Grainfather pump

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Hairybiker
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Hairybiker » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:11 pm

I just use the cheapest stuff I can get. Doesn't normally bubble too much at 66. There is always plenty of water left after the 15min of cleaning cycle.

If you are getting a lot of bubbling then maybe you have a leak somewhere? When pumping water there should be virtually no bubbling after the initial purge of air.

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Kev888
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Kev888 » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:47 pm

In my case, the bubbling was the 'oxy' cleaner effervescing too vigorously, particularly in the turbulence around the impeller, and causing a gas pocket to form there. This was very repeatable, yet other types of cleaner in exactly the same conditions never have a problem.

I'm 'not' saying oxy-cleaner is inherently bad, some are clearly better than others and can work well. There is just no single formula for these laundry cleaners; manufacturers can use whatever combo they like. So as a family its not possible to advise for or against them, it comes down to specific products.
Kev

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Hairybiker
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Hairybiker » Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:36 pm

I meant the OP. He was having bubbling issues.
It may also depend on your local water how hard it works.

Robhaigh
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Robhaigh » Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:47 pm

I have the exact same problem. Brand new GF, 3 brews in and the pump makes that god awful noise and refuses to pump. Turning it on/off for a random amount of times gets it going.
Even does it during clean cycle and blowing down the pipe tells me everything is clear.
Have contacted GF and they tell me to strip the pump down and check.
I will do that tonight and report back.
I had a quick look online and a ‘genuine’ GF pump is silly money.
On closer inspection it uses a MP-10RN pump which if a new one is needed can be picked up on AliExpress for £26 plus £14 shipping.
Hopefully a strip down , clean and inspection will reveal something obvious .

Will report back with any response I get from GF.


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Wilfy
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Wilfy » Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:54 pm

Robhaigh wrote:
Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:47 pm
I have the exact same problem. Brand new GF, 3 brews in and the pump makes that god awful noise and refuses to pump. Turning it on/off for a random amount of times gets it going.
Even does it during clean cycle and blowing down the pipe tells me everything is clear.
Have contacted GF and they tell me to strip the pump down and check.
I will do that tonight and report back.
I had a quick look online and a ‘genuine’ GF pump is silly money.
On closer inspection it uses a MP-10RN pump which if a new one is needed can be picked up on AliExpress for £26 plus £14 shipping.
Hopefully a strip down , clean and inspection will reveal something obvious .

Will report back with any response I get from GF.


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Can you take some photos showing the various stages please?

Midlife
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Midlife » Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:50 pm

Really nice brewer and glad I bought one I just see the pump as weak point you dont need playing up when in the middle brewing, and being able to switch out is ideal.

I figure your best bet if the pump fails during the brew is to temp transfer the wart, take out the pump and plumb a spare 12v mag pump in between the existing pipes, wort back in, and carry on.

I think my issue with bubbles on the dry run with the counter flow chiller was dissolved air in the tap water because I didn't boil it I just got up to about 95 ish (from memory) and switched the pump on, and it was having trouble getting going. During brewing with the viscosity of the wort Im sure it will be fine.

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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by steviebobs83 » Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:37 am

[quote="Midlife"]Ok so I might have killed this thread with my suggestion of modifying the pipework?

I ran mine for the first time doing the cleaning cycle and can see the pump issue as soon as it gets air bubbles in it, same as this quote.

[quote]FUBAR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:47 am
I find with mine sometimes you need to switch the pump on and off a few times to get it to work.
This is what i have to do some times. The pump is not very powerfull so when you have the chiller attached it slows the flow right down. I found that a tiny bit of air in the pump would stop the flow altogether. I found the best way to sort this is to either stop and start the pump a few times. Or disconnect the chiller and blow down the pipework that leads down to the pump. If you still have the non return ball and spring in the valve then the actual valve will need to be removed for you to do this.[/quote]

What does the non return valve actually achieve, unless I'm being thick I cant see why you need it?

On the plus side it is a very nice brewer![/quote]I may be a guinea pig in this pipework experiment. Pulled mine out of the garage for the last brewday to find some kind of rodent had munched through all the silicone pipes in and out of the pump. Had to improvise with a couple of small lengths of garden hose, some cable ties and a thorough clean. Extended the brewday by a couple of hours but got the job done.

Now I need to replace the hose properly as I'm pretty sure it's not food safe and will degrade quite quickly. I may just do some slightly longer silicone pipes and some quick release clamps to bypass the pump if it goes on the blink, which it has done before.


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AndyFromOz
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by AndyFromOz » Sat Oct 06, 2018 9:59 am

[quote=Kev888 post_id=828776 time=1517169056 user_id=5506]
Does your cleaning cycle use a hot oxy laundry-cleaner, or something of that kind?
[/quote]

Just thought I'd join this forum to thank Kev888 for this and and another post in this thread. I thought my pump had died and wasn't spinning at speed after it had been running for a while.. turns out Kev was right on the money - using Sodium Perc as a cleaner is fine, but once it goes through the pump, when the water is hot, the perc releases oxygen to the point the pump is no longer efficient.

So THANKS KEV!! You saved me a lot of grief.

Edit: Why don't quotes work properly on this forum??

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Jim
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Jim » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:15 am

Hi Andy and welcome!

Quotes and various other things don't work for new users - you need 5 posts to leave the new user category.
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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Kev888
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by Kev888 » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:32 am

Thats kind of you Andy; thanks for joining, and welcome!

FWIW I did a bit more testing since this thread, and found there is a temperature threshold over which the percarbonate gets much worse. In the case of my particular mixture, it is fine to around 65C but after about 75C it starts getting very lively.

Similar things were true of the oxy-cleaner I had, just at a much lower temperature (I guess some are designed to work more actively in cool laundry washes). Here is a small test of how different they can be - a random oxyclean in one and a plain percarbonate/metasilicate mix in the other (water at about 75C):


Cheers
Kev

sbond10
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by sbond10 » Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:32 am

Just thougjt id mention i use smartprice dishwasher tabs to clean my cfc. Seems to work well so far

FULLERS
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by FULLERS » Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:27 am

try taking out ball and spring on sparge arm, just dont switch on pump by accident...lol

aamcle
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by aamcle » Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:13 am

Try 1/2 a dish washer tablet.

I have been using dish washer detergent for some time it works well and as far as I can tell does not foam. Some people including myself worry that head retention will be effected so I rinse well after cleaning. This includes flushing water backwards through the pipe work and pump.


Atb. Aamcle

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MickJ
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Re: Grainfather pump

Post by MickJ » Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:26 am

With the Grainfather 10 minutes before end of boil I turn the pump on to sanitise the chiller than at end of boil turn on cooling water to bring down the temperature in the Grainfather..

Than when ready to transfer to the fermenter turn the pump off for a few seconds..

This is when it won’t pump but just makes noises..

In the past I have blown air down the discharge pipe to the pump if the problem was hops on the pump filter..
Another fix was to pour water down the pipe to prime the pump.
Last fix was to blow through the chiller to remove the wort if the problem was a back pressure one that the pump over come..

Today nothing worked and after about 10 attempts.
So the only thing I could find on the internet were over heated pumps or non working pumps, so after a stoppage of 10 or 15 minutes the pump started first time..

So for my 2nd brew today a computer fan was placed above the pump that has the stainless cover removed and after the turn off and move hose to the fermenter it pumped OK and the pump was cool when touched …

So will have the fan ready for next time and use it as the only fix and if it works install the fan to cool the pump from start of boil till pump out finished..

Michael
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Australia

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