March Pump
I have purchased a March Pump for my brewing.
The March pump seems to be quite popular among homebrewers. You can do considerable cheaper with pond style pumps if you like depending on what trade-offs you wish to make.
The connectors I have put on the end are "nut and tail" style (same type as "Easy Hooker") which means I can plug and play quite easily.
Advantages of the March pump are:
- It can handle boiling liquids.
- It has threaded fittings (as opposed to most pond style pumps which are designed to be submerged.
- It is magnetically coupled meaning the water flow can be throttled right back.
Some disadvantages from my perspective:
Its cost ($AUD250 from Process Pumps). You can buy other things that will pump for under $100.
- Its motor is not protected from splashing liquids.
- Mounting options are limited.
- It is not self priming (as I understand it, neither are most magnetically coupled pumps).
Also don't expect awesome flow from the unit. I can pump 25 litres through my CFC in around 12 minutes.
Priming the pump
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RTFM! Installation.pdf
There are some challenges for brewing with a mag drive pump. If the pump is full of air, it won't pump. If there is air in other parts of the line, it can reduce the flow. This might sound obvious but in practice, this is can be annoyning to overcome. On brew day, I am reconfiguring the pump depending on what I am doing at the time and so each time I reconnect the pump there is air in the line somewhere. It can be surprisingly difficult to eliminate this - bubbles try to go uphill, often in the opposite direction of flow. The general approach I have is to let the flow start via gravity before turning the pump on. Even when doing this, air can get trapped in the pickup tube (or any high parts of the tubing) which seems to inhibit flow.
FEP Tubing
I have scored some FEP tubing (related to Teflon). One great thing about it is that it doesn't melt until well above boiling. It is very clear and nothing sticks to it. It doesn't bend less than about a 20cm radius without kinking. It can be heat formed, I used a heat gun and it was only just hot enough to soften it.
Here is some tube I formed into a hook pumping boiling water into the mashtun at mashout.