Using my wort pump to circulate ice water

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ntwkdsnr

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2014
Messages
62
Reaction score
11
Location
San Diego
where I live, the ground water will chill my wort down to only 85-90deg F. I have to use a huge tub of ice water through my chiller to get the rest of the way, and it takes a while. I'm using a wimpy water fountain pump in the tub currently.

Anyone see an issue with using my chugger wort pump to circulate the ice water through my plate chiller? I guess when the chilling is complete, I can throw in some PBW and clean things out at the end.
 
Last edited:
I use this cheap, 1800 gal/hour utility pump in a cooler full of ice water after my regular house tap water has cooled the wort to 85 degrees or so. It works perfect and cools to my pitching temperature fast.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


How's that pump still working? I had that exact same pump. The screws in the housing are prone to rusting. Last year I started noticing globs of oil was leaking from it. From what I've read here, the oil in them is vegetable oil or close to that. That didn't bother as I was using the pump to also recirculate ice water to chill my wort. What bothered me though, was I remember the 6 "cleaned" kegs behind me that's ready for beer would have to be re-cleaned.

The pump is worth its money as I got 6-7 years out of mine, but no way I'll go back to that one for cleaning kegs and beer lines.
 
Back
Top