Here's how I wound up setting up my March pump to force prime...
I use the qc hose valve on the front right to attach a hose for force priming. On the far side of this is a valve for entering wort. The upper right valve is the bleeder. Upper left is the outflow of the pump. You can't see it well in this picture, but my wooden brew stand is very low to the ground. My setup down there makes this necessary, so I decided to put a force prime option on my pump because it's only about 6" lower than my BK valve.
When I prime, I close off the wort entry valve (and the other valves) push some water into the pump, use the bleeder valve to release air (and pressure from force prime). Do this slowly as there's a fair amount of pressure.
I close off the prime valve, then get the pump rolling and open the bleeder valve again. Finally, open up the wort entry valve and pump away.
Worked 100% of the time. I felt I lost prime a lot less, too, though I'm not sure why this would matter. I was also able to move my pump stand way off to the side and out of the way without worrying about where it was in relation to the brew kettle.
For my setup, this is a nice thing to have. I have a very low brew stand to accommodate using my tool bench as a second tier, and also because of my ventilation system. Force priming wasn't too hard to set up and it works very well.
Anyone else using it have a review?
I use the qc hose valve on the front right to attach a hose for force priming. On the far side of this is a valve for entering wort. The upper right valve is the bleeder. Upper left is the outflow of the pump. You can't see it well in this picture, but my wooden brew stand is very low to the ground. My setup down there makes this necessary, so I decided to put a force prime option on my pump because it's only about 6" lower than my BK valve.
When I prime, I close off the wort entry valve (and the other valves) push some water into the pump, use the bleeder valve to release air (and pressure from force prime). Do this slowly as there's a fair amount of pressure.
I close off the prime valve, then get the pump rolling and open the bleeder valve again. Finally, open up the wort entry valve and pump away.
Worked 100% of the time. I felt I lost prime a lot less, too, though I'm not sure why this would matter. I was also able to move my pump stand way off to the side and out of the way without worrying about where it was in relation to the brew kettle.
For my setup, this is a nice thing to have. I have a very low brew stand to accommodate using my tool bench as a second tier, and also because of my ventilation system. Force priming wasn't too hard to set up and it works very well.
Anyone else using it have a review?
