Cheap pumps

[sbond10]

Some one on here recommend the topflo pumps as a better alternative to the solar ones. Flicking thru ebay I can only find one supplier of the genuine topflo one for 26.50. Whilst looking there s a lot of Chinese ones for between 10-15 quid that look bloody identical same flo rates etc. So is the extra money worth it or should I just buy 2 cheap ones and see how I go on

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-12V-18W-Bre ... Ciid%253A2

Edit it appears the one seller of the top flo job s has stopped selling um any other cheap suggestions

[Fil]

Touch wood, fingers crossed, my experience with the lil brown solar pump has been great, Once it needed its head removing and the impeller nudging, after which i started buying replacements. And ever since its been good as gold..

I did buy my lil brown solar pumps from the UK supplier solar projects uk who charges a bit more but does back them up with a guarantee that is worth more than the paper or email its written on/in.

My suggestion would be to bite the bullet and pay the premium price and get a pump from a uk supplier you can trust to sell you what you want, and if you have any problems provide a good level of post sales service.

Buying from ebay far east may well result in fake or counterfeit goods which could ruin a brewday by failing when first used if your lucky or tainting a few brews if not.

fwiw one of my replacement pump purchases was a sub £10 ebay/china lil brown solar pump with the same spec as my UK bought version. and although it looks similar, the plastic is different, more translucent and a tad paler, its finish is a tad rougher with plastic mold seams, and while it works with water when tested its flow is not upto the rate of the kosha older pump.

consider the costs of a spoilt brewday due to a dodgy 'cheap' pump, and i expect you may reconsider the value of buying from a trusted supplier even with the premium price.

[aamcle]

X 4 is that a record?

aamcle

[Fil]

oh my!! i have to blame the track pad on my old lappy, i shall now remove some text!! mods please feel free to remove duplicates..

[Fil]

or am i really sure (4 x sure) of my perspective hehe!!

[sbond10]

Cheers something deffo to consider then

Found brewuk do the topflo pumps

[donchiquon]

I guess it depends what you are going to use it for. After recirculating with 2 Solars then a Topsflo (all suffering eventual grain blockages) I've ended up with a mains magnetic pump from MM.

It is such a different beast to the others. Virtually silent and never misses a beat. No issues with grains.

I have retired the topsflo to my HLT and rigged up one of the solars as an emergency spare.

[PeeBee]

Had to take apart one of those Topsflo pumps (or something very like one) the other day because it wasn't pumping. The impeller plate is very intricate and no doubt very efficient, just hopeless at dealing with debris bigger than a grain of rice.

As "donchiquon" says, you can't beat the thumping great big mains powered March May pumps (I guess they're what he refers to with "MM"?). 1960's technology I believe, well over-engineered (they didn't know better). "Virtually silent"? Perhaps I am talking about something else. Those little pumps are best kept for clear water. Though I'd have to agree, the little "solar" pumps are a magnitude cheaper than "MM" ones.

[Kev888]

"Virtually silent"? Perhaps I am talking about something else.

Yes, you are talking about something else; the chuggers and march-may 809/815 pumps are great but costly and definitely not at all silent. There is a range of pumps with 'MP' in the product number which are very quiet (I believe probably induction motors), for example the grainfather uses one, I think the "brewpump 3000" is another (albeit re-branded) model, and the malt miller does a stainless head type. They have fairly low head capabilities and at 50hz give the lower of their dual ratings, but where that is unimportant the quietness, impeller size and price seem a good middle ground between the small cheapo types and the very expensive chuggers etc.

[sbond10]

Yep that's my issue id love to own one of the more powerful pump but don't have lots of cash
Main duties

Pumping sparge water
Possiably driving liquid thru a plate chiller

[donchiquon]

As "donchiquon" says, you can't beat the thumping great big mains powered March May pumps (I guess they're what he refers to with "MM"?). 1960's technology I believe, well over-engineered (they didn't know better). "Virtually silent"? Perhaps I am talking about something else. Those little pumps are best kept for clear water. Though I'd have to agree, the little "solar" pumps are a magnitude cheaper than "MM" ones.

Sorry - I wasn't very clear there. I meant the Maltmiller mag pump. It's £85 and a good halfway house between the solars/topsflos and the chugged/March Mays.

I'm thinking of buying another for my HLT just to have a quieter brewday

[beer taster]

Sorry - I wasn't very clear there. I meant the Maltmiller mag pump. It's £85 and a good halfway house between the solars/topsflos and the chugged/March Mays.

I'm thinking of buying another for my HLT just to have a quieter brewday

Hi Donchiquon
The Pump you purchased from the Malt Miller is it rated at 100 or 120 centigrade. The two I purchased were advertised as 120, but came labelled as 100. I've kept them and hope they can cope with recirculating boiling wort!
I have a HERMS set-up and I find the flow rate through my HE too slow approx 2L/min. Until recently I was using a March May MMP3 pump until it broke. I'll probably change my HERMS pump to a Totton or a MMP3 if I can find another cheap one on ebay

Mark

[donchiquon]

Hi Mark,

Max temp is 120: https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.p ... uctId=3197

I'm getting about 4L per min and I've not got the valves fully open.

Cheers
Ian

[beer taster]

Hi Ian

Thanks for the info. I get about 7L/min when recirculating water in the HLT its just when I send it through the heat exchanger that the pump struggles.

Thanks
Mark

[Kev888]

I get about 7L/min when recirculating water in the HLT its just when I send it through the heat exchanger that the pump struggles.

Most magnetic drive homebrew pumps have 'relatively' small maximum head ratings (there are inherent trade-offs in the design); I think your MMP would have been unusually good in this respect, IIRC something like 18m max, whilst the MP range is particularly modest - the MP-15RM is nominally rated at 1.5m (by the 2.4m max, flow will have stopped entirely). So lift height will affect flow rate noticeably more, as will significant restriction to flow (which from the pump's perspective amounts to the same thing).

When recirculating the HLT liquor you won't really be lifting much at all, mostly just working against the resistance of the pipework. When pumping through a heat exchanger this will add more restriction and you may well also be pumping up to a higher FV. Typically, there could also be a filter in the kettle, and restriction on the sucked/inlet side of the pump is worse than on the outlet/pumped side.

If you can reduce the height it needs to pump to (and any unnecessary restriction to flow) then you'll see an improvement. Letting whole hops settle over the filter before running off can also help, since they form a filter bed which stops clogging break/trub getting to the filter directly. But if you are already doing these things then you may need a pump with greater head for pumping from kettle, through chiller and up to the FV. I do with a long CFC coil unfortunately.