Cheap compact wort pump

[dirkomatic]

You can disassemble it and pull the impeller... the seller I bought mine from advertised it as such and all the tan ones have the fda coating.

Would it be possible to get a picture of the impeller with the coating? If it's somewhere in this thread already, that would work... I would just like to compare the impeller on my Topsflo...

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[augiedoggy]

Would it be possible to get a picture of the impeller with the coating? If it's somewhere in this thread already, that would work... I would just like to compare the impeller on my Topsflo...

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

I dont know of one but is yours metal or plastic looking?

 

[dirkomatic]

I've attached a photo of mine. Just opened it up after pbw plus rinse.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[augiedoggy]

I've attached a photo of mine. Just opened it up after pbw plus rinse.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

hmm your magnet is not coated.... If im not mistaken the food grade coating is over the magnet. The pics earlier in this thread were.. Not really sure how much it would effect the wort though.
You got me curious to check mine now.

 

[dirkomatic]

I couldn't find a picture of anyone with the black pump that looks any different than mine... Even the video on greatbreweh looks like mine... I'd be really curious to see the insides of a black pump with the food grade coating to see if it looks any differently than mine.

 

[sablesurfer]

I couldn't find a picture of anyone with the black pump that looks any different than mine... Even the video on greatbreweh looks like mine... I'd be really curious to see the insides of a black pump with the food grade coating to see if it looks any differently than mine.

Yeah, this vid appears to show same magnet as in your pic.
[ame]http://youtu.be/_3DtET12qU4[/ame]

From their website down by the specifications.

 

[Mojzis]

My black topsflo type one also has the bare magnet. My little tan wonder has a coating..

 

[sladek]

I am thinking about using this tan wonder to pump wort from my primary fermenter to the secondary. I am a T-8 paraplegic and lifting a fermenter from the ground to a table top is not only cumbersome, but difficult as well. My one concern/question is priming the pump while both fermenters are on the floor. Any one use it for that application?

 

[sablesurfer]

I am thinking about using this tan wonder to pump wort from my primary fermenter to the secondary. I am a T-8 paraplegic and lifting a fermenter from the ground to a table top is not only cumbersome, but difficult as well. My one concern/question is priming the pump while both fermenters are on the floor. Any one use it for that application?

Hmmm....that is interesting. Best bet would be, can you at least get them up on a small step stool? All you really need for physics to take over is to have the pump .... wait .... no....

....all you need is to have the pump below the level of the top of THE LIQUID in the carboy. So on the floor would work fine if you can get a siphon to start it. That would be the hard part I would think. If there were any way you could pressurize the primary with some CO2 and force the liquid, that could work too.

Sorry, spit balling here until it could be experimented with. But at most you would only need the carboys up on a small step stool or a brick and the pump down on the ground.

They will easily pump up high enough to get into second carboy.

Good luck, would be great if this could meet your need.

 

[sladek]

Hmmm....that is interesting. Best bet would be, can you at least get them up on a small step stool? All you really need for physics to take over is to have the pump .... wait .... no....

....all you need is to have the pump below the level of the top of THE LIQUID in the carboy. So on the floor would work fine if you can get a siphon to start it. That would be the hard part I would think. If there were any way you could pressurize the primary with some CO2 and force the liquid, that could work too.

Sorry, spit balling here until it could be experimented with. But at most you would only need the carboys up on a small step stool or a brick and the pump down on the ground.

They will easily pump up high enough to get into second carboy.

Good luck, would be great if this could meet your need.

Thanks! I can lift it up a step or two...I was thinking of using one of those orange caps for a carboy, put the pickup tube in the middle, down into the liquid, have the tubes hooked up through pump and into the secondary, and then, as you suggested, apply positive pressure through the second opening in the orange cap, while the pump is running, to get the flow started.

 

[sablesurfer]

(LOL...now we go way )

Oh...and another thought came up. I know they are more expensive, but you should get better bottles with spigots. I "think" they come with racking canes...that way you would let gravity prime the inflow hose.
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/5-g...184_a_7c6019&gclid=CMGgh7iq8bwCFRAV7AodLCUAZA


If you do want to use pressure, not sure the orange caps are air tight enough. You will either have to grip them onto the neck. A better way 'might' be those two hole drilled white rubber bungs? The ones drilled to allow a thermowell. Those will seal tighter to the neck.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/stopper-thermowell.html

 

[mendozer]

put tan pump as a bulkhead into the bucket (like a bottling bucket) then it's always primed and ready to go.

 

[Mojzis]

put tan pump as a bulkhead into the bucket (like a bottling bucket) then it's always primed and ready to go.

But will harbor tons of bacteria....

 

[augiedoggy]

But will harbor tons of bacteria....

If your dealing with chilled wort...and don't sanitize.

 

[Mojzis]

The way I saw it was the pump was a permanent fixture of the primary bucket, I may have read it wrong.

If you attach the pump as a bulkhead to the bucket then it couldn't be removed. Since it couldn't be removed and there is fermented beer on the other side it would be difficult to get sanitizer to the interior part of the pump..... at least that's how I see it. Also consider the thin space between the magnet and the wall which would likely resist cleaning.

Long story short you'd probably better off not permanently attaching the pump to primary bucket. Priming these pumps isn't difficult in the least. Keep the pump below the top of the liquid and it will prime.

And fermented beer can also easily get and infection, chilled wort is just a lot more susceptible.

 

[iijakii]

Sure it's not the safest in theory, but there are a tonne of people using fermenters with spigots. Not much of a difference.

 

[mendozer]

I was assuming a ball valve was fixed via bulkhead THEN the pump to the ball valve. Sorry, didn't mention details.

Attach pump, then go for it. All you have to sanitize is the outer half of the ball valve before you pump

 

[thefost]

Haven't had the best luck with these pumps.

Ordered 3, the base of 1 arrived broken, but they all worked.

On my first brew, I broke the IN threaded NPT fitting off after banging it a little. If feel I really didn't hit it hard at all, but it broke nonetheless. The threaded connectors are pretty thin so be careful with them.

So now I'm down to two pumps. On my fourth brew, the one I was using for rims recirculation decided to die on me. I opened it and cleaned it and nothing looks stuck in there, but it just wont work.

On the plus side I can combine my two broken pumps to make one working pump, but I'm kinda hesitant to use these as I'm not sure if I can trust them for anything other than hlt water.

 

[mendozer]

that's why I opted for the Topslfo. Yeah it's more, but the tan chinese one seemed way too small for a brewing operation IMO

 

[Mojzis]

I was assuming a ball valve was fixed via bulkhead THEN the pump to the ball valve. Sorry, didn't mention details.

Attach pump, then go for it. All you have to sanitize is the outer half of the ball valve before you pump

Ahhhh that makes much more sense

 

[augiedoggy]

that's why I opted for the Topslfo. Yeah it's more, but the tan chinese one seemed way too small for a brewing operation IMO

I use both and notice no difference in performance between the two..I thought I would based on size. only used the for 7 brews so far but I recirculate with a herms during the whole mash and no issues... bought an extra in case one does fail but it might be a while.. I don't use ball valves to restrict flow which I believe causes them to overheat and fail. I use $5 pwm speed controllers.

 

[mjc999]

... I use $5 pwm speed controllers.

Would you happen to have a link for the controller you are using?

thanks,
Mark

 

[augiedoggy]

Would you happen to have a link for the controller you are using?

thanks,
Mark

Ive got one of these for my magnetic stir bar
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Durable-Pul...828?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3d5541a4

and two of these for my pumps,http://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-DC-12V-...699?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c768bba43

these should work also..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-36V-PWM...919?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ecf1c3cdf

 

[mendozer]

to a non-electrically inclined, those all look like PWMs to me and interchangeable. I'm sure they're different, hence your need for three of them. I ordered one off amazon, but IDK how it compares to these

 

[mjc999]

Thank you!

 

[SilverZero]

to a non-electrically inclined, those all look like PWMs to me and interchangeable. I'm sure they're different, hence your need for three of them. I ordered one off amazon, but IDK how it compares to these

The first two links are 21kHz and 25kHz frequencies, respectively. The third one doesn't have frequency listed, but I'm sure somebody can just look at it and know. Too bad, I was hoping to find one with a much lower frequency for my kettle element, though I guess these would still work fine (and they're cheap).

 

[KPSquared]

I don't know why but I'm pretty sure PWM and brushless motors is a recipe for eventual failure. I ordered a speed control for brushless. I'm curious to see how it works.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Home Brew mobile app

 

[mendozer]

my PWM hasn't arrive yet. Must be coming on a Chinese sailing ship or something.

Anyone care to share a wiring picture for setting these up? I was going to mount my pump onto a toolbox and have the wiring inside with the PWM knob on top the box.


Is it really simple like wire to PWM then PWM to pump?

 

[augiedoggy]

to a non-electrically inclined, those all look like PWMs to me and interchangeable. I'm sure they're different, hence your need for three of them. I ordered one off amazon, but IDK how it compares to these

no they all do the same thing... I only use the first one linked in my stir plate build because it had the round powerjack built onto the edge of the board so I could use a cheap 12v wall wort power adapter and unplug it easily... the second one I linked I used for the control panel build to control pump speed... theres power in and power out... not much to goof up. red is + (positive) and usually the wire marked with white on a wall wort power cord and black is - or negative...

 

[augiedoggy]

I don't know why but I'm pretty sure PWM and brushless motors is a recipe for eventual failure. I ordered a speed control for brushless. I'm curious to see how it works.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Home Brew mobile app

I dont know... mine have at least 10 hours of runtime each and still going fine...