Cheap pump for cooling water

[MaryB]

I need a cheap pump for cooling water for my brewing setup. I use an immersion chiller and plan on going to a 55 gallon tank that is half full of water that I drop gallon jugs of ice into so I use less water(water is mega expensive in my town so running it on the lawn is not something I like to do). Thinking flow rate doesn't have to be all that fast, maybe 750gph at a minimum to 1,000gph at maximum... cheaper the better because nothing will contact the wort so it does not need to be food grade.

 

[doomy86]

What about a cheap immersion pump from the hardware store? We can get them here for under 20$ and they have a good flow rate.

 

[augiedoggy]

I've used these in my actual brewery setup for years.. They are food grade if needed and they are still only $18.. they make 24v ones too which are more powerful.. They are not self priming though they are submersible in cold water.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-DC-Quie...084119?hash=item21003f8717:g:sYsAAOSw~gRVwsfp

 

[Roland_deschain]

Harbor Freight pond pump. I think it cost me 20.00 with one of their coupons and it works great. I do a similar setup to what you are taking about, I run the first 5 gallons into a bucket for cleanup water( plenty hot) and then recycle the rest. I put a little bleach in the water so it doesn't get too funky while sitting and I can use the same chill water multiple times without a problem.

 

[ericbw]

The aquarium or pond pump works great. I fill a 5 gallon bucket with ice, then add water (put the pump in first). The "out" hose goes into another 5 gallon bucket. THe first 5 gallons is hot, which you can set aside for cleanup or whatever. The second 5 gallons is still pretty hot/warm, so I dump that.

I top up the ice as needed, and after the second 5 gallons comes out, I put the "out" house into the ice bucket and recirculate it. Sometimes I can add more ice along the way. I get one of those 22 pound bags, and usually use it all. So total, it takes about 15 gallons, but if you use 5 for clean up, it's only 10. Plus about $5 for the ice.

There are those people out there that just let it chill over night.

 

[MaryB]

Didn't think of Harbor Freight, thanks! Will find something there. I have 2 deep freezes plus a freezer on the keg fridge so will freeze gallon jugs of water.

 

[FatDragon]

Just make sure it's not too wimpy. I have a pump I use for pushing ice water through my chiller and the flow rate is dismally slow even though the specs looked alright on paper. When you're running off water, slowing down your flow rate can save water at the expense of time, but since you'll be recycling water through the tank, you might as well let it flow as fast as you can for a faster chill.

 

[NeoBrew]

Didn't think of Harbor Freight, thanks! Will find something there. I have 2 deep freezes plus a freezer on the keg fridge so will freeze gallon jugs of water.

You might try freezing the water in something that you can get the ice out of. The heart exchange is pretty fast when you do this. I found that the water bottle provided too much insulation. The ice would stay frozen inside the bottle for too long. Cubes or broken up ice chunks will provide a better exchange.

 

[IslandLizard]

You might try freezing the water in something that you can get the ice out of. The heart exchange is pretty fast when you do this. I found that the water bottle provided too much insulation. The ice would stay frozen inside the bottle for too long. Cubes or broken up ice chunks will provide a better exchange.

I never thought of that. The bottle plastic plus the surrounding melting water forms a barrier to the core of ice inside. It works great in coolers used as thermal jackets, you don't want speed, you want evenness. Here, it's the exact opposite.

Exposed cooling surface is also essential. Cubes will work much faster than a 10# block of ice.

 

[raysmithtx]

I never thought of that. The bottle plastic plus the surrounding melting water forms a barrier to the core of ice inside. It works great in coolers used as thermal jackets, you don't want speed, you want evenness. Here, it's the exact opposite.

Exposed cooling surface is also essential. Cubes will work much faster than a 10# block of ice.

I use gallon baggies filled with water and frozen. 4 is enough to get me to pitching temperatures and I live in Texas. I freeze the baggies and then break them up with a hammer and dump the pieces in my tub with my pump. So I end up with about 30 pounds of ice this way and only use 4 gallons of water.

I bought a bunch of the ice packs and plan on trying them during my next brew. I know it will not be as efficient but am hoping that I can overcome that with the sheer volume of ice packs in the tub. We shall see.

The baggies work great but it would be less messy and a bit easier if I could just remove the ice packs and put them back in the freezer.

Always looking for a way to make my brew day less messy and easier.

 

[Morrey]

MaryB I bought a Harbor Freight sump pump that works beautifully and it serves dual purposes for me. I discussed this with BobbyM at Brew Hardware and he helped me decide.

Purpose 1 is to pump beer line cleaner thru a 5 tap system. This pump pushes cleaner thru all 5 open taps at once when they are jumpered and ganged together. Bobby sells fittings to hold ball lock QDs open for this to happen.

My second purpose is to recirc cooling water as being discussed. As I discovered, its not the "GPH" rating of the pump as much as the vertical lift I was needing. I went thru the fountain pump route to be disappointed. The HF sump pump I think is 1/2hp and I paid near $40 after the 20% coupon.

***I do need to add I use a JaDed Hydra IC so I need a strong force to get max flow for effective cooling. I wanted a garden hose flow...not a trickle.

 

[MaryB]

Yes I need 3' lift to the edge of the boil kettle so I was looking at that spec closely. And I was thinking in the 1,000gph range to approximate the flow from my garden hose at 60psi. For cleaning I am going to use my air brush compressor with oil and water trap for pure air to pressurize a keg that refuses to seal and hold pressure(has a good sized dent in the side up high under the edge of the rubber collar that may have a pinhole) but is fine for short term use. With only 3 taps it won't take much to run each tap separately into a bucket I drain back into the cleaning keg for storage and reuse as many times as BLC can be reused. Good use for an otherwise bad keg. And I use pin locks so I will have to build my cleaning system myself, same setup is going to be used to clean kegs by pushing cleaner up the liquid line with the keg upside down. It should spray onto the bottom and run down the sides if I use enough pressure, same time I will also be flushing through the gas in line to clean that too. Keg will be held upside down over a bucket and that BLC will end up being dumped to get rid of yeast and trub.