Spike glycol chiller -- flakey pump power connector?

[DavidWood2115]

I have had a Spike glycol chiller (repackaged from Penguin Chillers) for about two years. Until this week it has worked mostly fine to chill my CF10 (although cold crashing when the summer humidity peaks in my brewery is a separate challenge). I count myself a generally happy customer.

The problem that has arisen this week is an intermittent power connection between the 12V "wall-wart" power supply and the pump that circulates the chilled glycol from the reservoir through the fermenter cooling coil. The power supply is a standard 12VDC 2A power supply with a male barrel connector; the pump has a matching female connector. However, this connector seems to have become intermittently faulty (lying on the floor in my relatively humid basement). My setup maintained fermentation temperature fine, but after soft crashing to 50F (prior to dry hopping, as per my usual Scott Janis inspired protocol) for two days it stopped working, with the temperature rising to 60F. I have been futzing with the connector---disconnecting, turning, wiping it clean---which will often get the pump to run again, but never for more than 12 or so hours. I went ahead and dry hopped my beer when I got the temperature near 50F, but it has been a struggle to keep the pump running long enough to hold temperature. I'm due to cold crash this batch tomorrow evening, and have no confidence that the pump will run long enough to to get the temperature low enough to drop the hops and residual yeast.

I could replace the pump and power supply for ~$45, but that will take several days and I really hate to add more electronic waste to our world if there is relatively simple alternative solution.

Any suggestions on what to try next?

 

[cfrazier77]

You could hard wire it together. Cut the ends off and use wire nuts, or butt connectors, or solder them together.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

For the immediate need, cut the connectors off the cables, strip back the outer insulation and then connect the two wires to each other. If you're lucky, they'll be the same colours. If not, red or brown will be positive, black or blue negative. If you can get hold of a couple of two-way Wagos, use those, otherwise twisting together insulating with tape is good enough for 12V. Worse case if the wires are swapped around is that the pump either doesn't start or pumps backwards. In that case, try and swap them around.

 

[DavidWood2115]

Thanks. I solved this a couple days back but hadn’t gotten time to post. The problem was definitely corrosion in the barrel connector. I cut it out and replaced it with a double pair of crimp-on spade connectors. Wrapped them with electrical tape and rearranged the wiring so as little as possible is on/near the floor. Back in business.