Intro to 1st pump, need advice

[bazookazilla]

I ordered a chugger pump but dont have it yet. Is there a how-to for how to set one up somewhere? I would like to use it for wort transfer but my main reason for getting it is to run a Jamil style chiller. I am confused as to how to set it up and what fittings I need. Maybe it will seem simpler when I actually have it and can put my hands & eyeballs on it.

[NateBrews]

There are some videos on youtube about how to use them.

In my setup, I have it screwed right into the brew kettle's NPT fitting, then I have a large ball valve to control flow with a hose barb on the output of that which hase 6 ft of silicone tubing on it which I can run into my kettle or mash tun or whatever. This is a picture I posted on homebrewtalk of it, I think it is the simplest way to hook up a pump and uses the least fittings.




A few notes on the setup: The ball valve is actually turned down most of the time instead of pointing up. I have the end of the hose attacted to the handle (a stick of aluminum) so that it hooks to the right to give me the tangential flow. The the aluminum is bent into a hook on the top so I can hook it on the edge of the mash tun, kettle, or wherever the wort is going. I also went all tri-clover fittings, which I would recommend. I got my stuff from Brewershardware.com. Good equipment and low prices.

Like you, the main motivator was to have the whirlpool chiller for fast cooling, but I also got sick of lifting up 60lbs of water to put it on the tiers of my brew stand (not to mention the danger). It is one of those things I couldn't possibly justify when I started brewing, but now I couldn't brew without my pump.

[Ozwald]

You'll need some 1/2" hardware for it. I have mine (a March, but basically the same thing) set up with the inlet port facing up & the outlet port facing down. I put a stainless T on each and have 4 ball valves hooked up to it - 1 in from the MLT, 1 in from the BK, 1 out to the MLT, 1 out to the BK. My HLT is on a higher tier & gravity feeds into an auto-sparge. I put QD's on all 4 ball valves as well. You could use nipples & hose clamps for your tubing, but QD's make it easier to move things around & more importantly, clean everything.


If you're just going to single purpose it for the time being, I'd set it up the same way, only with a single ball valve on the outlet port. The ball valve on your kettle hooks up directly to a nipple/QD on the in side.

About 10 minutes before flame out, open the ball valve on the kettle & the pump & give it a minute. You can't run the pump dry, so you're letting gravity fill the system with wort. Make sure the entire loop is open so the air has somewhere to go. Then start the pump to recirc during the boil to sanitize the loop. Always throttle the pump on the outlet side, never the inlet side.

Kill your flame & chill. When you're done chilling, leave the pump running & close the ball valve on the pump. Leave the one on the kettle wide open. Move your tube from your chiller to your 50g conical (or carboy) & slowly open the valve on the pump to start filling the vessel. I wouldn't leave it running all day with the outlet valve closed, but it's not that big of a deal to leave it running while you're swapping some hoses around.

For hardware you can use brass, but just get the 304 stainless stuff. It'll save you money in the long run since you'll quite likely to be upgrading to it anyways. The pump has 1/2" MPT on both sides. For the setup above you'll need:

* A nipple or QD with female threads for the inlet
* A ball valve for the outlet
* A nipple or QD with male threads for the ball valve.

That's it! Have fun learning some new curse words the first few times you cavitate it.

[bazookazilla]

Thanks Oz,
Do you find that any particular curse words are more effective than others when directed at your pump? I feel like I already know some pretty good ones, some in Spanish, but would love to cut out some of the R&D if you are aware of any particularly potent ones. Also...any tips for not allowing the pump to cavitate?

[Ozwald]

They'll come naturally, I can assure you. You may even surprise yourself with new combinations never before thought possible.

You'll get cavitation when you don't have a loop full of liquid i.e. a bubble hits the pump. In my case I use my pump to HERMS/RIMS & after I start the mash I never allow the pump to get empty.

This is a really old pic, but the pump is still set up the same way. The top 2 valves (V1 on the left, V2 on the right) are going into the pump, V1 from the MLT, V2 from the BK. On the bottom V3 goes through the RIMS tube up to the autosparge. V4 on the right goes back to the BK.



I dough in with everything closed. I open the MLT valve & V1. Gravity will start to fill the pump head at that point. At first I used to open V3 at the same time so air could escape in the other direction as well, but I still ran into cavitation issues from time to time. Now instead of opening V3 I don't have a hose hooked up to V4 until the mash is under way, so I use it as a bleeder valve - open the MLT & V1 full, put a pint glass under V4 & slowly open it about half way. After 2 or 3 pints I'm convinced the pump head all the way back to the MLT is bubble-free. Now the important part is to start the pump BEFORE opening V3. Otherwise air trapped in the RIMS tube will come back at the pump. Opening V3 slowly eliminates that problem.

With your setup you have a couple of options. One is to bleed the output as you're filling the kettle. Another would be to add a 2nd valve on the output & use a procedure similar to mine.

[CatSnake]

I recently got a Chugger pump as well. At first I used the same 1/2 in OD vinyl tubing that I had been using in the past for gravity fed wort transfers, and while it worked ok, stuffing the tubing onto the brass nipples that I bought and fitted onto the pump and valve got old quick. I felt like I couldn't trust the tube on the nipple without a hose clamp, and it was a hassle to screw in and unscrew the hose clamps every time I wanted to change the hoses around.

So I ended up getting 1/2 ID camlock fittings online, and installing them onto my kettle and mash tun. I use the male fittings on the kettle, pump, and mash tun, and I have the female fittings installed on silicon hose. Since everything in the system has a 1/2" ID, the pump is able to move the wort a lot faster. Cleanup is also way easier since I can boil the hoses and run boiling wort through it to sanitize everything.