Questions about March Pumps answered by the Factory

[DBear]

Thanks Walter.

I have tried the flow both horizontal and verticle. I have an immersion jamil-o-chiller and always had trouble pumping the boiling wort (for the reasons described by others on the forum)

The only way I have found to get a smooth flow for recircing the boiling wort is if I lift the chiller above the wort level, make sure there is a smooth flow and return to wort. (not the safest approach)

-Cheers

[WalterAtMarchPump]

The issue some have with pumping boiling wort is the fact that its boiling! you have air bubbles forming right at the bottom of the kettle...and if the inlet of the pump is right there you can introduce air into the pump head and cavitate it resulting in reduced or no flow. Easiest thing you can do is when you are done boiling let it stand a few minutes just long enough for the air bubbles to stop forming before starting up the pump...

-Walter

[krizwit]

The position of the motor is not as critical as the pump head it self. Ideal situation is Horrizontal with the discharge of the pump pointing to the ceiling. Most of our pumps you can clock the head in different positions to achieve this if you cant mount the motor to the floor. (like if you were to mount the motor to the bottom of a table for instance) Some people ask about mounting the pumps verticaly...they can be mounted that way but only with the motor below the pump head. As far as oiling goes....the motor mfg tells us that they have enough lubrication from the factory to last 3-5 years running continuously. If you are in a bad/dusty environment then 3-4 drops of a lightweght machine oil once or twice a year is fine. You can use a sewing machine oil or a 3-in-one oil you find at hardware stores.

-Walter

Thanks Walter!

Dbear - Restrict the outflow of the wort while it is boing and you want get the bubbles(cavitation). You can open the ball valve all the way after the wort has cooled a little.
I dont have a elbow attached to my BK and I am able to recirculate the boiling wort without restricting the pump. If you have full port ball valves it helps significantly.

[Cliff]

wow~!! Talk about corporate outreach.

[ajdelange]

The issue some have with pumping boiling wort is the fact that its boiling! you have air bubbles forming right at the bottom of the kettle...and if the inlet of the pump is right there you can introduce air into the pump head and cavitate it resulting in reduced or no flow. Easiest thing you can do is when you are done boiling let it stand a few minutes just long enough for the air bubbles to stop forming before starting up the pump...
-Walter

I don't pump boiling wort but have noticed this flashing to steam under the reduced pressure in the volute when pumping boiling (or near boling water). The solution I use is to just dump some cool water over the volute, being careful not to get any in the motor. I have the bronze volutes and this quickly cools them off enough that I don't get the flashing for a few minutes but if it recurrs I just repeat. This is doubtless stressful to the bronze but I don't pump that much boiling water (just for kettle makeup) and haven't had a failure in over 5 years of doing this.

[WalterAtMarchPump]

If you think your having a flashing issue due to the heat, i would more likely lean to there being a restriction on the inlet side. Check to make sure you have full flow valves and fittings...and dont have too many 90* elbows etc. on the intake side. You can also choke the discharge a tad if your line size is bigger then the inlet size to balance the flow rates out too.

-Walter

[ajdelange]

Well there is a pressure drop across the inlet fittings of course because there is flow but there is not much I can do to improve that. I come out of the HLT through a short 1" 3A sanitary nipple connected to a 3A butterfly valve. At the output of the valve there is a 3A to NPT adapter and that goes right into the pump through a short nipple. There is a bit of a choke on the outlet - a check valve.

It occurs to me in thinking about this that the water entering the volute is super heated a tad when the HLT is full or near full because the HLT is about 33" tall (55 gal drum). So if I'm pumping down i.e. with the output hose at a level at or below the bottom of the HLT, its possible (depending on friction) there will be a pressure drop across the pump and flashing might be expected. OTOH when I am pumping into another drum the output line is as high (or higher) than the water level and there is no hydrostatic drop across the pump. I never noticed whether the flashing occurs in the first case but not the second. I will look out for that next time I brew.

[DBear]

Thanks krizwit.

For the last 15 min of the boil I run the wort through the the pump as a final pump sanitization step. When finished I run the left over chiller water (now hot) through the pump to blow out the crud.

How are you guys cleaning/sanitizing you pumps (heh)

-Cheers