Pumps for brewing: market research

[brenmurph]

I am going to start manufacturing / assembling pumps suitable for brewing with some assistance from a couple of capable people.

These will be the best in the world and will come with a 3 year warranty for continuous use, just like the ones I worked with in a major plc food company. They will withstand temperatures of 250 degrees and have nothing but stainless steel in contact with the wort or beer. They will be driven by any motor from a 12volt cordless drill to  car starter motor and the pump will last forever.  Just like the Morris Minors of the day gone by they will have a handle to pump in an emergency should the industrial grade second pump fail. They will come with an adjustable housing, bracketing system that will allow any motor to be mounted on it.

If u dont want to save money and connect your own motor they can come with a pair of motors in the unlikely event of a motor failing a spare will be on hand and will pump whatever litres per minute u need probably 4 or 5 litres per minute and will also come with a stainless mesh filter that backflushes with a clever system that flushes the trub / bits of hops down the drain with a small flow of water.


Does anyone think homebrewers would be interested at 125 euros for the everlasting pump and filter?

Debate between yorselves, Ill be on holidays

[Will_D]

Hi "Master Masher ( The Migty Morphing ) Murph" or Bren for short,

Sounds like a fantastic spec, As a rocket scientist I love the idea of a redundant motor!

Now you are being serious about this??

What sort of timescale are you looking at?

There are more than 15 chuggers on the wish list. Would be much better to support someone locally even if components come from the elsquare!!

Photos?

[brenmurph]

ye willD heres a pic of a similar one. The manufacturer assures me they are / will be to the highest specification for continuous industrial use.

The bracketing system and clever filter system could be made by a good friend of mine who is great with stainless work.
The plan would be to import 50 of the pumps by DHL for 150 us dollars shipping and as the everlasting pumps can be made immediatly to order and at a very small cost so the import taxes will be 10 euros each keeping these incredible quality top grade SS pumps really keenly priced, then source the brushless motors  with direct coupling same as a drill chuck can even have a universal coupling for 1.50 dollar in case the homebrewer doesnt attach the motor straight, but these pump shafts are so strong even if the homebrewer dosnt connect the motor straight there is no chance of the pump failing cost its so incredibly strong just like in spaceships. Then  we manufacture the universal bracketing system on a small plant here in Ireland and then get a chinese shiipping company to distribute them to every homebrew shop in the world for about 2 dollars each.

Thats what I had in mind, the numbers are fairly accurate, just as this is a market research topic Im wondering what people feel about it?

[Garry]

Would the 125 Euro include a motor? I think there'd be some interest alright. You'd probably manage to shift a few of them to the UK too ?

[Dr Jacoby]

Does the motor  determine the strength of flow? How many litres per minute would be realistic? Chugger pumps achieve 20 litres per minute apparently. How would your pump compare?

[brenmurph]

If we homebrew 23 itre batches why would we need 20 litres a minute flow?

I put this post up to make a point that there is an incredible amount we can do as a club to embrace a passion for brewing and all things shiny stainless steel.
We have members from all departments, stainless engineers, skilled brewers, marketing people,  electricians and electrons, it, techys, nothing is beyond our potential.

The post was neither a joke or real, there was a little bit of sarcasm involved.

I will be receiving a number of quality pumps from china ( some food grade and some not) and experimenting with it and come up with ideas to make thinks simple and foolproof for brewing and to implement water recovery systems from brewday everything I said is possible. I plan to pump brew cooling water through cold baths to recycle and pump back to holding tanks and also to recover hot blast chiller and pump back to radiators in the house or to heat fermenting chambers. I am also working on a copper cylinder to pick up heat from the back of my fridges (replacing the radiators)  and use this water for cleaning and household, this means that the cost of refrigeration is effectively zero as all the heat produced by my fridges will be reused.

So a dozen pumps on the way, I will keep ye informed of the progress

To answer your question DrJacoby. The pump ( or any pump) would be rated at a certain rate of revolutions. A very small pump would be suffice for homebrewing. A 3 or 6 litre / minute pump would be very small and compact and pump more than enough for 23 litre homebrews with a few watts. I currently use a 12volt 12 watt chinese pump that if it was a car would have 300,000 miles on it The pump in the pic would be driven easily by the smallest cordless drill or a small motor which would be seperate to the pump. I will post pics when my ( our ) project is finished.
@ garry
a pump like that would prob come in at sub 50 euros inc duty, a motor driven one less that 100, my point was that just like a drill is used for grinding grain a drill motor ( or any small drill ) could easily cope with a few minutes pumping. The drill has no heat issues and the pump would be heat rated. A premium motor from a top quality drill would be 10-15 euros in china
However as there is so much bias against chinese products I would never go  ahead with a group buy on something like this. My house, gym and brewery is full of chinese products and everything is fine and has been. I have no issues buying from china. Its just a matter of finding a quality supplier. As I wasnt allowed comment on other pump options on another thread I opened this one
However I'm now closing it, anyone wants to know more about pumps ye can always message me or call to our brewhouse to look for yourselves

[brenmurph]

Would the 125 Euro include a motor? I think there'd be some interest alright. You'd probably manage to shift a few of them to the UK too ?

If i havnt answered already, I will be using my McGyver skills and making a quality prototype setup for well less than 100 euros. I have at least 5 x 12-18 volt drills down my garage with knackered batteries, those motors will be very usefull and id say half the homebrew club haveas many old drills again with battery probs as very little else ever goes wrong.

[Dr Jacoby]

If we homebrew 23 itre batches why would we need 20 litres a minute flow?

Whirlpooling. Plus some of us want the flexibility to brew larger batches.

[Beerbuddha]

Flow rate not important I always find you end up throttling back the flow no matter what pump is used. Looks good MacGyver.

[Dr Jacoby]

I always find you end up throttling back the flow no matter what pump is used.

Even for whirlpooling? I can understand throttling back for basic transfers but I would have thought more power is needed for a good whirlpool, especially if you brew larger batches.

[brenmurph]

for pumping brew Id use the analogy that if we bought a range rover with a 1.3 ford fiesta engine, the first hill we drive up using 4x4 would wreck the engine, the other side is if we put a v16 26 litre drag racing engine in it it would be phenominally expensive and  would eat the drivetrain and tyres off it so my point is what is the best match, no one has even discussed it unless they have and I didnt see the thread.

I would like a decent, capable, reliable pump as much as anyone but I dont see how spending 200 euros, 100 shipping and 50 taxes will help my pocket or my brewing, so Im interested in researching using a variety of pumps and see which are best for the job. if a pump i acquire isnt up to one job it will be up to another e.g it can pump waste water to a water butt.

[DEMPSEY]

Having greater flow rate than currently needed is a good idea as you can use a valve to control the rate of flow and when you want it to flow faster for other reasons then you just open the valve and let her rip

[brenmurph]

agree dempsey to a point, we discussed this a year or more back. theres a limit to how much you can reduce without stressing and overheating motor and roasting the brushes.
As long as  theres a good match. I dont think restricting a 20 litre flow to 1 litre to do a gentle sparge will be appreciated by the pump.
So good to see some debate about pumps, pairing, matching, uses and limitations

[Dr Horrible]

Interesting idea to use a gear pump, I've only ever seen those types being used for controlled dosing of viscous liquids, but there's no reason why they shouldn't work. Pretty sure they self-prime as well, which is handy.  There's very tight clearances on the gears though, how have you found them to handle solids, like hops, trub, etc?

[brenmurph]

@ DR Horrible
These are highly durable industrial pumps. u are right they are used for pumping petrol, engine oil, food oils, food stuffs, hot water, have strong suction for viscous liquids.
Bronze impellare for petrol. SS impellar for foodstuffs