I just switched from using a peltier device to small chest freezer filled with glycol for cooling. What a difference, the fridge temp drops vertically when the cooling cycle starts. All was working great for about 30 minutes then the pump failed, I tried a second pump and that failed after the same amount of time. I’m using a cheap pump off ebay which doesn’t state minimum temp, I guess it can’t handle glycol at -20C though.
Can anyone recommend a cheap pump that can cope with the glycol temp?
I am using the submersible pump from SS-brewtech. I have not tried at -20 yet though.
If you can find a submersible pump, they are usually cheaper. It does not have to be a food grade pump, because the glycol is not mixing with your beer.
Pond pumps work fine, but pay attention to the vertical lift on them and flow. Also you need to see how viscous your fluid is at temp you may just be pushing the pump far beyond it’s limits.
Cheers,
-Stephen
Here is the pump I currently use in my Glycol setup and it works great.
How long have you been using it? I need to find a different one; I use three pumps in my setup and have had to replace two already, thankfully it was never at a time that would have killed my beer. Here’s the one I have DO NOT USE IT:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BBMV3IE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I’ve had this guy well over a year now and works great.
Looks like I need a new pump too.
IT STILL WORKS!
I didn’t have glycol yet, but I wasn’t cold crashing, so it wasn’t really needed.
But due to a dumb mistake, the water froze. When the ice melted again, smoke emerged from the ice. Accompanied by a smell of burnt electronics. Note that the pump was powered while being frozen in ice.
Update: after the ice around the pump had fully melted, I tried the pump again. Despite the smoke and burnt electronics smell that came from the ice, the pump still seems to work!
So yeah, I would recommend the SS brewtech pump :).
HA HA awesome! Now the question is how much do you trust that pump now that it let out some magic smoke?
I dunno how much I would trust it without having a backup plan.
Cheers,
-Stephen