hedonist91
Well-Known Member
Allright. I know what you're thinking.
But listen, it's my first HERMS. That's a lot of stinking hose, and my lord, it's on top of a television. This photo was taken weeks ago, and since, I have a stand for the MLT, which is on the left, and it looks slightly less ghetto. here's the issue. I know that march pumps need to be primed, and up until this last saturday I haven't had any problems using it.
This time, however, it was barely spitting out anything, and, when I shortened hoses on either side, it still didn't spit out anything more than a trickling. Right now, it's being looked at by a fellow who appearantly knows what a broken pump looks like. I'm book smart fellow working as a teller at a credit union, who loves beer and knows how to jerry-rig a few things, in case you were wondering on my background. I'm better at playing guitar, cooking, and speaking foreign languages than I am plumbing. Hence, the problems with my manual dexterity and knowledge of the blue-collar arts (which I wish I could just magically trade some of my semi-useless knowledge for).
My setup as per the photo works as such: Wort exits the MLT-on the left- to the pump, through a copper coil, about 90 feet, that I muscled around a bucket to make, submerged in the boil kettle, which is filled with water at this point during the mash. Then, I disconnect the hose from the MLT and pump water from the Boil keetle on the right through, so I can get all the wort out of the system ( coil and hose) and back into the MLT at mash-out. Then I connect the output of the coil that empties into the MLT during the boil up into the HLT (not shown in picture-10G gott cooler, way on the left, up on a stand). Then i sparge out of the MLT into the boil kettle (pot on the right) without the coil inside, of course, and proceed with the boil. I put together this system on very limited funds and only wanted to buy one burner, and I already had the cooler, so forgive the fact that the system seems funky compared to all of yours, which make me drool. In fact, looking at all of the burners that you guys have in your systems, I understand why you have more than one, but I don't see why you need more than two. My one burner takes care of all of the steps in a step mash, and all of the water needed for sparging (I cool the boiling water off for the sparge with tap water, and work it out as I need it) I tried to design one that had only one burner, would eliminate hot spots on in my mash tun, and would use the resources I already had.
So, the my questions are:
Where the hell should I mount my pump (assuming it's not busted from running without being properly primed)?
Should it be after the coil with a bleeder valve? Before the coil with a bleeder valve? Pump facing up, down or horizontal?
I know I'm throwing a lot out there, but this set-up exactly how it looks has worked like 8 times, and and now the pump just pooped out. I'm thinking I didn't prime it correctly and blew the thing. So, I'm trying to avoid doing that again, and also, I've read a number of threads on the Little Giants, and if I have to purchase another pump anyway, I might go with that.
I've searched around a bunch of posts, and I dont' want to bring up and beat down a dead horse on this one, I just simply don't understand a lot of things some of you guys are saying, such as in the thread with the bleeder valves. I understand how a bleeder valve operates, but where my output is, assuming it was mounted with a shorter hose underneath my MLT, would I be able to install a bleeder on the output and have it be effective? In your guys' pictures, are those pumps after the coil? Or are your guy's rigs totally different than mine? Do I need a complete overhaul, or do I need to put the pump after my coil, or install a second pump?
And yes, quick disconnects...I know...I got work to do...this post is about the pump though.