Use a maxi coolers beer lines for cooling

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I am having problems with my maxi cooper setup.

I used to have no issue with using the python circuit to pump coolant around an exterior coil on my FV.

But it’s started playing up, and rather than fiddle with it, I would like to try rigging up a spare pump to the beer lines instead.

But I can’t see a good guide for this even if it is the recommended way by experienced maxi users.

Particularly I would like to figure out how you get coolant into what is a closed system, how to bleed the air, and how to deal with a leak that lets the pump run dry.

Any videos or tutorials that show how it is done?

[LeeH]

You could maybe drop a solar pump into the water bath and have 2 lines just coming out of the top viewing hole.

Personally I’d look at fixing the cooler.


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[Kev888]

Many people use submersible aquarium (or small pond) pumps plopped into the cool bath. In a similar manner, I use a solar project pump submerged in the cool bath, like Lee says. IIRC they aren't technically designed to be submerged (so it is a risk) but their IP rating will often allow it, and it is what I had. I previously fitted a bottom drain to the cool bath and had the pump external, but it didn't gain anything aside from complexity; the power is so low that it doesn't heat the cool bath much.

FWIW if the heat exchange between cooling gubbins and wort is good, the cool bath need only be a few degrees or so below the desired wort temperature. So to save energy I replaced the Maxi's 'always freezing' thermostat with an STC-1000 to avoid unnecessarily heavy cooling. I also added some glycol (the less toxic propylene type, not the ethylene/car type) in the cool bath to stop it freezing up the pump when crash cooling.