• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

Cheap compact wort pump

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
They are not NPT they are probably 1/2" BSPP (straight thread). They work just fine with NPT fittings, but you will need plenty of teflon for a good seal.
 
Hey y'all
This $25 pump is news to me...it looks almost identical to the ones I use but upon closer inspection, it differs significantly. This latest pump is made of ABS, and last time I checked, ABS is not regarded as food safe for high temps.

The solar pump (below) has both a Ryton impeller and housing,and is rated for Exceptional Resistance to Hot Water, and Meets Requirements for Food Contact.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solar-Water...315?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac5968e6b

food for thought.
 
The description says all food grade materials. Says it can be used for hot wort transfer. Would they lie?

Where did you see materials (ABS)?

If this pump kills me, I will be pissed!
 
Yes they would lie. It's Chi-com garbage. I promise there's more crap that will kill you in a meal at McDonald's than in getting one of these pumps hot... Food safe or not.
 
Yes they would lie. It's Chi-com garbage. I promise there's more crap that will kill you in a meal at McDonald's than in getting one of these pumps hot... Food safe or not.

They are ALL from china.

the tan ones are in fact food grade. The $21 topsfo / us solar style ones are likely just being bought in bulk by AN AMERICAN IN CALIFORNIA from china by someone who saw this thread and decided to mark them up a bit and resell them advertising them for beer brewing use. So before you jump on china let keep the blame were it belongs because its the sellers that are stateside that decided to market it for this not china....

That said I have been using the same one claimed to be "ABS" above for almost a year with no ill effects. the housing are identical in everyway so I doubt they are using the same molds and making them of different plastics as it would likely ad MORE costs to manufacturing.... However, as this thread states earlier though the magnets are not coated like the tan ones are...
 
I just ordered 2 pumps. They look like all of the ones on this thread, but I bought the 24v ones that have more flow.

This one.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/290934852826?_mwBanner=1

I don't plan on using these for wort. I plan on making a glycol chiller.

Anyone know if these are good safe? They don't have to be in my case, just curious.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Picked one of these up (most recent linked black one) and it doesn't work. Ebay has decided to block my account and I can't for the life of me figure out why (apparently it's been blocked since 2008... been using it since then...) anyway, can't contact the seller, anyone had any issues yet and figured them out?
 
You get pretty much what you pay for but they do work pretty good. Very touchy when it comes to power supplies and the way you connect the wires. Tried a couple of power supplies before I found one mine liked.
 
You get pretty much what you pay for but they do work pretty good. Very touchy when it comes to power supplies and the way you connect the wires. Tried a couple of power supplies before I found one mine liked.

Well thats good to know. I do landscape lighting for a living so I have a bunch of 12V transformers laying around, tried to use that but maybe not the best idea. Guess I'll track down something else.

Thanks!
 
Most of those are DC. If your lighting transformers are AC, they wont work.
 
Most of those are DC. If your lighting transformers are AC, they wont work.

Well, thats kind of embarassing, haha. They're definitely AC and my pump is defiitely DC. At least I don't need to find a way to contact the seller. Thanks :rockin:
 
You get pretty much what you pay for but they do work pretty good. Very touchy when it comes to power supplies and the way you connect the wires. Tried a couple of power supplies before I found one mine liked.

Yeah you need to meet the required voltage and meet the minimum amp requirements but I found the tan ones work well on a 1 amp or higher amp 12v power supply despite the specs saying 800ma (if they are the 12v pumps and not the 24v version)
 

just a recap since its not mentioned on this thread these black ones have been confirmed to be NOT food grade... theres a few other threads about it and I checked the manufacturers website myself, two other members contacted the manufacturer who told they the same thing, that they are not safe for hot food grade transfer. they were designed for hot solar water and chemical (kerosene, oil) transfer.

http://www.dgshenpeng.com/en_asp/productshow.asp?id=808
 
In post #850 I wrote about them not being food grade. I contacted the manufacture and they said the particular one I had wasn't. It seems to be just like the eBay ones. Anyways from post #850 and further on I talked about it.
Got myself a chugger pump and gave the black one to a friend who used it to transfer heating oil.
 
just a recap since its not mentioned on this thread these black ones have been confirmed to be NOT food grade...
I don't know if you can group all the black pumps together. I'm still waiting to hear from US Solar, but I was told that the black pumps from DG Shenpeng are not good for boiling temperature food use. I'm still waiting for a follow up response to see if they are food safe at lower temperatures. I'm wondering if recirculating mash in the 150-160 degree area is ok? I'll let you know about both if they get back to me.
 
I don't know if you can group all the black pumps together. I'm still waiting to hear from US Solar, but I was told that the black pumps from DG Shenpeng are not good for boiling temperature food use. I'm still waiting for a follow up response to see if they are food safe at lower temperatures. I'm wondering if recirculating mash in the 150-160 degree area is ok? I'll let you know about both if they get back to me.

Your absolutely correct, Im talking about the "cheap" black pumps... They are the ones being sold for under $50.. like the ones liked in this thread. I dont remember if it was this thread but I mentioned that companies like topsflo ,us solar and even greatbreweh seem to have different ones made to thier specs and likely made from different materials... I know some of them use coated magnets.

I am interested to know if they are ok for lower temps as I have one as well
 
The pump I bought is listed as ABS and food safe. The Shenpeng website markets this pump for hot food applications.


Do you mind providing a link to the web page for your pump? I believe I had the same one....the info on the label of mine matched the label of the one you had posted pictures of. I had trouble finding it on the Shenpeng website.
 
Do you mind providing a link to the web page for your pump? I believe I had the same one....the info on the label of mine matched the label of the one you had posted pictures of. I had trouble finding it on the Shenpeng website.

http://www.dgshenpeng.com/en_asp/newsshow.asp?id=203

"Our research and development that the high-temperature food-grade pump can solve two problems above it?" (Food grade at high temperature) "The answer is : You have fully realized !"

There you have it in plainly English. :)

I don't know what pump they're talking about, or if they know what they're talking about, or if they care whether any of it is true, but they're claiming FDA approval for an ABS pump.
 
There's really no way to know. There could be 10 factories building a pump that looks the same. China is the "replica with no regard for copyright" country. The only way to know for sure is to have direct contact with us manufacturer and probably order 100,000 units. They can say anything they want on eBay or their website. Who's gonna check if they're telling the truth?

I almost guarantee that the FDA has never heard of, nor approved any thing to do with these pumps. Instead of asking the factory in China if they're food safe, why not ask the FDA? There's got to be a way to cross that bridge... At least the answer would be in English.
 
I just was in contact with the FDA and they stated that they have nothing to do with things like water pumps. According to them there is no such thing as "FDA approval" on a water pump.
 
At best, manufactures can claim use of FDA approved materials. Even that can be ambiguous, because that approval can change depending on what's coming in contact with the materials (pH levels, alcohol . . . ) not to mention contact time and temperature considerations. The takeaway is that you have to do your own research to determine the level of risk.

In a lawsuit happy environment it’s no surprise that the distributers of these pumps are shying away from “food safe” claims. That doesn’t mean that they’re not safe. It means they’re being told by their lawyers to cover their butts.
 
Back
Top