Pumps

Hi all

I was just wondering if any of you had considered using a small fountain pump (yes I'm talking about something you would get from a garden centre) to move your wine/beer instead of syphoning?

I have been looking for a way to speed up filtration and I thought that instead of a syphon what about pumping it? Then I got to thinking about the pump. Now a small fountain pump will easily fit in the fermenter and has a small tube size so it will easily fit on to the filter (well with a slight mod anyway, oh and a jubilee clip to holid it in place!). From a fish keepers point of view we are always being told to only use plastic that is of food grade when ever we put anything in our tanks. This should therefore mean that a fountain pump must be designed with that in mind. I know that they have stainless steel inside so no rust. I know that you would want to leave the pump in some sterilizing fluid etc probably overnight to clean it up.

I look forward to your comments....

Since fountain pumps are "bottom feeders", I think you would have a real challenge to prevent clogging. Maybe some kind of float to keep it near the surface? The biggest problem is fountain pumps rarely generate more than a 4 feet of lift, which translates to 2 psi. Not much of a boost over a syphon.

When I filter, I use CO2 to go from keg to keg; not a good option in the UK since the cornie kegs we use in the USA never caught on there.

Firstly Thanks for the reply.

david_42 said:

Since fountain pumps are "bottom feeders", I think you would have a real challenge to prevent clogging. Maybe some kind of float to keep it near the surface?

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I was thinking of attaching it to the float I use with my beer keg.

david_42 said:

The biggest problem is fountain pumps rarely generate more than a 4 feet of lift, which translates to 2 psi. Not much of a boost over a syphon.

Click to expand...

This is true but by making sure that the levels are level that will help.

david_42 said:

When I filter, I use CO2 to go from keg to keg; not a good option in the UK since the cornie kegs we use in the USA never caught on there.

Click to expand...

Sorry not sure what you mean there.

My last comment: I store my ale in 5 gallon (US) kegs that are commonly used in the soft drink industry. I have a filter that connects between two kegs, so all I have to do is pressurize the ale keg and it will flow through the filter into the second keg. This takes 5-10 psi.

I don't know what type of filter you are using or how much pressure it requires.

ok i'm with you now. The filter I use is very simple. its a harriss vinbrite.

Looks like a fairly standard plate filter, but the ones I've seen for sale always talk about pressure feeding. I wonder what harris does differently to let you use a siphon?

I think the biggest difference is that it only uses one filter pad which I normally have to replace half way through the process which is about 2 UK Gallons. Also it takes a looooooooong time to filter. This is part of the reason I was thinking of putting a pump behine it.