Cheap compact wort pump

Williams 728
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Hi! My name is Ian and I am a cheapskate. I tried to make a little tan wonder do the work of a real pump, but I failed. I have been clean and pumping for four batches, now...

I brewed yesterday.

I decided to pull my Chugger Pump apart this morning and give it a real cleaning.

Man, was I surprised at how well built it is and how easy it is to take apart and service!

I now realize that the little tan wonder that I burned out was just not suited for the task I forced it to handle.

I can't speak for March Pumps, never having used one, but I am hooked in Chuggers. Save your pennies. Don't waste time with these "wannabe" minis. Get the real deal. Having been there, it is absolutely worth it!
 
I want to recirculate today. I won't have real pump money for a while. As soon as I do, I'll buy one. Right now, my $20 will get liquid going in the right direction. . .
 
My tan pump is still going strong pumping hot liquor and recirculating my mash. I don't let it get near hops though. My chugger handles those.
 
two_hearted said:
when are you pumping near boiling acidic water through your pump?
Click to expand...

When you use a food grade pump to transfer wort to chiller (as I do every time I brew) or fermenter from the recently boiling kettle that would be near boiling.

If you are pumping finished beer through a filter chances are it will be more acidic....correct?

Or am I wrong here? I guess i'm slightly confused at your question.
 
You know what they say, you get what you pay for ... can't tell you how badly I wanted this to work. I love the set up I had planned for it (same as the pics on page 4) and how compact it is. This one won't "fool me twice" so I guess I'm going with a chugger now.

This snapped off from purely hand tightening it, and I wasn't at the point that it stopped me, I could have easily tightened it more when this happened. This is just way too brittle for me to waste another $20 and a month shipping from Hong Kong to do again, even with as bad as I wanted it to work.

WP_20140129_003.jpg
 
My brown one didn't last to my second brew...but I think I might have killed it with an underrated wall wart and burned it out.

I have moved to the black pumps that are the solar pumps but without the solar pumps name. Working fine through a few brews so far.
 
ajandrs said:
You know what they say, you get what you pay for ... can't tell you how badly I wanted this to work. I love the set up I had planned for it (same as the pics on page 4) and how compact it is. This one won't "fool me twice" so I guess I'm going with a chugger now.

This snapped off from purely hand tightening it, and I wasn't at the point that it stopped me, I could have easily tightened it more when this happened. This is just way too brittle for me to waste another $20 and a month shipping from Hong Kong to do again, even with as bad as I wanted it to work.

View attachment 175711
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear, it definitely shouldn't have broken that easy. Mine has actually worked pretty well. My little tan pump seems well made but has some trouble with trub/hops so I relegated it to sparging/recirculation duty from now on and bought a March (815) during a recent MoreBeer sale. The March is great but the SOFT poly threads suck and VERY easy to cross-thread compared to the little tan pump.

Robert
 
I've had my tan guy for close to a year now and it is going strong. I just take the shaft apart every once in a while and give it a soak in oxy clean.
 
There are small plastic pumps... The plastic is very dense hard and brittle because of the type used for high temps... its been mentioned in this thread numerous times that they are not very durable when smacked around and dropped... that being said they ha e been working great for me.... I think I'd have to cut the flow away Down with a chuggerto get the efficiency I get. Its because of the small size that they don't do well with solids like trub... I thought this stuff would be common sense but I guess not.
 
@augiedoggy

I agree 100%. One of these little pumps will be the next part of my build, along with the DC power supply to run it. I have said, and will continue to say that while many are using these to move wort around, I think the best application is for moving water.

Tim
 
ajandrs said:
You know what they say, you get what you pay for ... can't tell you how badly I wanted this to work. I love the set up I had planned for it (same as the pics on page 4) and how compact it is. This one won't "fool me twice" so I guess I'm going with a chugger now.

This snapped off from purely hand tightening it, and I wasn't at the point that it stopped me, I could have easily tightened it more when this happened. This is just way too brittle for me to waste another $20 and a month shipping from Hong Kong to do again, even with as bad as I wanted it to work.

View attachment 175711
Click to expand...
Compared to my cam locks that looks to be threaded pretty far onto the pump before it snapped.
Also most chugger pumps come from the same country as these.. (made in china) but you can just order from a US supplier (like I did when I ordered my tan pump for $21 from California.)
 
So, I got the stainless Topsflo TS5 on its way... I have a 1.5 amp 12 volt DC adapter. Is that enough? I can't really find any info on how many amps these things pull...

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app
 
dirkomatic said:
So, I got the stainless Topsflo TS5 on its way... I have a 1.5 amp 12 volt DC adapter. Is that enough? I can't really find any info on how many amps these things pull...

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

1.5 should be good enough, i cant imagine it drawing more than that. The link I provided has some details from a very similar pump..

This pump seems to be the same as the one I just bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271210966990?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Maybe they just purchased the same pumps, cut off the plastic threads, added stainless and charged three times the price.....
 
I'm sure you're right that they cut it off and charge more... I did a best offer and didn't post full price, although I probably did pay to much... I guess I'm starting to get stainless envy :)

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I did a best offer, and just underbid the sale price by the cost of shipping.

I am still looking for a pump, if that tells you anything


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
MX1 said:
I did a best offer, and just underbid the sale price by the cost of shipping.

I am still looking for a pump, if that tells you anything


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
Click to expand...

Mine was listed as free shipping... and I bid a couple bucks under what I found it for elsewhere... still paid more than this is probably worth :(
 
That's the same price as mine, but mine has the stainless input/output... Specs look about the same, too.
 
Indian_villager said:
I've had my tan guy for close to a year now and it is going strong. I just take the shaft apart every once in a while and give it a soak in oxy clean.
Click to expand...

How do people get theirs apart? I looked a pics of a disassembled brown pump, but it appears my impeller head is permanently attached to the pump. I can only get the cover off and nothing else...even after pulling off the lock washer things I bent up.
 
sablesurfer said:
How do people get theirs apart? I looked a pics of a disassembled brown pump, but it appears my impeller head is permanently attached to the pump. I can only get the cover off and nothing else...even after pulling off the lock washer things I bent up.
Click to expand...

Once you get the 4 screws off and the cover with the inlet/outlet off, look at the impeller a bit of the shaft will be exposed past the steel retainer clip. Grab the shaft with a set of pliers and pull outward. Good luck.
 
what's everyone using for power supply? I can't for the life of me find any adapter at my Goodwill week after week putting out 12 V and 2 amps. Everything is smaller. One I found was 12 volts but only 1 amp. Closest I got
 
yeah I saw those. I have an offer in on one of them. LED strips huh. Maybe we can put LED strips along the brewstand and use the same power supply!

So are most wiring this thing to a pump then plugging into a switched outlet for better control? I was planning on doing this in a box
 
I have one that is wired to a cheap ebay pwm and another that will be pwm controlled from my control box. One for HLT one for MT/BK.
 
Does the PWM work for you? I bought a little one off ebay, but then got lots of feedback that the pump motors are not right kind to accept pulse width modulation. I would love to control my pump flow from a control board instead of valves.
 
Hmm idk. I don't brew a lot but I have around 6 batches (6 months) with the tan pump/pwm combo. It has been working just fine for me. I believe augiedoggy uses two pwm's on his panel with these pumps also.

So far so good. YMMV
 
I got two of those pwms off amazon last week for essentially the same price. Glad to hear they're working!
 
mendozer said:
Would you be so kind to take pictures of your setup with connections for the non-electrically inclined? :mug:
Click to expand...

I won't be home until tomorrow night, but I have some pics saved on a cloud. I have a 12v wall wort in a gfi outlet. The male end was cut off and stripped. I sent that into the input of the pwm. I ran ~18 awg wire from the pwm to my pump and tied it off. I ordered some 1/8" sleeving and stainless wire (like Kal's probe design) so I can reinforce the wimpy pump wires and hide all connections.

I don't have the pwm for #2 pump set up yet. It's on its journey from asia lol. If you have specific pic requests or questions just ask.


IMG_0072_zps7b1b00e8.jpg
 

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