Aaron Beers
Well-Known Member
I've only used Chugger pumps, up until now. After having one of the pumps in my setup fail last brew day I figured I'd order a Riptide to replace it, and see whether the marketing fan fare was justified. The only drawback to the Riptide vs. a Chugger is the extra $60 you'll spend, but there are notable improvements that may make that acceptable to you, and some of those improvements eliminate the need for other pieces of equipment and hence improve the value.
First, the two major reasons I bought one:
- I've managed to shoot water into the body of my Chugger pumps on multiple occasions. The Riptide has a fully enclosed body
- It's not fun to constantly need to pickup a screw driver during brew day, and difficult dis/assembly of anything makes me less likely to want to thoroughly clean it. The head and body are attached via TC clamp on the Riptide, so taking it apart and putting back together again is super easy
Both of those aspects were just as advertised when I inspected the pump today. Beyond that, there are a few more really nice features.
The out flow has a valve built in, so you don't need to run the pump out line into a separate valve. I already had a valve in my system at the pump outlet, so I didn't actually save any money on equipment here, but you might save if you're putting together a new system or have some other use for an existing pump out valve you've purchased. In any case, since the valve is built into the pump head, I don't have a separate valve that I have to clean.
The pump head can be adjusted to any rotation. My Chugger pumps have a base attached, and the in/out of the pump head run parallel to this base. For the orientation of my brewing equipment, it is more convenient for the in/out to be perpindicular to the ground. Hence I've been rotating the Chugger pumps 90* and in turn needing to finagle some things to get the base attached/stable to a surface perpindicular to the ground. With the Riptide pump, I can rotate the pump head 90* to put the in/out perpindicular to the base, with the base parallel to the ground. This is a nice bit of flexibility, not a deal breaker for Chugger pumps by any means, but really nice to be able to rotate the head to whatever angle you need.
The Riptide pump also happens to have an on/off switch on the pump itself. This isn't really useful for me, as I have a central bank of power switches to turn on/off every piece of equipment via their own dedicated switches, and I'll continue to use that so I don't need to stoop over/under to turn on the switch to the pump. But for other people who might just have a wall outlet or generic power strip, the on/off on the pump is convenient.
I'm not trying to shill for any product here, but if/when any of the other Chugger pumps need replacing, I'll definitely be replacing them with Riptide pumps.
First, the two major reasons I bought one:
- I've managed to shoot water into the body of my Chugger pumps on multiple occasions. The Riptide has a fully enclosed body
- It's not fun to constantly need to pickup a screw driver during brew day, and difficult dis/assembly of anything makes me less likely to want to thoroughly clean it. The head and body are attached via TC clamp on the Riptide, so taking it apart and putting back together again is super easy
Both of those aspects were just as advertised when I inspected the pump today. Beyond that, there are a few more really nice features.
The out flow has a valve built in, so you don't need to run the pump out line into a separate valve. I already had a valve in my system at the pump outlet, so I didn't actually save any money on equipment here, but you might save if you're putting together a new system or have some other use for an existing pump out valve you've purchased. In any case, since the valve is built into the pump head, I don't have a separate valve that I have to clean.
The pump head can be adjusted to any rotation. My Chugger pumps have a base attached, and the in/out of the pump head run parallel to this base. For the orientation of my brewing equipment, it is more convenient for the in/out to be perpindicular to the ground. Hence I've been rotating the Chugger pumps 90* and in turn needing to finagle some things to get the base attached/stable to a surface perpindicular to the ground. With the Riptide pump, I can rotate the pump head 90* to put the in/out perpindicular to the base, with the base parallel to the ground. This is a nice bit of flexibility, not a deal breaker for Chugger pumps by any means, but really nice to be able to rotate the head to whatever angle you need.
The Riptide pump also happens to have an on/off switch on the pump itself. This isn't really useful for me, as I have a central bank of power switches to turn on/off every piece of equipment via their own dedicated switches, and I'll continue to use that so I don't need to stoop over/under to turn on the switch to the pump. But for other people who might just have a wall outlet or generic power strip, the on/off on the pump is convenient.
I'm not trying to shill for any product here, but if/when any of the other Chugger pumps need replacing, I'll definitely be replacing them with Riptide pumps.