Water Pumps for Immersion Coolers

[UdonPete]

What size pump do you recommend for your Immersion Cooler e.g How many Liters (or Gallons) / Hour
Am not worried about the maximum head as it will only be from floor level to my bench

 

[bracconiere]

honestly i just hook mine up to the hose....

but if you're on a tight water budget i'd say look into a sump pump? works good for my column....

https://www.ubuy.co.th/en/search/?q=sump+pumps
one of those is what i use when water would be too wasteful to use fresh....

edit: in fact this one looks almost identical to the one i use, no floats or anything on mine either...

https://www.ubuy.co.th/en/product/PS4R3E-superior-pump-91250-1-4-hp-thermoplastic-utility-pump-black

 

[UdonPete]

honestly i just hook mine up to the hose....

but if you're on a tight water budget i'd say look into a sump pump? works good for my column....

https://www.ubuy.co.th/en/search/?q=sump+pumps
one of those is what i use when water would be too wasteful to use fresh....

edit: in fact this one looks almost identical to the one i use, no floats or anything on mine either...

https://www.ubuy.co.th/en/product/PS4R3E-superior-pump-91250-1-4-hp-thermoplastic-utility-pump-black

Thank you, that is what I was asking i.e. what size pimp - so you suggest a 1/4 HP pump.

Should have said this will be a recirculation pump from a cooler filled with ice/water through the immersion cooler and returned to the cooler

 

[bracconiere]

i just looked at mine it's only 1/6HP. and plenty capable of pushing water up 6-7 feet, plenty fast enough.....through 5/8"-3/4" hose.....maybe 1/2", but plenty pressure....


edit: i thought you were asking about a pump like an aquarium pump.....which will never do the job....

 

[UdonPete]

i just looked at mine it's only 1/6HP. and plenty capable of pushing water up 6-7 feet, plenty fast enough.....through 5/8"-3/4" hose.....maybe 1/2", but plenty pressure....


edit: i thought you were asking about a pump like an aquarium pump.....which will never do the job....

Ah that's what I am looking for - and yes through a 1/2 house to the copper Immersion Chiller and then a 1/2 house out, back to the cooler with ice

 

[bracconiere]

Ah that's what I am looking for - and yes through a 1/2 house to the copper Immersion Chiller and then a 1/2 house out, back to the cooler with ice

i think just about any sump pump will do it, i'd skip the float, just get a cheap one?

even with my 1/6HP one, i have to put a 5lb weight on the exit hose to keep it in the tub.....

and that's after it was pushed up 6 feet.....

 

[bruce_the_loon]

I use a re-purposed pond pump, old model Hailea P15000 waterfall pump. It's rated for 250l/minute free flow and draws 175W at 220V. Pumping chilled water (reusable freezer packs) through my 3/8" 25m coil, the back-pressure cuts that to under 5l/minute which still chills the wort from boiling to 25°C in about 40 minutes.

The first drop from boiling to about 50°C takes under ten minutes with collecting and dumping the hot effluent from the coil, then I recirculate until it hits 25°C at which point it is transferred to the fermenter and placed in the fermentation chamber to chill to pitch if needed.

Whole process is under 100l of water most of which goes back into the bulk rain tank it came out of.

 

[UdonPete]

i think just about any sump pump will do it, i'd skip the float, just get a cheap one?

even with my 1/6HP one, i have to put a 5lb weight on the exit hose to keep it in the tub.....

and that's after it was pushed up 6 feet.....

Great news, thank you

 

[UdonPete]

I use a re-purposed pond pump, old model Hailea P15000 waterfall pump. It's rated for 250l/minute free flow and draws 175W at 220V. Pumping chilled water (reusable freezer packs) through my 3/8" 25m coil, the back-pressure cuts that to under 5l/minute which still chills the wort from boiling to 25°C in about 40 minutes.

The first drop from boiling to about 50°C takes under ten minutes with collecting and dumping the hot effluent from the coil, then I recirculate until it hits 25°C at which point it is transferred to the fermenter and placed in the fermentation chamber to chill to pitch if needed.

Whole process is under 100l of water most of which goes back into the bulk rain tank it came out of.

Impressive - that is what I am looking to do

 

[balrog]

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049XENYS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=125' 3/8 copper
Use house water garden hose first, collect two 5G buckets then 16# ice in cooler with pump recirc
Boiling to 60F in 15-20m

Moving chiller coil in brew kettle CONSTANTLY is a big part of speed.

 

[Graham H]

i just looked at mine it's only 1/6HP. and plenty capable of pushing water up 6-7 feet, plenty fast enough.....through 5/8"-3/4" hose.....maybe 1/2", but plenty pressure....


edit: i thought you were asking about a pump like an aquarium pump.....which will never do the job....

I didn’t know any better any got a cheap aquarium pump to push ice water from a cooler through my copper immersion chiller and back to the cooler. I haven’t had any problems cooling my wort. 5 gal batches max, takes about 10-15 minutes (est). Pump is rated 25W, 1500L/h, max head lift 2m (recommended 1m).

I’m probably going to get a larger pump anyway, to fill the role of keg/carboy/beer line washer when I get around to including kegging in my hobby. Had I the foresight, I could have bought one pump to do both jobs and skipped the aquarium pump.

 

[Brian66]

This is what I use for my small batches of 2-3 gallons of wort:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NQ2XYWX?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
I use a cooler filled with ice water.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Impressive - that is what I am looking to do

Quick correction, I just measured my coil and it is actually 15m, not 25m.

Next run I make, I'll log the wort temperatures over time to confirm what I'm recalling.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

What size pump do you recommend for your Immersion Cooler e.g How many Liters (or Gallons) / Hour
Am not worried about the maximum head as it will only be from floor level to my bench

I started with an 880 GPH pond/aquarium pump in my sink for a 3/8" x 25' copper chiller. My next house had one of those low-flow kitchen faucets that you couldn't take the flow restrictor out of so I switched to a 396 GPH aquarium pump so the faucet could keep up. They both did a fine job chilling 5-gallons of wort in about 25 - 30 minutes although the 880 was obviously a bit better. In my new house, the flow is great so I'm back to the 880.

 

[SeeMont]

This is what I use, You can go with the bigger pump,

https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-garden/pumps/264-gph-submersible-pond-pump-63313.html
I pull chilled water from a 35 gallon garbage can through my chiller. I have now moved to a counter flow chiller.

Here is the larger on

https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-garden/pumps/620-gph-submersible-pond-pump-63314.html
Cheers

 

[NightFire]

I've used cheap submersible utility pumps from Home Depot to pump newly dug basements. I've run them continuously for days using a regular water hose with typical head heights of 10-15' without issues. At most, you might need to replace the motor bushings in 10 years. Not bad for ~$50

Superior Pump 1/4 HP Submersible Thermoplastic Utility Pump 91250

 

[Grizwold1]

I use a cooler filled with ice water.

Same here. Ice in a cooler with a couple of gallons of water. first gallon and a half or so goes into a smaller cooler for cleanup use, then recirculate thru the ice cooler. I do c. 4 gallons in a 6.5 Anvil and cool to 70 in about 15-20 minutes. Down side--uses about 20 lbs of ice, purchased from the dollar store. Could freeze my own I guess, but I'm lazy

 

[IslandLizard]

Don't waste ice to bring wort temps down from boiling. Whatever water you use should take care of most of the temp drop. Recover/save it for later use, clean up, watering plants, whatever.

Then use ice to drop the wort the last 40-60°F, to get it down or close to your fermentation temp.