Stainless steel pump - any suggestions?

[BlackRocksBrewery]

Hello. Im looking for some advice as I am planning to buy a pump to move hot wort etc. I am only looking to move it approx 2m maximum height. Chugger pumps seem to be the premium standard but are they any better than the dc Stainless Steel body pumps as sold by Mr Lard at the Home Brew Builder? There is a stainless steel pump sold by Machine Mart at £107 but I can't see any specification. Are any of these that much better than a £20 solar pump. I have seen one of the solar pumps in operation and was very impressed with its performance/price but I have read on the forum section "I wish I hadn't bothered" that the threaded ends are prone to break off. I look forward to hearing of your experiences.

Thanks

Stephen

[Kev888]

Hi,
The little solar pumps are impressive for their size and price, and would probably do what you need. However, they aren't completely perfect: they are (as you say) a little fragile, both physically and I had some break electrically too, whilst recirculating hot wort for longish periods or boiling wort for relatively short periods. They also have some nooks and crannies which can retain grain particles even after cleaning cycles, so I hesitate to use them on post-boil wort these days. I'd still happily use them for pumping the HLT liquor though.

The chuggers are supposed to be very good. I have the March May 815, which is said to be more or less an equivalent (bought from an american ebay seller before the chuggers were easily available to UK buyers). These are in a different league to the solar pumps; more powerful, bigger impellers, purpose-designed to be easy clean - I've been very happy with mine. Its a pity they aren't silent and the price isn't (IMO) great value, are my only criticisms. EDIT: Oh, and if it matters to the situation, mine is nowhere near splash proof.

The stainless steel 12v pumps from places such as homebrew builder and angel homebrew are relatively recent arrivals. They look very good and I've heard good reports, my suspicion is that they may be a good decision, but I haven't had one so can't comment first hand. Hopefully others will.

I've had clarke pumps from machine mart for non brewing purposes, but they were a bit so-so - cheapy made and lasted accordingly. However they weren't the stainless ones so that may not be fair. If you go for one check they are food grade and can't leak bearing oil into the liquid, and make sure the temperature rating is sufficient. There are some cases where you may want to recirculate boiling wort to sterilize the pump, and very few general purpose pumps will go that far, but many are designed for cool/cold water only.

Also its worth noting the difference between the magnetically coupled type of pump and shaft driven types. The former are popular in hombrew and can have some benefits - ease of cleaning, avoids heat affecting the bearing, avoids wort leaks out or oil leaks in from the bearing, and usually the ability to throttle the flow (downstream of the pump) with a simple valve or something without damaging the pump. However shaft driven pumps usually have a stronger link to the impeller and so if you need a self priming pump or one with more suck (as well as push) then its likely to be one of these types (though typically they can't self prime to the same height that they can lift liquid, once primed). If you want to control flow with a valve you still can still arrange that, but often a bypass loop is needed to allow the pump to keep pumping and the impeller turning as normal. The hop and grape do (or did) a stainless shaft driven one I believe, though again I haven't tried it myself.

Finally, when looking at the specs be aware that the head and flow rate quoted are not 'at the same time'; the max flow rate will be achieved with almost no lift and the max head will be at the point the flow rate virtually ceases - some suppliers/manufacturers are able to provide graphs of the head/flow relationship. Also be aware that some (especially American) pumps, even if made suitably for our UK mains voltages, may have been specified at 60Hz and will be slightly de-rated at our 50Hz.

Cheers
Kev

[Secla]

I went for a chugger the only reason being that I wanted reliability, I didn't want to be half way through a brew and the pump fails

I use it for pumping sparge water and boiling wort the my plate chiller and the fact you can throttle it back just using a tap on the outlet

My own gripe about them is the head needs to be flooded before they can be switched on, but all magnetically coupled pumps are the same as far as I know

[Fil]

fwiw i have bought a couple of nice pumps in anticipation of my lil brown solar pumps kicking it, as it is the solar pumps are going strong still they do on occasion decide not to run but a quick(ish) unscrew of the 4 head retaining screws and a nudge of the impeller sorts that out ( or has done so far) and i recirculate the boil for its full duration thru the hop spider.

the solar pumps are good as they screw directly into a 1/2" BSP valve and dont provide too much resistance for a granted slightly slower gravity drain either..

i have 2 x in use and 1 x spare incase i need to swap one out due to impeller stalls

[Hogarth]

Could anyone who's used a few of these little pumps comment on their relative noisiness? (Sorry if this is a thread hijack.) I have a little brown solar pump and it's great -- and quiet -- but it does tend to stick at inconvenient moments. I'd swap it for one of these mag-driven pumps, but I'm wondering how noisy these are. I like a nice quiet brewday.

[Matt in Birdham]

Could anyone who's used a few of these little pumps comment on their relative noisiness? (Sorry if this is a thread hijack.) I have a little brown solar pump and it's great -- and quiet -- but it does tend to stick at inconvenient moments. I'd swap it for one of these mag-driven pumps, but I'm wondering how noisy these are. I like a nice quiet brewday.

I'm just in the procss of rebuilding my HERMS rig, and have swapped the little brown pump for a TD5 with stainless head (the brown one was mostly great, btw, and still works - but it did get stuck a few times and need cleaning, so I decided it was time for an upgrade). I haven't brewed with the TD5 yet, but I have tested it and if anything it is quieter than the brown one - which is saying something.

[cqout]

Chugger all the way - i have had the little brown pumps and td5 and both types have failed on me - my chugger is superb and very quiet

[Matt in Birdham]

Chugger all the way - i have had the little brown pumps and td5 and both types have failed on me - my chugger is superb and very quiet

That's not what I wanted to hear

[BlackRocksBrewery]

Thanks for all of your comments. It sounds that you get what you pay for with a Chugger. I was also thinking of the TD5 with the stainless head until I read the above comments.

Ive still not made my mind up so any other comments will be welcomed.

Steve

[setmash]

I have a couple of chuggers. They are great pumps but they are quite noisy IMHO. I was half thinking of getting a couple of TD5s as I'd heard they were quieter....
We could do with a side by side test ....

[Kev888]

Similar story for me, the supposed silence of the TD5 would be useful in some applications, even though it is no advance over my 815 in most other ways. I wouldn't say the latter is loud, but recirculating for 90mins in a small flat would benefit from near silence.

But, it took quite some time for enough people to have enough similar issues with the little brown pumps to build up a picture of what level of performance and reliability to expect from them (in home-brew uses). The TD5s being relatively new haven't really had the time and numbers IMO to properly prove themselves (or otherwise) as yet, though so far they seem promising enough that I may try a couple at some point.