Chugger problems

Well I just limped through my brew day. My chugger pump keeps locking up. I really like the pump, but it can be a PITA when transfering water/wort. seems like 170 dg or higher, the magnets let go, and you hear the impeller spinning, but not pushing any water. then if you shut it down, it locks up for about 5 minutes, then it will restart. I have tried all kinds of things, different valve settings etc, no good, I have to shut it down and wait.

any ideas how to deal with this ?? anyone have a similar problem ? My fittings are all mounted in the correct direction.

 

Call Mike at Chugger Pumps he should have a better answer then anyone, he does all the testing and quality control from manufacturing to sales.

http://www.chuggerpumps.com/contactus.php

 

Thanks. Yes. i did call last week, and spoke to Brian. He was very suppportive, and said they knew about the problem and were working on a new design that hopefully would cure the problem. I guess its somewhat normal for the magnets to disingage due to the heat.

I am kinda looking for feedback from others, on what they are doing. pumping a gallon of water, and waiting 5 minutes for the pump to unlock to pump another gallon, makes for a long brew day

 

My chuggers do the same thing.....hot water/wort causes them to freeze up. I actually took mine apart when hot and the problem is with the impeller...when it's hot it gets difficult to turn. With the head/impeller unit off the motor/magnet worked fine. Once the impeller cooled it spun freely. I thought these were godd to 200deg.

 

Take a 17/64 drill bit and widen the hole on the impeller. This is what Walter suggest on March. Luckily my one chugger works for boiling, my HLT one does not, but I never go over 180 on the HLT.

 

I did this to my chugger and it helped the 170° problem

 

Got a pic of exactly where to drill? I'm at work and cant picture in my mind where the hole is to make larger.

 

The center of the impeller, where it slides on the staff. You are just making the hole a little larger.

 

That makes sense. Thanks, i will try that.

 

How did this work out for you guys? I've pumped 50-60 gallons through my pumps (HLT water at 170 and recirculating boiling wort) and had not had problems until this last batch. While moving the strike water to the MLT, the pump made a god-awful sound and stopped. It sounded like it had sand in the bearing or the bearing was shot. I sent Mike an E-mail and he got back to me instantly - asking me to take and send pics of the head.
Also, when I took the head apart (two days later), the o-ring stretched out pretty bad and I'll need a new one to put it back together.

The pump on the left was the problematic one.

 

I talked to Mike monday, and he is sending me one of the newly designed pumps. They know they have a problem and are working on a permenant fix. Great customer service from these guys, very responsive.

 

This occurs on my hlt pump, wonder if I should send mike a note.

 

Do they have the newly designed pumps out yet? I know the last time I checked everything was "sold out." Have been waiting to get ahold of one of their stainless steel pumps.

 

I know its not our pump but i figure i'm here to help you guys so.....One of my beer distributors called me the other day and told me he got 2 chuggers in for service from a customer. Looks to be the issue with them is with the design/material of the impellers. From the looks of it (from their perspective) the impeller is expanding under heat and seizing on the shaft. If thats the case then just drill the impeller out with that 17/64" drill bit and you should be fine. For those of you with better drill bit assorments use a "G" bit. If the impellers are still de-coupling on you @ 170*F then they have some weak magnets and theres not much you can do about it but send it back to them and hope they get you some better/stronger ones. Most magnets shouldnt have problems till 250*.....above that you will actually degrade the power of the magnets by about 10% each time you overheat it.

-Walter

 

ok. So I received my new pump friday, hooked it up yesterday, and put it through a trial run today. Mike replaced my pump with the new design, it's black, with the new head, and looks cleaner than the old green one. So heres my analysis.

I put the pump through it paces by simulating a typical brew day. I heated 8 gallons of water to 200 dg, and started recirculating back to the pot with the flame still on. with the gate valve open full, it seems like it pumps faster, with more pressure than the old one.

At 5 minutes the impeller decoupled and stopped pushing water. I switched it off for 10 seconds, rrestarted, and it recoupled pushing water at the same speed. 2 minutes later it decoupled. again I restarted after 10 seconds. It continued to do this, but it always recoupled after shutting it down for a few seconds. I turned off the flame and continued to recirculate down to 180 dg at full throttle. it decoupled one last time above 200 dg, and ran for 20 minutes with no issues. when it hit 180, I turned it down to 1/4 throttle to simulate spargeing. no decoupling.

Over all this pump is better. at least it restarts right away ater decoupling. The old green one would lock up for 5-10 minutes before restarting.

Thanks again to mike for the great customer service

 

Madness!! Your story is identical to mine. Sent my green one in got black one back. Still does the same thing but i found if i open my valve half way instead of full open it works like a champ

Sent from my DROIDX using Home Brew Talk

 

Was your problem solved?

MIKE

 

Mike,
I still have the issue only on my HLT pump. I will try to drill the impellor if that is the correct fix. Just hate to make it louder. I brew with electric and like the serenity of it

 

Hopefully. I will see this weekend when I brew.

Thanks for the great service

 

Did you guys end up drilling the impeller and did it help? I am having the same problem as described.

 

any other updates on this problem? I seem to be experiencing very similar problems.

 

Having trouble with a new chugger. Won't start up. Took off stainless impeller housing and motor still won't spin when turned on. when turn manually--there is "rough spot" causing friction and preventing spinning. The fan blade is not scraping on the housing. seems to be something internal.

Anyone have a solution or similar problem?

EDIT: Got a private message from Chugger almost instantly. They will have a new pump on the way. Can't ask for more than that. Will get a workout today though--already mashed in--going to have to raise some heavy kettles and get gravity on my side.

 

I'm having the same issue: the magnetic connection between the motor and the pump head breaks loose at high temps. I have mine on a switch. So when it breaks loose, I kill the power, let the motor stop spinning, then turn the power back on until it breaks loose again, then repeat.

Mike at Chugger has been responsive, but the issue is not yet resolved.
I sent my pump back to them last month, and I think they replaced the impeller assembly in an attempt to fix it. But that didn't work.
I sent it back to them again a few days ago. So we'll have to wait and see if they get it fixed this time.

 

Hmmm. Just bought a 'redesigned' pump this week. Hope I don't have these issues.....

 

Mike sent me new impellers for my green chuggers. They worked great. I ran boiling wort through my cfc for 5 minutes. Big thanks to Mike and his great customer service.

 

my pumps scream like a bitch at high temps, flow rate seems fine though. I don't understand.

 

from the tests that i have done, i have 1/2" dip tubes, tubes,and connections so im 1/2" all the way through. I have found using cold water with the valve full open usually doesnt cause the dead heading problem like jpietraski describes. I had the EXACT problem as he did. What i found was to much flow. I slowly crack open my valve, turn the pump on and leave my valve about half open. It took me a couple tests to find the sweet spot, but with hot water, valve full open, it would dead head each time.

So for some of you try restricting the flow a little and see if that helps. It did for me and i have had no problems since.

 

I just spoke with Mike at Chugger. It seems that they've had some of the magnetics on the impellers loose their magnetism over 180F. He's sending me a new pump with new magnet. I'll give it a try once I get it.

 

Spoke with Mike on Tuesday. Received a new pump today. Will give a try tomorrow on a Winter Brew. Pumped! hehehe

 

I had the same issue on my brand new Chugger that I got a few weeks ago. I was planning to brew tomorrow, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do if it starts locking up. My last brew day was a $^#[email protected] disaster because of this. No way to chill my wort until it got down to about 140-150F on its own, at which point the pump would function without locking up.

 

Have you spoken to them? They are exchanging my pump as well.

 

I have tried calling but only ever gotten a machine, which I left a voicemail on but never heard back.


I just went on the website and filled out the little "got a problem" form.

 

That's what I did and received an email back the next day. Never tried calling...

 

I have 2 of the Chugger pumps that were purchased in September. Both pumps work great below 200 degrees. Once they get to near boiling temperature,Their performance diminishes greatly (flow reduces to a trickle if at all), or the magnets disconnect. If I stop the pump and wait for a minute or two, there will be a spurt of water and then the pumps repeat with the trickle or magnet disconnect. I did several tests without any filters or plate chiller inline using plain water and results were the same. I sent this information in an email to Chugger. The next day I received an email from Brian requesting I ship the pumps to him to have a look. The day after they were shipped I received a follow up from Brian stating the pumps were being replaced. I received the pumps back today. It looks like both pump heads were replaced on the existing motors. I'll post how they perform tomorrow...

 

This is good info. I have the original style green chugger and so far it has been great, but I never use it above 175deg. I have thought about using it to whirlpool but at this point have not and I guess I won't.

T

 

Regarding my previous posts, I got an email back from Mike at Chugger last night to send in my pump heads for free replacements.

 

damn, I was about to pull the trigger on 2 chuggers. Looks like I'm gonna go March. Anyone experience the same issues with March pumps?

 

Yea im thinking the same thing now... I was about to order one of the new ss chuggers, but really don't want to deal with these problems to save a few bucks off the march and get a ss head that doesn't move hot wort.

 

brewed a batch today with the replacement (stainless) pump from Chugger I got yesterday...

Works great at all temperatures (except perhaps rolling boil--but march can't do that either). A touch more flow than my march....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZLEaLqlpY&feature=youtu.be

 

Hmmm, I just ordered 2 chuggers a few days ago. You guys have me worried now. Guess I'll delete my classified ad for the march I've been using, at least until I can test the chuggers for a while. I might need it after all.

And Drew, I use my march to circulate through the cfc for the last 15 minutes at a full boil. I'm getting more worried if the 2 chuggers I bought are going to work for my setup now.