Grainfather pump problem

[Dimitra93]

Hello everyone, new to this.
I have a problem with my grainfather. I've had it for 10 months now and brew about 12 beers and everything worked just fine. The last 3 times i have faced problems with the mashing stage. My temperature keeps getting higher than 65 due to the pump whicklh after the first 5 min starts stopping,it runs very low or almost not at all. Its a very light mash 4 kg to 17 or even 18 lit of water. I cleaned it througly 3 times now with the special cleaner and still the same. This happens only when i have grains in, in the stage of boil or with plain water works just fine. Please help i have no clue what to do. It ruins my mashings...

 

[Jag75]

Hey Dimitra93 , welcome to HBT.

A few tips on your system. A false bottom that is made for Robobrew fits perfectly in the bottom. That extra addition along with the existing filter works excellent. Ive done massive grain bills and hop amounts with no issue. I also took out the ball and spring from the valve . That will help you as well as it allows grain particles to flow through.

I also use a metal drain screen that goes ontop of the overflow pipe. That helps grain from going down the pipe. I think once you take out the ball and spring you'll notice a huge difference.

 

[1HW]

The GrainFather (G30) has a minimum grain bill of about 9.5 lbs. When you're below that, the telescoping center pipework will not push down far enough such that the pipework and overflow do not seat into the top grain screen. This allows bits of grain to end up in the overflow which then stick in the mesh tube covering the pump intake or in the pump itself. @Jag75 has good suggestions above to help prevent clogging of the pump, but we've found that you're less likely to clog the pump or pump screen if you can get the grain bill up over 9.5 lbs (which could include the use of rice hulls if the recipe is a smaller grain bill). At the very least, you should remove the ball and spring from the recirculation arm in order to check for clogs there. Safety advice says to put it back after cleaning, but we've also brewed without it.

 

[elproducto]

I've had similar problems which only occured with mashing. I've had GF for 5 years, and only recently started having these issues. Basically early on while recirculating in the mash, the pump starts to surge and doesn't flow at an even pace. I figured out that for some reason, despite recirculating the wort wasn't all flowing to the bottom and the pump was sucking air. I did a through breakdown and clean of the entire grainfather and replaced the silicon seals. It's working great, so I don't actually know what was causing it.