First Time Whirlpooling with Pump

[butterblum]

I tried whirlpooling with a Riptide and a Spin Cycle arm during my brew a few days ago, but was pretty underwhelmed by the results. I didn't have any sort of trub cone at the bottom of the kettle - all the cold break seemed to be spread out on the bottom of the kettle like it normally is.
I had nothing in-line that would have throttled the flow rate.
Any solutions?

 

[Sparkncode]

Just looked at the spin cycle arm and from the photo looks kind of restrictive but hard to tell. I use a stainless 1/2" elbow for my whirlpool port and my chinese stainless head pump will get the wort turning but not fast (port quite low in pot, a compromise for 10/19/23/38L batches). I don't worry too much as i usually use a hop spider in the bk so that messes with whirlpool action and contains the hops anyway. Im too chicken to let hops near my plate chiller.
I have whirlpooled with the hop spider out and the protiens/cold break etc that drop out seam to spread over the bottom of the pot but i guess hops might be more inclined to group together. They may just be spreading out as the pot is emptied

To get a real decent whirlpool is going to take a bigger pump than typically used from what i have seen

 

[IslandLizard]

With my March pump I get a slight spin in the wort (5-6 gallon batches, 8 gallon kettle) but wouldn't call it a "whirlpool," more like a decent re-circulation, which is just fine for that purpose. I am in the same camp as @Sparkncode, my hops (and everything else) are bagged, no chance of them going inside the plate chiller. I have a relatively small sized, and fairly coarse mesh filter over the exit port, so an inadvertent chunk of something won't go through the pump/chiller chain either.

Not only the power of the pump, the whole whirlpool assembly especially the angle, diameter and position of the exit nozzle play a big role in getting an efficient whirlpool. All the lines should be as wide as possible with as few impairing restrictions as possible in order to move as much wort the pump can push. When it arrives at the exit nozzle which is keenly tapered into a relatively narrow spout it generates the needed speed creating a whirlpool.

E=mv², velocity is doing most of the work, not so much the mass (volume).

 

[mashinary]

I use the MKII pump and also have the Spin Cycle. I get some hop matter in to the fermenter, but there's usually a pile in the center of the wort chiller. A few things that I do:

My pick-up tube faces the wall of the kettle, not the center of the kettle.
During the whirlpool I have a ball valve all the way open.
When I rack out of the kettle, I have the ball valve open a little bit so the force of the pump doesn't disturb pile in the center.

 

[Bobby_M]

After you whirlpool for a bit, you have to shut the pump off and let things settle a bit.

 

[brewbama]

I’ve been slowing the flow with a ball valve on the outlet side of the pump at Bobby’s recommendation on Brew Hardware. On the surface, It starts getting really clear from the center out at about 20-30 min. Going too fast churns up the particles. Once clear I drain off the kettle and have a beautiful cone in the middle until the air hits it and it collapses.