[gymrat]

I bought a really cheap ($20) pond pump and tried it out yesterday. I cooled my wort to 90F running garden hose water through my chiller, then changed it over to my pond pump. I had the pump in the bottom of my mash tun with the false bottom removed. I had approx a gallon of water in it and 6lbs of ice. It took 10 minutes to get the water from 90 to 70. The ice was gone but the water was still really cold. I dumped in a second 6lb bag of ice. 10 minutes later my wort was 62 degrees. My ground water was 72 so without the pump I never would have gotten the wort under 72 and it would have taken me a long time to get it to that temperature.

[Delo]

I just bought one of these little pumps from lowes with the intent of doing the same thing.  Glad to hear it worked. I was kind of hoping it would take less ice. Did you stir at all?

[gymrat]

Yes I was stirring the whole time. You could get by with less ice if you wait until the temp gets down to 80 before adding I think. I will be experimenting in future batches. I paid $1.50 per 6lbs so I didn't think 2 bags was too bad.

[AmandaK]

A good friend of mine does the same thing except he makes ice in 3"x10"x8" blocks instead of buying it.

[gymrat]

Next time I am going to just dump my ice maker tray into a bag, and let it fill again, then bag that a couple days before brew day instead of buying the ice.

[Delo]

Its not so much the cost. I wanted to make ice blocks in Chinese food containers and then refreeze the water afterwards.  It might take up a lot of space and I've already taken up a lot of real estate in our spare freezer with hops. 

[AmandaK]

Its not so much the cost. I wanted to make ice blocks in Chinese food containers and then refreeze the water afterwards.  It might take up a lot of space and I've already taken up a lot of real estate in our spare freezer with hops.

Easy solution. Buy another freezer! 

[factory]

I pick up one of these pond pumps at Harbor Freight for about $15. It's supposed to pump 234 gal per hour. I'll get around to using it one day.

[gymrat]

Mine is only rated at 140 per hour and I paid $20.