Cheap compact wort pump

[augiedoggy]

Why couldn't you just rotate your pump a little so the outlet is facing up, just have it pump up and over a little bend in the hose before it heads down. That is what I do when I pump from my HLT to my MT. Also when I pump from my MT to my BK. I use mine on a 3 tier gravity system converted to using these pumps too. My pump connected to my MT doesn't have the outlet facing up, between 90 and 45 deg.
Hopefully you can modify your set-up to make it work. I have 4 of these pumps and never had an issue. When I was cleaning up after my last batch I found a massive chuck of leaf hops stuck in my input and it still worked fine. Hope you can get yours working, best of luck!

I have tried that but theres a number of reasons I dont want to do that. Like I said I have found a work around by just mountng the pump at one of the rims ports below for my setup.

 

[aangel]

Make sure the disc behind the prop is flat. Also make sure it's not snug against the pump body when you put the head back on. 99% of the time these are the cause for me.

Thank you so much dude, that did it!

I just managed to fix it well enough to demonstrate it works and sell

Ended up looking at all my gear, realizing how much time effort and money I've spent, and that I can't keep this up. Selling it all for a pico

 

[stever1000]

When using the pump at boiling temps for recirculating I kept on getting air in the lines and the pump would stop pumping until I turned it off and turned it back on again. Is this cavitation? How can I avoid it?

I have it connected to a PWM to control the pump speed and I also have a valve to adjust flow if needed.

 

[aangel]

Yes, that's cavitation. No way to avoid it if you're trying to pump boiling liquid. Note that you if you are recirculating constantly you don't need to boil - just get to near boiling temperature. Getting rid of the DMS is done via agitation of the wort, which boiling will do but a constant pumping action should do as well - it's the way the picobrew works, for example. They hold wort at 207 degrees, just 5 off of boiling.

 

[stever1000]

Yes, that's cavitation. No way to avoid it if you're trying to pump boiling liquid. Note that you if you are recirculating constantly you don't need to boil - just get to near boiling temperature. Getting rid of the DMS is done via agitation of the wort, which boiling will do but a constant pumping action should do as well - it's the way the picobrew works, for example. They hold wort at 207 degrees, just 5 off of boiling.

Interesting, I didn't know I could go below 212F if I recirculate.

 

[MetallHed]

Never had an issue priming mine. The weight of the water pushes fluid right through as soon as I open the valve. Mounted direct to the valve I don't see how it could get stuck full of air. Mine are the 24v version though.
Maybe a picture of your set-up would help.

Hey Wolf, what are you using for a power supply? Do you have a link or a pic? I'm trying to figure out how I can wire one of these up. Thank you!

 

[Riot]

I don't know what wolf is using but I do know that led power supplies work pretty well. Something like this http://m.ebay.com/itm/AC-110V-220V-...V-/272073668891?nav=SEARCH&varId=570884247960

 

[aangel]

Hey Wolf, what are you using for a power supply? Do you have a link or a pic? I'm trying to figure out how I can wire one of these up. Thank you!

All I did was twist the wires together with the power supply leads. Just find any old DC12V or DC24V (most old electronics power adapters provide this), strip the wires, and touch them. DC24V is harmless to touch directly. If you have it wired right, the pump will spin up and move water (don't do this dry!) if it's reversed, the pump won't spin, and switch the leads for success.

 

[MetallHed]

Sweet. I'll have to see what I have. Thanks!

 

[stever1000]

I don't know what wolf is using but I do know that led power supplies work pretty well. Something like this http://m.ebay.com/itm/AC-110V-220V-...V-/272073668891?nav=SEARCH&varId=570884247960

I have the 24V 5a version and it works great!

 

[Riot]

I also like the higher capacity ones, 3 pumps off one supply and have yet to have so much as a hiccup

 

[MetallHed]

Can I get away with a 2A one of I'm just using one 12V pump? It's for recirculating BIAB.

 

[Riot]

You should be able to, I think the 12v ones are rated at 1200mA

 

[augiedoggy]

You should be able to, I think the 12v ones are rated at 1200mA

800ma I think but I find that they do run better on a 2amp supply than a 1 amp supply.. when I tried the 1 amp supply the pump struggled and actually stalled at one point which is why I believe a lot of people had less than steller results using the cheap wall wort style supplies that are advertised a a higher amp rating than they are really capable of..

 

[augiedoggy]

All I did was twist the wires together with the power supply leads. Just find any old DC12V or DC24V (most old electronics power adapters provide this), strip the wires, and touch them. DC24V is harmless to touch directly. If you have it wired right, the pump will spin up and move water (don't do this dry!) if it's reversed, the pump won't spin, and switch the leads for success.

but the power supply needs to be at least 800ma and even then something like 2 amp will be more reliable as I just mentioned in my previous post... If you read through this thread youll find all sorts of complaints about the pumps failing and some indications why were power related like one person who was using a 9v calculator power supply because it was "close enough" and another who was using very crud e 14v battery Charger power with no smoothing capacitor to give a clean dc waveform... The power source does matter guys.. I wouldn't buy less than a 2 amp supply for 1 pump... I use a 7 amp supply in my panel to power all 3 of my pumps and have no problems for years now.

 

[stever1000]

I also like the higher capacity ones, 3 pumps off one supply and have yet to have so much as a hiccup

Impressive! How many amps is your supply?

 

[TorMag]

I don't understand all this talk about power supplies? I bought mine on Amazon and it came with a plug

 

[aangel]

I don't understand all this talk about power supplies? I bought mine on Amazon and it came with a plug

Most of us got them off ebay from China and they were like $25 and came with bare wires, no DC power supply.

 

[TorMag]

Most of us got them off ebay from China and they were like $25 and came with bare wires, no DC power supply.

I see. Mine was $24.99 on Amazon

http://amzn.to/2egkK3h

 

[stever1000]

I see. Mine was $24.99 on Amazon

http://amzn.to/2egkK3h

How well does it work? It says its only rated to 0.7amps

 

[TorMag]

How well does it work? It says its only rated to 0.7amps

I've used it twice now for recirculating during mash and with my counter flow chiller. Works great.

 

[ajw85]

I see. Mine was $24.99 on Amazon

http://amzn.to/2egkK3h

Wow that is pretty slick. I would love a 24v version.

 

[sillbeer]

Wow that is pretty slick. I would love a 24v version.

I just ordered this one and it's rated up to 24v.

http://shop.solarproject.co.uk/cata...id=29&osCsid=986eb2aa9132acd6c4f4b3a6f82604e7

 

[Contrarian]

With my current cheap pump I clean after every brew by taking the head off and removing the impeller, I always get hop gunk there that wont flush out and needs manual cleaning.

I have one of these tan pumps that I'm looking to use but I'm curious about cleaning. The impeller looks to be designed not to be removed easily? Is it possible to get behind the stainless steel plate to check for cleanliness?

For the hot side I'm sure its not a huge issue but ideally Id like to use one for cold side transfers so any info would be appreciated.

 

[Mojzis]

It comes right out. The stainless washer is attached to the impeller. Put a flat head behind it and gently pop it out of the pump body.

 

[augiedoggy]

I don't understand all this talk about power supplies? I bought mine on Amazon and it came with a plug

yes and it came with one of the wall wort ones that normally sell for like 3-5 bucks that was designed to power low amp elctrical devices like a router or camera... It may have an advertised rating of 1 amp but in reality it may not be able to handle a sustained load that large... Many of those power supplies are clones of someone elses design originally rated for less and they use even cheaper knock off components like no name capacitors and such which can often mean they dont perform as well as the originals they were modeled after...

I have had many many of these cheap wall wort supplies become unreliable and "sort of work" for example I bought a bunch of android tv boxes for myself and friends and had 3 of the power supplies act up causing the box to lock up or reboot. When I put a monitor on it the voltage was the correct amount of volts until you put a load on it and then it dropped...

in a nutshell , cheap crap power supply can = cheap crap power = crappy results... You could get lucky and have no issues or the pump could be working but be a lot weaker than it could be which was the results I had when I tried a cheap 1 amp power supply..

 

[augiedoggy]

With my current cheap pump I clean after every brew by taking the head off and removing the impeller, I always get hop gunk there that wont flush out and needs manual cleaning.

I have one of these tan pumps that I'm looking to use but I'm curious about cleaning. The impeller looks to be designed not to be removed easily? Is it possible to get behind the stainless steel plate to check for cleanliness?

For the hot side I'm sure its not a huge issue but ideally Id like to use one for cold side transfers so any info would be appreciated.

You could use a braided stainless filter on your dip tube like I do to prevent the solids from getting in the pump.. I never take mine apart. I run pbw through them every 3 brews or so to dissolve any buildup but they stay clean... I have pulled them aprt after many brews to check them and then decided it was no longer worth the effort.

As far as cold side transfers... I use mine on the hot side of my plate chiller to push my wort through my chiller... I just recirculate through the pump and chiller for a couple minutes at boiling (or near) temps to sanitize prior to turning on the cooling water... never in issue in years of doing this.

 

[stever1000]

My hop sock fell in during the boil and I sucked some hops into the pump when I was trying to pump through my CFC...

I have a feeling I fried this pump, I haven't used it since I cleaned it out, but the output of the pump was clogged solid and it was running for a good couple mins before I turned it off

 

[Wolfairious]

Currently I am using an IBM laptop supply I had lying around: 24v 1.5a. I am making an electric brew controller and I will have 2 of the speed controllers ect mounted in that box and run cords to my pumps and in that I have a 24v 8.3a unit similar to these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110V-220...hash=item3f58dab91b:m:mb99FY6-QDEki15M2d8KfXQ
Brewed last Tues and again today. No issues. I use them to recirc my mash for 10 min before transferring to my brew kettle. I also whirlpool the last 5-10min to sanitize my whirlpool arm. Never issues with bubbles (my pick up is to the side of my bottom). You can see how well I like these since I have them incorporated into my electric brew controller. Once I get my electric system going, I will be constantly recirc my mash in a HERMES system.

 

[Wolfairious]

I use a hops spider. My Tues brew day I used whole hops. Some fell outside the hop bag. Still had no issues pumping or whirlpooling. I only found the chunks of hops when I was cleaning up. Was actually surprised with the hops that came out. I put my garden hose and flush both ends and then I also turn them on and pump clean water through them. Every 3 brews or so I pbw them.