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Cheap submersible water pump

Northern Brewer General
#1

Evening all,

I’m tired of chilling my wort to 90 degrees with my immersion chiller, and then setting it in the fermentation chamber to wait until it reaches pitching temp. I live in South Carolina and the temperature of groundwater in the summer is around 85 degrees. I recently used a borrowed submersible water pump to recirculate ice water through the chiller post 100 degrees. It went from 100 to 60 degrees (pitching temp) with one bag of ice. The problem lies in being able to find a submersible water pump for under $50. Any suggestions? Amazon has one for $47, but that is still a bit much.

Thanks all!

#2

Here’s what I use, works great:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006M6MTM ... _aw_oh_pit

Living in Texas, kinda the same conditions so I use tap water to 120F, then switch to recirculating ice water and got to 58F last brew.

#3

My IC is 50ft of 3/8 inch copper. I’m thinking the above pump wont have enough power, or would you disagree?

#4

I have 50ft as well and works fine. Besides I don’t think I would want the water flying through as it wouldn’t pick up as much heat?.? Oh and it has a flow rate control dial.

#5

I, personally, found small pumps to be rather ineffective at pumping enough water to actually remove heat. You need to have enough water going into the chiller to remove the heat.

Here’s the one I bought from Menards and you can often find them on sale and/or with a rebate. Nice thing is it comes with an adapter to hook directly to a female hose end.

http://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/pu ... c-8673.htm

Or check out Harbor Freight for a cheap pump.

#6

Harbor Freight sells a small pond pump for about $15, 240 gph and 6’ of head, so plenty of power to push water to the top of the kettle and enough flow to operate a 50’ 1/2" IC.

#7

+1 on Harbor Freight. I got a sump pump for $20 or so there a couple years ago. Plenty of power.

#8

I use a sump pump also. Purchased at Menards for about that price. I like the ability to use it for moving water out of a basement in an emergency if needed.

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