 
Thanks guys. This probably saved me some frustration.

I was able to get a recirc going with just some water to practice. It's tricky getting these pumps primed. I'm hoping it will be easier with the head pressure of a full keggle...

I was a bit surprised at the flow rate I was getting on the return. I can't really guess how much, but it was just lower then I expected... Didn't seem much faster then if I were to just drain with gravity. Does anyone have any flow rates of this setup; keggle to pump to cfc to keggle? I'm guessing the cfc itself is pretty constrictive....

Thanks

Scott.
 
Thanks guys. This probably saved me some frustration.

I was able to get a recirc going with just some water to practice. It's tricky getting these pumps primed. I'm hoping it will be easier with the head pressure of a full keggle...

I was a bit surprised at the flow rate I was getting on the return. I can't really guess how much, but it was just lower then I expected... Didn't seem much faster then if I were to just drain with gravity. Does anyone have any flow rates of this setup; keggle to pump to cfc to keggle? I'm guessing the cfc itself is pretty constrictive....

Thanks

Scott.


Yes, the small diameter copper tubing used for the Tubing-in-Hose CFC's is very restrictive and the substantial length adds a lot of resistance. I did a rough measurement recently and the flow was only about 1-1/2 gpm or so and maybe less than that. This is the reason that I built a chiller using 1/2" ID rigid copper. Much, much better flow rate and much faster chilling.

These pumps can be difficult to prime. A bleeder valve helps. It also helps to keep the hose on the suction side as short as possible. The additional positive pressure head of a full kettle will make it easier to prime. Large diameter hoses (1/2" ID min.) help and keep them as short as practical. Beware of restrictions caused by QD's and barbed fittings.

It's not always received well when one discovers that he needs to replace all hoses and fittings (more than once in my case) because the hose diameter is too small and restrictive. Ask me how I know that!
 
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