2 Pump or not to Pump?

[roggae]

so i am moving soon and i am thinking about my next incarnation of the brewery. i am an AG brewer with two converted kegs and a converted cooler mash tun. right now i am using gravity and a 3 tiered system to get from HLT to carboy. it is a pita. i am thinking since i am moving i might want to go to using a pump, but i am not sure if that would do me well or if i'd need more than one or which kind i'd need. i've seen alot of talk abou them on the interwebs and i know alot of the online brewshops sell them but i dont know much. can you help? lol!

 

[Lil' Sparky]

You'll need a high-temp pump. The standard for homebrewing is the march magnetic pump.

If you're going away from a 3-tier design, you need to decide if you want a single- or 2-tier setup. With a 2-tier, you can get away with a single pump as you'll use gravity from the MLT to kettle. With a single-tier, you can still use a single pump if you want to batch sparge, but you'll need 2 if you want to fly sparge.

 

[david_42]

I'll second the March pump. It's easy to clean, self-priming and since the coupling is magnetic, you can throttle the output using a valve without damaging the pump.

 

[roggae]

I'll second the March pump. It's easy to clean, self-priming and since the coupling is magnetic, you can throttle the output using a valve without damaging the pump.

i have 'heard' that the 809 is *not* self priming...

 

[drost]

i have 'heard' that the 809 is *not* self priming...

It's true that the 809 is not self priming...I haven't seen a self priming pump out there that does boiling temps, though. I have seen people use self priming pumps on the out side of a chiller to 'pull' wort out of a boil kettle, though.