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Do March pumps require the same maintenance? I was looking at maybe going with the chugger max for my 1 bbl system.

Amazon Fire tablets are down to like $50 no idea if they are an upgrade over the one that comes with brew boss.
 
ccfoo242 said:
I've never done that. Where did you read this?
Click to expand...

Read on the march pump website...chugger doesnt really have anything about it on theres....this has just been my experience with it...I brew at leasr once a week sometimes more...after about 5-6 brews the pump.will start to struggle losing prime or not even turn...lube and oil seem to be the fix everytime
 
^ yeah. definitely get a small thing of motor oil. I forget the number thats on mine, but it was liek $5 w/shipping and its a necessity IMO for those pumps. I wouldnt really call it "maintenance" though. 1-2 drops whenever it sounds a bit noisy is nothing
 
Interesting, do you guys have the poly or SS pump heads? I had a SS center inlet Chugger prior to getting my BB system so I've never used the poly head pump that came with it.

Aside from the recommended yearly 4-5 drops of 20W in the oiler port on the motor I've never had to do any additional lubrication in 50+ batches.
 
MerlinWerks said:
Interesting, do you guys have the poly or SS pump heads? I had a SS center inlet Chugger prior to getting my BB system so I've never used the poly head pump that came with it.

Aside from the recommended yearly 4-5 drops of 20W in the oiler port on the motor I've never had to do any additional lubrication in 50+ batches.
Click to expand...

Merlin,

Can you take a picture of where this oiler port is and show us. I've never oiled mine at all. I have a March pump.:mug:
 
I just read that the March pumps actually have two ports.

On the Chugger it is simply a small hole on the end opposite of the pump head and it has a small internal channel that directs the oil down to the very end of the motor shaft. There is a small bump or protrusion in the middle of the end plate where the shaft rests, the hole is directly above that in the pump body, not in the end plate itself.

In general the recommendation assumes continuous duty, in homebrewing use we don't typically use them that hard so we probably have a bit of leeway here...

HERE is a picture of the pump. You can see the port just to the left of the "N" in "Nor-Cal"

You can get a lifetime supply of the oil HERE :D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just thought of a question...I'm a recent BB owner and just realized that it doesn't appear that the brew boss heater is grounded to the pot like I've seen on other threads where people are building their own electric pot. It seemed like there was always a wire from the heating element to an attachment on the pot. Why is this not done with the BB? Or, do I have this all messed up and don't understand electricity?

thanks:mug:
 
Anything metal on the element assembly, both the element and housing are at ground potential. The pot would be grounded mainly by the TC clamp as well as any liquid in contact with both the pot and the element.
 
Another question; I was looking at the solder joints of the COFI copper tube and saw a bunch of what I assume is flux, it's a greasy white-ish substance. I also saw what appears to be a bunch of copper flakes on the inside of the tube. How can I get this all cleaned up, especially that flux gunk? I also noticed after unboxing the system I had a sort of black "film" on my hands. I assume this came from all the various metals I was handling. Anyway, I want to get this stuff all cleaned up so its not in my beer!! Suggestions? Thanks.
 
I'd definitely give it a good PBW soak/rinse. That should take care of any residual gunk.
 
+1

Get some Bar Keeper's Friend scrub the kettle, basket and anything else you think would need it, setup and do your wet run test with 5 -6 gallons of water, then add ~80g of PBW, heat to about 150F and recirculate the entire system for 20 minutes or so. Drain and rinse, refill with about 7 gallons of clean water, heat, recirculate and drain.

When I set my first BIAB system up with a pump and all, I did scrub the new kettle, but totally fanned on the pump. As the strike water for my first batch on the new system was heating up I noticed this oil slick on top of the water :eek:

Needless to say the brew day was delayed an hour or so...
 
Schumed said:
needs to be charged....its a cheap android tablet...the battery will just barley make it through a full brew session....just plan on it being plugged in at all times or invest in a nicer tablet
Click to expand...

What kind of tablet comes with the BB?

What's a good cheap tablet? As this is all it will be used for.
 
stlblues5010 said:
What kind of tablet comes with the BB?

What's a good cheap tablet? As this is all it will be used for.
Click to expand...

I don't know what comes with the Brew Boss, however I like this one DigiLand - 7" Tablet - 8GB - Black. Currently it is $49.99 I was able to get it on sale from Best Buy back after Christmas for $39.99. The speaker on it isn't that great, but I am only using it to run Brew Boss so I didn't need anything with bells and whistles.
 
stlblues5010 said:
What kind of tablet comes with the BB?

What's a good cheap tablet? As this is all it will be used for.
Click to expand...

Its a cheap korean brand name Yuntab that comes with it. Theres a reason why its so cheap. The touchscreen on that thing is a joke. Worse than 1st gen touch cell phones. It was a major pain to program and type my brewing profiles, but that was a one time thing. I only use it for Brew Boss so I dont mind too much.
 
Beavdowg said:
Another question; I was looking at the solder joints of the COFI copper tube and saw a bunch of what I assume is flux, it's a greasy white-ish substance. I also saw what appears to be a bunch of copper flakes on the inside of the tube. How can I get this all cleaned up, especially that flux gunk? I also noticed after unboxing the system I had a sort of black "film" on my hands. I assume this came from all the various metals I was handling. Anyway, I want to get this stuff all cleaned up so its not in my beer!! Suggestions? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I recently received my BB system and noticed the same. On the "white-ish" substance, if that is by the threaded ends it's most likely flux. I had a problem that my threaded ends weren't properly soldered. I ended up re-soldering them myself (NOTE: I contacted Darin and he offered to solve the problem, but I was able to repair it myself with no issue). I would suggest that you test the ends for a good joint before attempting to brew.
On the copper flakes the easiest way to solve that is to run a wet-run like they recommend. I did and all those pesky flakes flushed right out during the wet (H2O only) mash cycle.
Good luck.

Jeff
 
u81doughboy said:
I recently received my BB system and noticed the same. On the "white-ish" substance, if that is by the threaded ends it's most likely flux. I had a problem that my threaded ends weren't properly soldered. I ended up re-soldering them myself (NOTE: I contacted Darin and he offered to solve the problem, but I was able to repair it myself with no issue). I would suggest that you test the ends for a good joint before attempting to brew.
On the copper flakes the easiest way to solve that is to run a wet-run like they recommend. I did and all those pesky flakes flushed right out during the wet (H2O only) mash cycle.
Good luck.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Same issue, one end of my COFI infusion tube was not soldered. Luckily I found out when testing my hoist setup prior to my wet run test. It was on there tight enough that it held until I pulled down on the basket to simulate squeezing the grains.

Not hard to fix, but could have caused some serious damage if it had come loose during a brew session.

I didn't contact Darin about it because I could take care of it, but now I may let him know just in case there is an issue with his supply/production line.
-

Also, does anyone know if the sight glass is supposed to come with numbers to apply?
 
The sight Glass didn't come with numbers. I just used small black rubber washers to mark off the gallons. On the 15 gallon kettle it would start with 3 gallons
 
This is Darin from Brew-Boss.

The center COFI infusion tubes are produced at another facility and on our last production run apparently they did not use enough heat or flux to properly solder the ends on. If you received a system recently (ordered between Black Friday and January 10th), please stress test the threaded ends on the tube to make certain the solder joints are sound. If you are familiar with soldering, please fix them before using them. make certain to completely clean the tube and fitting with a wire brush or fine sandpaper and use plenty of flux. Use a lead free solder.

If you are uncomfortable with soldering them yourselves, please return it to us and we'll fix it for you.

Thanks,

Darin
 
I would think if you could fix it yourself that would be better than shipping it back and being down for however long it would take to get back. Couldn't take more than 5 to 10 minutes to fix.
 
Hoppslover said:
I would think if you could fix it yourself that would be better than shipping it back and being down for however long it would take to get back. Couldn't take more than 5 to 10 minutes to fix.
Click to expand...

Yes exactly. The offer to allow owners/brewers to fix themselves is to save the time that would be lost in shipping. We are in a DIY industry and we acknowledge that fact.
 
I think your response is unwarranted akthor and can only believe you must be just having a bad day or something. Read the post - it says you can fix it yourself OR you can return it and they will fix it. I actually think this is a gracious offering because he could have said that if you do it yourself it would void any warranty. In addition you would be without your system for a week or two.

Nobody makes perfect product - its the response to remedy it that counts.

So stop being a horses ass before you have no friends!
 
Come on guys. We buy stuff all the time that has problems. Regardless of how big we think HBT is, it (and homebrewing) is an incredibly small corner of the enthusiast world. We're lucky we can buy any stuff at all for this hobby. I'd say that if you bought something and the vendor offers to fix it at his cost, that's a win. Please try to be positive and optimistic and generally not-a-dick.
 
BLuck said:
I use http://www.andyroid.net/, just download and install. Then start it and login to googleplay to download brew-boss app. Once that is up and running, swap your wifi to brew-boss and then just use as you would with tablet, but with mouse clicks and keyboard.
Click to expand...

I tried Andy. It took forever to download. It runs slow. I can't get the scroll to work(is there a trick to it?). Part way through the water run it kicked off. The BB seems to work fine just couldn't get the app to run smooth in Andy.
Hopefully I'll have a new tablet by next week. I would highly recommend getting the square trade warranty for the tablet if it's available. Most likely something will happen to it in the next 2 yrs. Probably get an updated replacement.
 
I completed my wet run on Saturday and noticed that it took a bit to get my pump primed. I had it at the same level as the kettle and even lowered it in an attempt to prime the pump. It eventually worked but took longer than I thought. I'm thinking that the pump really needs to be mounted below the kettle for easiest operation, at least priming. I also noticed that once the pump was pumping water nicely if I opened up the pump valve all the way for maximum flow it would suck the water in the site glass all the way down which caused air to get sucked in from the top of the site glass. This caused the flow of the pumped water to kind of oscillate between full speed and something short of full speed. I found that as long as I didn't let the water level in the site glass get all the way to the bottom it would pump just fine, but as soon as that water level in the site glass got all the way to the bottom by opening up the valve all the way it would begin to suck the air in through the top. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if this is just the problem with the site glass being in-line with the kettle valve? Anyone install their site glass separate from the kettle valve, and if so, where did you install it? Did you use the same site glass that comes with the system?

Other than that I had no leaks right off the back and everything else seemed to work great. It sure was fun having that much control over temperature and playing around with the Brew Boss software! Oh yeah, how do you exit out of a loaded program in BB? After using the Wet Run program I couldn't figure out how to get out of that into just the manual mode. The brewing timer just kept running and running.
 
On my old Brutus 10 system my pumps were mounted below but they were still finicky sometimes trying to prime. When I buy a pump for my new system I'm going to try going with the center inlet kind.
 
stlblues5010 said:
I tried Andy. It took forever to download. It runs slow. I can't get the scroll to work(is there a trick to it?). Part way through the water run it kicked off. The BB seems to work fine just couldn't get the app to run smooth in Andy.
Hopefully I'll have a new tablet by next week. I would highly recommend getting the square trade warranty for the tablet if it's available. Most likely something will happen to it in the next 2 yrs. Probably get an updated replacement.
Click to expand...

Sorry you had problems, it is a large file and takes awhile to download and install. As far as performance issues, I use Andy all the time for various applications and have very few problems. I do have above average performance laptops and did set them up so wont go into hibernate or something during use so maybe that could be an issue.
I don't have my home laptop in front of me but I am pretty sure scrolling was just click and drag up or down, or maybe even scroll wheel on mouse.

Good luck getting your system running, I was a little disappointed early on when trying to us iOS, but love the system overall now.
 
Beavdowg said:
... I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if this is just the problem with the site glass being in-line with the kettle valve? Anyone install their site glass separate from the kettle valve, and if so, where did you install it? Did you use the same site glass that comes with the system?

Other than that I had no leaks right off the back and everything else seemed to work great. It sure was fun having that much control over temperature and playing around with the Brew Boss software! Oh yeah, how do you exit out of a loaded program in BB? After using the Wet Run program I couldn't figure out how to get out of that into just the manual mode. The brewing timer just kept running and running.
Click to expand...

With the sight glass installed inline with the valve you will have that fluctuation when using the pump. I am just doing my first real brew on the system now, but after a couple of wet runs (heheh) I decided that I really didn't like the way it works in this config so I removed it for the time being. I may install it using a weldless bulkhead, or switch to the brewhardware.com weldless flex sight glass (pretty sweet), or may even decide that I just don't need it. As far as I can tell so far, it's really only useful for measuring strike water. After that you really don't need it.

The documentation for the sight glass on brew-boss.com does address the issue of inaccurate readings & pump cavitation when the pump is going.
-

As for exiting out of a brew session, you don't really. You either end/stop the session or just exit out of the program. Manual mode isn't what you'd think, Darin put up a good video (along with several other good tip vids) on youtube recently. - [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-xziw2-RTk[/ame]
 
Brewphish said:
With the sight glass installed inline with the valve you will have that fluctuation when using the pump. I am just doing my first real brew on the system now, but after a couple of wet runs (heheh) I decided that I really didn't like the way it works in this config so I removed it for the time being. I may install it using a weldless bulkhead, or switch to the brewhardware.com weldless flex sight glass (pretty sweet), or may even decide that I just don't need it. As far as I can tell so far, it's really only useful for measuring strike water. After that you really don't need it.

The documentation for the sight glass on brew-boss.com does address the issue of inaccurate readings & pump cavitation when the pump is going.
-

As for exiting out of a brew session, you don't really. You either end/stop the session or just exit out of the program. Manual mode isn't what you'd think, Darin put up a good video (along with several other good tip vids) on youtube recently. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-xziw2-RTk
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting those tips/tricks videos. I've never had a site glass and was always unsure of my volumes so I thought I'd have it on my BB. Like I said, as long as I don't open the pump valve full speed it is fine and doesn't oscillate. Now I just need to figure out an accurate and cheap way of determining a gallon and half gallon so I can put volume marks on my site glass. Any suggestions? I could use a gallon jug of milk or something but I don't know exactly where the gallon mark is on the mild jug. What have others done?

:mug:
 
Beavdowg said:
Thanks for posting those tips/tricks videos. I've never had a site glass and was always unsure of my volumes so I thought I'd have it on my BB. Like I said, as long as I don't open the pump valve full speed it is fine and doesn't oscillate. Now I just need to figure out an accurate and cheap way of determining a gallon and half gallon so I can put volume marks on my site glass. Any suggestions? I could use a gallon jug of milk or something but I don't know exactly where the gallon mark is on the mild jug. What have others done?

:mug:
Click to expand...

Weigh it! 8.34# per gallon
 

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