Thoughts on plans for recirculating system

Before I spend the cash I want to get your opinions on a Brutus 20-like recirculating system. As of now I have a 52qt rectangular cooler mash tun with copper manifold and a 15 gallon 5500W electric kettle with an Auber PID and RTD. I was thinking of buying a chugger pump and doing a full volume recirc from bottom of boil kettle to top of mash tun and gravity the other way. I would use something along the lines of the autosparge arm to match flow rates. My current heating element would act as a rims type setup. I was thinking this setup would be like BIAB, without the lifting and squeezing, and perhaps have better clarity (not that it makes a huge difference in the final product).

Pros:
stepped mash
improved wort clarity
ability to whirlpool for better break separation and cooling (I use an IC)
No more lifting of hot wort in buckets

Cons:
More complex than needed/must listen to pump noise (I brew in my kitchen)
lower efficiency (not too much of a factor at the gravities I typically brew ~1.055)
possibility of overflowing mashtun/uncovering element

So what do you guys thinks?

 

I have this exact system, except I regulate the flow rate with a valve at the output of the single pump. Have put about a dozen batches through it so far and have no complaints at all.

 

Search for countertop Brutus 20 for ideas. I did that for a year. Having the cfc inline was nice. By recircing at the end, sanitation was a breeze.


Next, I turned the same system into a herms, because I get bored unless I'm tinkering mostly. I have an ekettle and a cooler, and the kettle has an ic built in. I use the ic as a herms coil during mashing, and I circulate ice water from the mash tun to cool after boil. Works really well. For sparging I originally did the recirc of the Brutus style, but got frustrated at the efficiency... I like BIG beers. Now, I batch sparge, using buckets to hold the wort while the brew kettle heats the sparge water. I like this a lot. Great, repeatable efficiency, closed system that is sanitized by recircing after the boil, and only 2 vessels. I don't count buckets as vessels. 2 pumps are loud though... I also brew in the kitchen.

 

Oh... And with the countertop Brutus 20, there were very few hose changes mid brew, so it was clean and easy to use