Beer Forum

I'd like to put together a pump setup for cleaning and sanitizing tubing.

I picture a small submersible pump that sits in a tub or bucket of solution with a length of vinyl tubing attached to the out port of the pump. The tubing would have a quick disconnection of some type on it to allow easy attachment of different connectors (barbs, flare, maybe keg quick disconnect).

I don't want this thing to have fire hose power, but I do want the liquid to move through at a nice clip. Any recommendations on gallon per hour rating of the pump?

I also want the pump to sit in as little solution as possible. Any recommendations for a specific pump or manufacturer?

You can probably find one for less, but I use a pump similar to this one for my keg cleaning system.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=p ... lpage=none

It's got enough force to push the liquid up and through the liquid and gas connects in my keg cleaner, so I'm pretty sure it should be able to push cleaner and sanitizer through some tubing.

The barb accepts 3/8" or 1/2" tubing, which is nice. Since it's a fountain pump, it pulls liquid from the bottom of the bucket, which should meet your needs. Fountain pumps usually measure strength in height they push liquid, along with gallons per hour flow rates. The lower the line, the more flow you'll get. Especially if the tubing is lower (bottom of the bucket), you should be fine.

This is from an earlier thread that I posted to regarding a counter flow chiller but the part about the pump applies however it isn't
a submersible pump. You can put any size barb you want on it.

My son along with a herd of friends who just got their engineering degrees and are expert brewers
researched the issue of cleaning the cooler and came up with a fairly simple approach. Using this pump-

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... umber=9576

you can run HOT water and PBW thru the tubing for any number of minutes at a very high velocity. If you are concerned
about crud in the line cut small sections of rags and run them thru to catch any junk hanging in the line. Insert the rags between the outflow of the pump
and the inflow line of the cooler. That being said I have found that it really isn't necessary. Also you can use a power supply from an old computer to run the pump or an old car battery.

One other point with this pump, since it is self priming, when you do get a clog in your wort transfer, you can put it on the cold side of the counter flow cooler and suck the wort thru. Only problem is that the wort won't get very cool at the velocity of the pump. You'll need to turn it on and off, cooling the wort a little at a time.

Are you sure the pump housing and impeller are stainless and are the seal food grade (assuming not a magnetic drive)?? Did your son and his friends investigate this pump's capabilites with potable liquids? I ask because that is one hell of a good price. I spent $100 on my PolySulfone March pump.

Thanks for the find!

Nope its not a magnetic pump, and I don't know if its all stainless, I sorta doubt it.
I haven't been real excited about them using it on the hot side of the kettle, but for very short
bursts after you have cleaned it well with PBW and hot water on the COLD SIDE of a counter flow chiller
it probably isn't harmful. I'm really talking about only using it for cleaning the chiller and any tubing.