[MrDonde]

Evening,

I am looking to get a small liquid pump to transfer wort/sparge water from one keggle to another. I was given one that has the same type of connector as my keggles so I would want to pump that I could put these connectors on. (Sorry I don't know the name of the connectors, I will include a picture of the pump I have)

http://imgur.com/Wl15AC7

Please let me know of any suggestions, I would like to stay around $50 but I know pumps are not the cheapest thing.

Thanks

[ynotbrusum]

Those look like 1/2 inch couplings and cam locks, so March pumps or the new D.C. Topsflo should work fine.

[SilverZero]

Edit: Haha, I should have looked at the picture. That's the same pump I have. 1/2" male NPT (or MPT) fittings, though they might just be straight threads but it doesn't make a difference if you use pipe tape.

I have one of the popular little tan Chinese 12v pumps that were all the rage a couple of years ago on another forum. It was like 15 bucks or less. The general consensus was that it was high temp and food safe. It's actually pretty solid, though people have snapped the threads off while screwing on attachments. I don't use it for brewing anymore (got 2 Chuggers when they were on sale under $100). I'd send you mine but I just used it to cycle Simple Green through my car's heater core and I don't think that smell is ever coming out.

[Big Monk]

[natebriscoe]

So which little pumps are working for everyone? I got one from a well known solar pump reseller and it lasted 35 min before it seized up and broke the shaft.

[Big Monk]

So which little pumps are working for everyone? I got one from a well known solar pump reseller and it lasted 35 min before it seized up and broke the shaft.

Were you restricting the flow on it? What is your flowpath?

[natebriscoe]

So which little pumps are working for everyone? I got one from a well known solar pump reseller and it lasted 35 min before it seized up and broke the shaft.

Were you restricting the flow on it? What is your flowpath?

Flow was restricted by a valve downstream (it is a mag drive). 

[natebriscoe]

Flow path

[Big Monk]

Cavitation maybe? The elbow on the pump suction coupled with mechanically restricted flow may have reduced the NPSH at the inlet and increased vibration.

Mine is a center inlet with a short camlock based line straight out of the mash tun outlet valve.


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[natebriscoe]

I wonder about the clearance between the impeller and shaft for use with sticky solutions. I had the pump turned where it should have flooded the whole inside. It also ran very smooth and quiet (actually was working wonderfully). Then nothing.
All fittings and valves are .5" minimum. It was also only running at .6l per min.

[Big Monk]

Your pump is doing quite a bit of work as well by having to draw it's suction into the pump. Flooded suction sources are always preferred.

For example:



My pump inlet is below the suction source and has to do little to no work to achieve its flooded suction condition.

[natebriscoe]

My liquid level is still 6" above the pump.
I hear you though, lower would be better.

[Big Monk]

My liquid level is still 6" above the pump.
I hear you though, lower would be better.

For sure. I was mostly thinking the cascading effects of the pump having to work to draw suction, the fittings string between suction source (restriction, the elbow) and pump inlet and the mechanical modulation of output. All that stuff combine may have caused cavitation and failure.

Pump runout seems unlikely given the flow rate you described.

[natebriscoe]

My liquid level is still 6" above the pump.
I hear you though, lower would be better.

For sure. I was mostly thinking the cascading effects of the pump having to work to draw suction, the fittings string between suction source (restriction, the elbow) and pump inlet and the mechanical modulation of output. All that stuff combine may have caused cavitation and failure.

Pump runout seems unlikely given the flow rate you described.

The reason I think clearance is the shaft is seized in the impeller and the shaft had spun in the housing (has flats to hold shaft).

[natebriscoe]

So after pressing the shaft out of my impeller and cleaning it all with soapy water, it spins fine. So some little pumps don't like sticky liquids. My replacement.