Cheap compact wort pump

[jbnla]

If anyone else is interested I just bought one of these
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/3-small-dc-pumps-us-solar-pumps-400515/

 

[KramE]

Great to hear! Do you think a switch could be spliced into it?

I think that would depend on your dexterity. The wires from the charger are pretty thin. That's why I had to buy the adapter instead of hooking the 2 up together directly.

 

[WestCoastBrewmonkey]

Waiting on my pump to arrive. Anyone controlling the flow with a ball valve or rheostat?

 

[wheineman]

Waiting on my pump to arrive. Anyone controlling the flow with a ball valve or rheostat?

The concensis seems to be that using a valve after the pump is the best route. I have not seen anyone who was able to get a rheostat to work properly.

 

[WestCoastBrewmonkey]

The concensis seems to be that using a valve after the pump is the best route. I have not seen anyone who was able to get a rheostat to work properly.

My only concern was putting too much pressure on the little guy. Lol

 

[ulsh72]

I received my tan ebay pump yesterday. Small is an understatement. I just can't get over how tiny this thing is. I was also surprised by the material its made out of. I was expecting a regular plastic that is cheap and semi-soft feeling, like most of the goods coming from china, but the material this pump is made out of is very hard, and almost feels ceramic. It feels tough as nails, but maybe a bit brittle (again, the best I can describe is it feels like ceramic). I had doubts about connecting this in line on my ball valve on the kettle, but now I feel a little better about it.

 

[whitehause]

I received my tan ebay pump yesterday. Small is an understatement. I just can't get over how tiny this thing is. I was also surprised by the material its made out of. I was expecting a regular plastic that is cheap and semi-soft feeling, like most of the goods coming from china, but the material this pump is made out of is very hard, and almost feels ceramic. It feels tough as nails, but maybe a bit brittle (again, the best I can describe is it feels like ceramic). I had doubts about connecting this in line on my ball valve on the kettle, but now I feel a little better about it.

Hey Ulsh....How long did it take to recieve it?
I'm probably ordering one in the next couple days, and we are pretty close to each other, so the shipping time should be about the same.

 

[SavoryChef]

I received mine yesterday as well, and it took a 1.5 weeks I believe.

 

[movet22]

I ordered mine way back on March 5 and just got them today... must have gotten hung up in customs. I am just happy to have them!

 

[Rys06Tbss]

Has anybody used this for recirculating wort yet? Or are you just using them for fluid transfer?

 

[greyghost]

I have both the tan and cheaper black pump. Both work well the black one seems to put out a little more volume. I use the tan one to pump hot wort through my plate chiller and whirlpool. The black to pump the cooling water through the chiller. I recycle my water have 2 55 gal. barrels pump from one to the other.I do have ball valves on both outlets but have notneeded them. If I had to do it over I would get 2 black pumps. They are cheaper and put out more volume. Now we just have to wait and see how long they last.

 

[paulfg]

just my 2 euros worth
I have a tan coloured pump bought from solarpumps.co.uk very good customer service as said by alien
it is the sp20/20 model.
they are used a lot by uk and aussie brewers the only downside i have found is the output thread part is a little prone to breaking if you are heavy handed with the fitting of camlock onto the thread.
Peter the seller has also warned if the pump is not cleaned well the next time you go to use it it may not pump.just soak it in hot water to release the impeller if it is stuck with dried wort.

 

[wheineman]

I got my Tan pump in 2 weeks. The previous linked power adapter works well. I plan to whirlpool with it.

I will post a video of how well it does as soon as I am done assembling.

 

[Rys06Tbss]

Eh. I just ordered a black one. Well see how it goes

 

[alien]

Just bought a tan P-38I pump direct from BuyInCoins.com, $19 with 5% coupon (just google around) - slightly cheaper than ebay.

 

[ulsh72]

Hey Ulsh....How long did it take to recieve it?
I'm probably ordering one in the next couple days, and we are pretty close to each other, so the shipping time should be about the same.

Ordered 3/22, received 4/1. Not too bad from abroad. It was only wrapped in bubble wrap and in a big envelope, but seemed to arrive intact. Unfortunately I don't have a setup to use to test, so I still don't know how well or if it works. Got my fingers crossed all goes well.

 

[Yellowirenut]

Got mine today

Will test them out this weekend AFTER I clean out the garage.

 

[ianw58]

I ordered mine last Sunday. I had a shipped notice Sunday night.

Still not here, though!

 

[Yellowirenut]

mine took two weeks

 

[rockinmarty]

Just bought a tan P-38I pump direct from BuyInCoins.com, $19 with 5% coupon (just google around) - slightly cheaper than ebay.

ordered the same but missed the 5%. late by a couple of days. can't wait to get it.

 

[Yellowirenut]

Mini pump test.

This is just a mock up..more permanent wiring will be installed.

My power supply is this
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A896GG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
something i already had for charging RC airplane batteries.

seems like a good steady flow. The force seemed perfect for what i need it for. Will be able to handle a manifold for spaging if i chose to do so.The fittings on the pump did drip (everything is just hand tight for now) will just have to use thread tape on them wile in use.

 

[johns]

6 amps seems a bit much I think. Are you not worried that you might burn out the motor before its time? just checking to see what and if there is a limit to these small pumps?

 

[Yellowirenut]

The 6 amps is what the DC converter can handle. It does not deliver amps to the pump. Just voltage

 

[MidTNJasonF]

Has anyone actually set one of these up to pump from a tun through a HERMS coil and back to the tun yet? It looks like several have pumped a several feet vertically and just dumped into a vessel but I am curious if it could pump through 50' of 1/2" coil and back to the top of a mashtun.

 

[tre9er]

Mini pump test.

This is just a mock up..more permanent wiring will be installed.

My power supply is this
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A896GG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
something i already had for charging RC airplane batteries.

seems like a good steady flow. The force seemed perfect for what i need it for. Will be able to handle a manifold for spaging if i chose to do so.The fittings on the pump did drip (everything is just hand tight for now) will just have to use thread tape on them wile in use.

You're using a propane burner inside on carpet? I'm guessing no, that was just a test setup without any actual flame, right?

 

[Yellowirenut]

You're using a propane burner inside on carpet? I'm guessing no, that was just a test setup without any actual flame, right?

LOL as i was setting it up I had thought "hmm I wonder if anyone would think I am actually firing the burner"
don't even have the propane tank inside. Just wanted to mock up the set up for the pump and it was raining outside.

 

[SilverZero]

So can we get an estimate on GPM vs. head on this pump?

 

[wheineman]

So can we get an estimate on GPM vs. head on this pump?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjmW-1xToFATdHFxU1RiXzdZYjNfMFhrOXZObWtHcUE&usp=sharing

 

[Spellman]

I have to say that I am totally impressed with these pumps for the price. I have used it in one 5g batch to transfer hot water back to my hlt, recirculate my mash, then I gravity fly sparged into mash tun and pumped back to my boil kettle. I have two now with a third on the way. I am running it right off the nozzle of the vessels using camlock fittings and silicone tubing (thanks Bobby_M)and a ball valve on the output(fittings are larger, and more expensive, than the pump!). Getting it primed this way can be a pain sometimes if you get an air bubble in the dip tube of the kettle. I think I may try just putting one on every vessel to help from getting air in there in the first place when switching to different vessels, and using the ball lock output to close the flow instead of the one on the vessel. I just got a hop spider from Chad at Arbor Fabricating last week to keep the hops from going through the pump after my boil. Yesterday I built a garden hose counter flow chiller, and earlier today I tested boiling 5g water and pushing it through. I did notice a drop in pressure on the output after the cfc, but I was still able to take 5g of boiling water down to 60* in about 5 min in my test (still hard to wrap my head around that).

My only concern on these is trying to not put too much torquing pressure with stuff hanging off and turning the valve on and off. Its not too bad if you hold onto it while turning the output valve, but I imagine if I bumped into this thing fairly hard it could crack off the ends to the head. But having multiple units in my setup I could switch over if needed, and the ridiculously low cost I can live with this for now. I've already broken the feet off of one by holding onto the base unit and turning the fittings on with a wrench, oops, knew not to do that for the second one. Not to say I would never get a march or chugger pump, but for right now I spent the large part of my money for this upgrade on the fittings that I know will last me a lifetime that I would still need with a more expensive pump.

Next week I will be doing a 5g batch and two 10g batches back to back to back. Fingers crossed things will all go as planned!

 

[SilverZero]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjmW-1xToFATdHFxU1RiXzdZYjNfMFhrOXZObWtHcUE&usp=sharing

Thanks, I found that after reading through the thread again.

I just ordered a P-38i from Ebay. $21.60 shipped from HK. I tried ordering from BuyInCoins.com ($19.98) but their website was giving weird errors, and that's about the time when I stop trusting people with my PayPal account.

I'm already wondering if I should get 2, but I think with the same investment in QD's I can set up a simple single-tier system. I'm just going to transfer from my BK to the mash tun, or from the HLT to the mash tun, or from the BK to a fermenting bucket.