Submersible pump for recirculating chiller water - Recommendations?

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thehopbandit

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I've been looking into getting a submersible pump to add to my immersion chilling setup so that a) I don't need to use as much water, and b) I can get to lower cooling temperatures than with tap water.

I'm basically looking for recommendations on which pump to get and/or the specs that one would need to accomplish such a task. A quick search online comes up with a bunch of different pumps, all rated at various flow rates in gallons/hour and different specs. I really have no idea which would be sufficient.

In addition, I'm not really familiar with these pumps so do you need to worry about pumping a large flow rate of water through a small tube and the pressure associated with it? Will it burn out the motor from the "back-pressure"? Hopefully that makes sense.

What do you use? What do you recommend? Thanks!
 
This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It might be overkill, but it works great. If you're using ice, you want to be sure the pump can handle some small solids. I hear bits of ice get sucked into mine now and then, and it eats them without a problem.

I chill with tap water down to 100F and then switch over to recirc with the pump in a 5 gallon bucket of ice with a couple of gallons of water at the bottom. I just let the output from the chiller flow back into the top of the bucket and back down through the ice.

It drops the temp like a rocket. I go from 212 to 55 in 12 minutes.
 
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I have used a 1/10 HP "transfer pump". You really don't need too much power for recirculating chill water. The way pumps work is when you have more restriction (head) the flow rate is reduced, so you are not going to damage the pump.
 
Thanks for the recommendations! What flow rate would you say would be insufficient?
 
What hardware are you using for chilling? The reason I ask is if you are using a plate chiller than flow does matter. If you are using a immersion chiller or CFC it might not matter as much.

I use a 500 gph magdrive pump that I had when I had a saltwater aquarium, and it works great.

BTW most magnet drive pumps handle back pressure well. Other forms of pumps don't handle it as well.
 
What hardware are you using for chilling? The reason I ask is if you are using a plate chiller than flow does matter. If you are using a immersion chiller or CFC it might not matter as much.

I use a 500 gph magdrive pump that I had when I had a saltwater aquarium, and it works great.

BTW most magnet drive pumps handle back pressure well. Other forms of pumps don't handle it as well.


I'm just using an immersion chiller. Flow probably doesn't matter a whole lot, but if it's too slow, I'm not sure that you are optimally cooling the coils as fast as you could be.
 
I just got a 400 GPH pump from home depot and it works well. I use my IC as normal to cut the wort temp to 120 or so, then hook the pump in and recircuilate ice water to drop it to 65. The flow rate drops down to about 55 to 60 GPH with the 25 foot IC, but it works well enough, especially here in north florida, where ground water is 80 degrees.
 
We use a small Lowe's Unitech 1/6 HP and a trashcan filled with ice water. If you can get the water to about 48 degrees or lower it works better. We use a Duda Diesel Plate Wort Chiller (we also have a Blickmann Therminator but DD is much mo better!") We have to neck down the WORT flow to get to pitching temps. We have cooled and recycyled the WORT back into the BK with Tap Water until it gets down to about 150 and that helps. In the Winter (in Texas), we can use the Tap Water at max flow on the WORT to get to lager pitching temps!:ban:
 
This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It might be overkill, but it works great. If you're using ice, you want to be sure the pump can handle some small solids. I hear bits of ice get sucked into mine now and then, and it eats them without a problem.

I chill with tap water down to 100F and then switch over to recirc with the pump in a 5 gallon bucket of ice with a couple of gallons of water at the bottom. I just let the output from the chiller flow back into the top of the bucket and back down through the ice.

It drops the temp like a rocket. I go from 212 to 55 in 12 minutes.

I have this same one, it works well, and is probably overkill but it's not too expensive. OP, you'll want to make sure you plug it into a grounded outlet or get a shockbuster so you don't electrocute yourself.
 
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I have this same one, it works well, and is probably overkill but it's not too expensive. OP, you'll want to make sure you plug it into a grounded outlet or get a shockbuster so you don't electrocute yourself.


Most definitely! Grounded plugs are a must with this stuff!
 
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Flow rate is not as good as a water hose here. The IC or the plate chiller also act to slow down flow. The pumps with ice water are sufficient to cool the wort, but with a plate chiller you may have to reduce the Wort flow to get to your temp.
 
I had a submersible pump I used for pumping water from my cellar. I bought it through Northern Tool [www.northerntool.com] about six-seven years ago. The pump they currently carry that is close to the one I have is their number P01-011-0012, and is listed at $39.95. I needed several adapters to make mine "garden-hose-ready," but it works great at both recirculating chiller water AND removing water from my country-style, leaky cellar!

glenn514:mug:
 
The flow was slightly less...but that was because I needed to trim my lines so I wasn't pumping as far. Now it's just great.
 
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