Any experience with US Solar Pumps? Only $50.

Does anyone know how many amps each one of these pumps draws?

 

On the instructions I received it says min start-up power consumption less than 2 watts. Also that it's rated at 12VDC

 

That's .167 amps or 167 milliamps.

 

It's a soft start. Max draw is 15 watts for the fastest (3GPM) model.

 

So I grabbed a phone charger or some kind of power source from Savers the other day on a whim while not really thinking about it. It's output is 12VAC, 1.25A. I don't know much if anything about electronics but the pump is 12VDC so does that mean I need a DC source? Don't want to mess anything up trying to power up this little guy

 

Yes. Do not use that 12VAC power supply.

 

Alright, after another trip to Savers I found another charger/power supply/whatever it was, checked to make sure it was 12VDC, spent another whopping $1.99 and then came home to wire it up. I wasn't sure what the best way to go about this was so I cut the tip off the charger stripped the wires at staggered lengths, crimped them together with some butt splices and then wrapped it in heat shrink to help seal everything up. I tested it and it works fine. Didn't bother to see how many gallons per minute but it was moving fast enough for my purposes. All in all not bad. And now I don't have to lift my pot of boiling wort to gravity feed through a chiller and can recirculate through my BIAB stovetop batches.

 

I've used these pumps for 2 batches now, and here's my experience.

My stand uses 2 pumps (one from greatbreweh & one from us solar). One recirculates hot and cold water through my CFC for heating the mash & chilling, and the other is used for mash recirculation, wort transfer, and whirlpool chilling.

For whirl pooling, I wish it had more power so that I could get a better trub cone. I may try stirring with a sanitized spoon after everything is chilled to see if its really a lack of power in the pump or if it's just the way my kettle is shaped.

I've found that the pump that handles wort needs regular disassembly and cleaning. I'll figure out what it is that is getting stuck in the pump head next time I clean it, since I haven't cleaned it between circulating the mash & circulating for whirlpool. I don't think grain husks can make it through my mash tun screen, so I suspect its expanded bits from pellet hops.

I've tried cleaning these in place by recirculating hot PBW through them, but it wasn't enough to clear the stuck debris. I'll look at the plumbing in my system to see if can be configured to back flush one pump using the other.

For anyone with a march pump, do you find that disassembling the pump head for cleaning is a needed chore?

 

I have one of these pumps. If you want it to work well, you need a 2 amp 12V power supply (for the one that does 3 gpm, the one that works the best).

I tried with a solar panel that does supposedly 18 watts(a little lower than 1.5 amps), but reality is it doesn't get the pump going full bore.

You can buy the 2 amp 12V power supply on ebay for about $10 or so. Or you can use an old PC power supply if you don't care about wasting energy and having a big, ugly beast near your brewing station. They typically have lots of amps at 12V.

 

Get one of these http://bit.ly/1eHd4EI

Mount it in your control panel and use lighted toggle switches to turn your pumps on and off. It makes it look so much cooler.

 

I just got one of these pumps for my birthday. I bought this power supply off of Amazon for it and intend to use it through a standard light switch in a junction box. Ideally I'll be purchasing another one of these and using the same power supply for both (through a second switch of course). Although they both wouldn't be running at the same time. Anyone see issues with that?

 

Should be alright. As long as it's not lieing about the specs.

 

I trust Amazon a whole lot more than anything on ebay.

 

Subbed...Just bought a 2.2 GPM US Solar one on sale and it arrived today. I'm thinking about using it for my recirc pump on my eBIAB and hooking it directly to the outlet valve. Then I'll buy another 3.2 GPM GreatBreweh one as a booster pump for my plate chiller.

 

Same sellers use them both to push their product so it doesn't really matter much.
I used amazon to get my us solar topsflo pump for 28 bucks but now they are all at least $50

 

Check out the new TD-5 ussolar pump. That thing is a beast


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

How have any of you mounted these pumps to your stands? I saw the fuel pump mount earlier in this thread but I'm interested in seeing other people's ideas.

 

I mounted inline

 

Ill post pics later but I mine for ebiab recirculation.

 

I'd also like to see how others are mounting their pumps. I use mine inline with a BIAB setup, but I've had problems with priming and am thinking that it should be mounted below my kettle like most people have their March pumps.

 

I don't see how your having priming issues. Your probably pumping steam from boiling water. With that config u should not have any issues with priming.i would recommend though that you have you hose or your pump outlet 90 up so any air that may be trapped in there can get out naturally.

 

So, you're suggesting putting a 90 degree elbow after the pump?

My other worry is the amount of weight hanging off the weldless fitting; I know these pumps are pretty light, but that's a lot of hardware pulling on the fitting.

 

Just use a bl camlock with the 90 on the hose. It looks like you have the pump supported by the table there.

 

Use 1 on both ends cause it looks like your hose is getting pinched off at the lid too. This will also shorten the hose and reduce the amount of work your pump has to do.

 

It's hard to see, but's kind of hovering over the table there and is not being supported by the table. That said, I could easily shim underneath it to add support.

I like the idea about adding two 90 degree elbows.

 

If there is anywhere for air to get trapped you'll have issues with prime. I put my pumps inline of my pot outputs and I haven't had an issue. The occasional blast of steam will come through but it doesn't stop pumping it just pushes it right on through.


Plus if your hose is short enough and attached properly it should offer some support to the pump instead of dragging it down.

 

Woodbrews, from the best I can tell in the pic, it looks like your pump outlet is @ "6o'clock" position, we'll call it.

If it was @ "12o'clock" it would work better, as any trapped air would tend to migrate upwards naturally.

The other pump pics posted with the inlet on the bottom, and outlet on the top are ideal for eliminating priming issues.

 

What he said

 

Here's a picture of my set up. Got it inline and its a ebiab recirculation system using a rtd probe. Control box not shown. But the pump is freaking sweet.

 

Hi, i reacently ordered my pump from us solar pumps. And i found this ac adapter laying around (it says the output is 12v and 3A) and i was wondering if its compatible for running my pump. It's the 12VTSS11.5L - 3.00 GPM / 11.5 LPM - 9.80 Feet / 3.0 Meter Head

12 Volts - 1.25 Amps - 15 Watts Solar.

Please let me know if i need to get a new adapter.

Cheers!

 

Did it work when you hooked it up?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law

[email protected] = 36W
More than what you need for the pump. Make sure you get the polarity right though.

 

Here is the one I've bought to put together a wort pump. Looks like the same pump except for the threads are not ss.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171421348963?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
Everything else looks to be the same on specs.

 

have you recieved it yet? i'm picking mine up tomorrow and powering it.. lets hope it works fine.. ill post an update. cheers

 

Hasn't been shipped out yet as far as I know. Son in Law does the extract brewing BIAB with the grains, hops, so the pump hopefully will not have any issues.

 

connected and tested my pump and it works great with the adaptor that i posted a week ago. here's a quick setup of hoy i had it connected. I was recirculating the water to see how much flow rate there was and it's what the description says. (3gpm) hooked up a switch and works great too to turn it on and off

 

Good to hear it works as advertised. Did you have any trouble with air causing the pump not to pick up fluid immediately? I was thinking of putting the connectors right on the pump, so the pump could be quickly connected right out of the ball valve coming out of the brew kettle. Maybe increase the flow rate some? Not sure if there will be a heat issue that way or not though.

 

I had one seize on me after a few uses. But I called them up and they set up an exchange immediately. The customer service is great!

 

well not really, i had it just below the water level, it just needs to be primed(with fluid inside the pump) to work perfectly. and regarding it beeing close to the burner y dont thinks its a problem because it can withstand 110ºC, i would recommend you putting a heat shield to trap some heat from the burner. cheers!

 

Ummm a gas burner exceeds temperatures of over 750f your pump is rated for 110c that's right around 200f you better not trust the plastic to stand up to a burner…