I need some March pump plumbing advice

Everything was going great in my brewing career, that is, until i bought a pump and installed it on my brewing cart. Something that i thought would streamline my operation (pump,CFC) has instead lengthened my brew day and caused me some headaches. In order to run a CFC, i needed a pump, so i converted my three tier system to a two tier-and this is where my troubles started. My first problem is priming the pump, it is hard to prime when i am pulling from the CFC, not really an issue when pulling from HLT.
I have the pump plumbed to either draw from my HLT, or PULL from my CFC. Should i have it plumbed to pull directly from the BK (push through CFC)?
I am also getting a lot of foam in the fermenter when i am filling them up, so i am thinking i have a leak somewhere, but i have checked all connections. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I am going to attempt to post some pics... wish me luck!

Yes, you want to pull from the BK and push through the CFC>

Yeah, the march pump doesn't like pulling anything. The liquid has to drain into the pump head by gravity at first, and then by vacuum from the wort being pushed out.

Keep in mind, like any other equipment change, there will be learning curves and growing pains. Stick it out a few times, tweak it, and you'll be happy with it.

You are probably also drawing air through a fitting somewhere and that will cause foaming or a loss of prime. You want any system restrictions to be on the output side of the pump and make sure the pump is below the bottom of your vessels. I find that switching the pump on then off a few times seems to burp the air out also.

Linc

Thanks, i will re-plumb and see how it goes.

OK, so I re-plumbed my pump to pull from the BK, and it works great once i get it primed. :rockin: I am still having trouble getting the pumped primed when i am pulling from the HLT and pumping to the MLT. I have the pump mounted on the bottom of the cart, with the pump head horizontal. It is about 4.5 feet below the HLT and the MLT. I noticed some of you guys have the pump mounted higher up, with the pump head positioned vertically, doe this help? How about the length of the hoses, does it matter? Mine are about 7 feet.

You want the pump as low as possible so gravity will prime it. I have my pump head oriented vertically with the output on top. I simply open the kettle ball valve and then open the pump ball valve. Liquid fills the pump pushing air up and out - primed! Flip the switch and you are good to go.

When I first prime my pump it is ususally vacuum locked. I open outflow valves or pop a QD to get it started.

I preprime mine with water from my garden hose under pressure. It pushes out all the air and fills the pump housing with water.

Bobby_M said:

I preprime mine with water from my garden hose under pressure. It pushes out all the air and fills the pump housing with water.

Click to expand...

Ihad not thought of that. I will try that this spring when the hose thaws.

Bobby_M said:

I preprime mine with water from my garden hose under pressure. It pushes out all the air and fills the pump housing with water.

Click to expand...

I think that a T installed just before the tun with a self sealing quick disconnect would work great to use your garden hose to prefill the lines.

I'm thinking that once I have a sight gage on my tuns, I will use the garden hose to fill each one through the pump and heat exchanger!!

Linc

Thanks for all the great ideas, i will put them to use on my next brew day. I think the garden hose will solve my problem, great idea Bobby.

This is how I have mine set up - the input is at the bottom and the output is at the top. There is a bleeder valve on the output to help get the air out of the pump head to start the prime.

The ball valve on the output is on backwards, but it had a built-in bleeder port on its output side so I just installed it backwards to make use of it.