National Homebrew Club Ireland

Firstly, thanks to Matt from KegKingdom for sending the pump and offering the 5% discount to NHC Members.

After using a good few solar pumps and not being satisfied with A. performance and B. durability I started looking for alternative mains power pumps.
I wanted something that would be robust and have a good flow rate.  By the time I stopped flaffing around and trying cheaper options I could have bought a chugger.  Luckily I was able to get my hands on a second hand chugger and this is the business if not overkill for what I use it for, but its better to have and not want and all that.

When looking for mains powered pumps I was considering getting the grainfather pump, but could only get these from China, didn't want to take the gamble with import duties or if the pump arrived dead or developed an issue.  The one I was most interested in was the MKII high Temp pump from KegKing, but I could only get these from Austrailia.  These pumps have great reviews.

While browsing for kegging gear i came across the brewpump 3000 and it looks identical to the Kegking MKII pump.  After contacting Matt from Kegkindom kindly sent me the brewpump 3000 for review.

The pump arrived well packed.  I got it delivered to parcelmotel, it was a medium sized package.  After unpacking the pump my first impressions were that it was a solid pump, great build quality.  There are no exposed areas on this pump so no need to worry about spilling liquid on it and there is a good weight to it about 1.5kg and solid.  Overall very impressed with look and feel.

Some unpacking picks attached, pics 1 to 3.
Image 5 is a side by side with the chugger.  Chugger is heavier due to the body and stainless head,  and it is bit fatter, ohhhh.

Down to performance.
All I can say is that this pump is a beast.  I was very very surprised and impressed with the flow rate and performance.  At 19L/M it is not far off the chugger performance, it shifts a lot of liquid (rated to 120 degrees) and can be totally chocked back by attaching a ball valve to the pump outlet.  It is very quite in operation, you can barely hear it, but one of the things I love about the chugger is the reassuring sound that it makes when it is on.

I opened the pump and the impeller is the same as the topsflo TS5, see pic 6 and 7.
The vital information is in pic 8.
Pic 9 sees the pump with some fittings and ready for action.  The bsp fittings were a very tight fit so watch the threads.
Pic 10 is the pump in place with my system. I did a brew day with it and it performed great.  I had a total balls up of a brew day with a stuck mash, grain over flowed into the kettle from the malt pipe but the pump kept going.

Here is a quick vid of the flow rate and flow rate control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZCXCyzR6_E

I did a quick whirlpool test and chucked a cup full of grain in.  Whirlpool started off well but died off near the end.  I thought the pump had clogged and was a bit pissed but it had pulled the grain through the ball valve outlet on the kettle so fast that it clogged my tap, I opened the pump and there was no grain in it.  A guick blow on the pipe and the ball valve unclogged.
Quick vid of the whirlpool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jEKxvxH8Qw

I will try and do a post of a complete brew day with the pump, but from my initial tests this is a great magnetic drive pump, not much dearer than a ts5, with performance not quite chugger but not far off,  It is very quiet in operation for those indoor, in the house brewers.

If you are considering a pump I would highly recommend this pump.  It costs slightly more than the topsflo ts5 from brewbuilder or angelhomebrew but is a far superior pump and is roughly a third of the price of a chugger,

Future tests will be trying to clog the pump with pellet hop . 
I will empty a 25 litre kettle with the chugger and do the same test with the brewpump 3000, and time both to see how they go.

Any other tests you want carried out, let me know and I will try to get around to it.



Link to the pump
http://www.kegkingdom.co.uk/products/brew-pump-3000
Cheers

Great review cheers.

I like cameo from the beagle having a good sniff around in the background too.  ;D

Quote from: Qs on January 25, 2017, 11:21:11 AM
Great review cheers.

I like cameo from the beagle having a good sniff around in the background too.  ;D

He is a total diva, loves the limelight

Thanks for the very thorough review Darren.  I think I will get one of these for my Bulldog, the pump that came with it blew a couple of weeks ago and I'd say I'll be forever buying cheap replacements otherwise.   

No hassle, learn from my mistake and buy something a bit beefier.  I just got word that their might be a stainless head upgrade on these pumps in the future

Nice review. Stainless head version here.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Magnetic-Drive-Pump-15R-With-Stainless-Steel-Head-homebrew-with-250V-European-Plug/32756831447.html

Thanks Darren for a great review, vids + photos. I just bought the TS5 so I hope I won't be sorry. BTW, BobbyM is giving the TD5 some good lovin'. Wonder how these two would compare?

TS5 is a great pump as well, had one before, you won't have any regrets

Great service from Keg Kingdom, I ordered Tuesday night and received into my Parcel Motel Saturday morning. If you use the code the TOM at checkout you get 10% off the price of the pump.
Just wondering what's the best way to prep it before first use, it smells a little oily if you know what I mean, maybe run some Oxy through it for a while?

Yeah, run some warm oxy through it, that's what I did , left it run for about 20 minutes. I used it on a brew day and I didn't get any off flavours or infection so it did the trick

Great stuff, Thanks.

Be really careful when attaching metal threaded adapters or ball valves to the plastic threads on this pump. I tried to put a ball valve straight on and damaged the outlet threads on my new pump. You will need 2x 1/2" bps female hose barbs when you buy this pump.

Ok Thanks a million for the heads up, I have some NPT ones on order from the Homebrew Company but will pop onto Ebay tonight to see if I can get a couple of BSP ones.

Do these weigh in under the 1kg, £3 shipping to all the UK and does that include parcel motel N Ireland?

Shipping cost me £10.50 to Parcel Motel

That's fairly expensive , the postage from all the Uk shops is fairly high, but if u use the code Damofto used it brings the cost down a bit. Might be worth getting a group buy together, the pump is very good

70 odd bucks seems like it's worth a punt nice spot
Love to run one for a hour or two to see how she goes, anybody got one yet?

Looks good. My worry about ordering from China is customs and if something goes wrong with it, but at that price it's worth a punt

Did a hop test today.  I chucked 325 grams of old pellets into 32l of water and whirlpooled for 40 minutes. The pump made light work of it
https://youtu.be/C3-g4FWUyEw

And the results

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170304/ecfbbe41d38eab1267e9bd05a78a7b12.jpg)

Where's your drain?

Have a deck drain in the base of the pot. It's roughly around 1 o'clock in the previous pic

I put an inch copper pipe riser on my own to avoid all the gloop

Quote from: CH on March 04, 2017, 04:27:17 PM
I put an inch cooper pipe riser on my own to avoid all the gloop

That's a very good idea, I will definitely give that a go. Generally I drain very slowly and when all the gunk starts heading for the drain I switch off the pump if I catch it in time

Wow that pump is so quiet compared to the chugger!

Do you do a rest after whirlpool. I started about 6 months ago and now I find 30 mins makes a huge diff. I just use that time to tidy up and scrub.

Quote from: CH on March 04, 2017, 05:52:55 PM
Do you do a rest after whirlpool. I started about 6 months ago and now I find 30 mins makes a huge diff. I just use that time to tidy up and scrub.

Yep, do about a 20 minute rest, it let's everything settle a bit, I just do some tidy up and get the fermenter ready.

Johnny the pump is super quiet and the performance isn't much off the chugger

Should have my one this week. Brewery almost (kinda) rebuilt. Been 3 years to the day since my move, really excited to get back home brewing.

Quote from: Spud395 on March 05, 2017, 05:17:20 PM
Should have my one this week. Brewery almost (kinda) rebuilt. Been 3 years to the day since my move, really excited to get back home brewing.

Best of luck with the brew, be careful with the fittings on the pump, don't force them on if they are tight as you will ring the threads

Cheers Darren, I'll post when I've it set up. Going to include a bleed system to prime the pump

Post pics when you have new set up love to see it, did you have Solars originally?

Will do John, be a simple no frills 3 vessel system. Combination of gravity and pumped, fully manual, frugal as ever  ;D no fancy pots here ( yet anyway)

It's the mothers milk it makes tho

 ;)

Quote from: Spud395 on March 05, 2017, 05:55:45 PM
Going to include a bleed system to prime the pump

Spud how were you planning on doing this? I used mine for the first time at the weekend with Bulldog brewer and it was airlocking on me. I thought at first I had a stuck mash but when I put it on the Sparge Water heater the same thing was happening. 

Just got mine, the connections (plastic) on it don't seem to bsp though? What did yous do? Lots of plumbers tape and just force the threads?

Do not force the threads. You need female bsp 1/2" threads.

The stainless hosetails that I bought on Ebay didn't fit either even though they were 1/2 BSP and I damaged one of the threads slightly, so I ordered a Brass set from a different supplier and they seemed to fit better but I'd be afraid to take them off again.
The plastic threads are a bit of a downside to this pump.

I would recommend getting onto Matt at keg kingdom about getting the exact connections, seems to be a common issue.

I'm after forgetting how to post pic's here, it's the old age I'm sure.
I may have attached some, or not

Any way @Damofto I've a stainless elbow into an inline tee with a valve going straight ahead and one off to the side.
Bleed with the valve to the side and control your flow with the inline valve when pumping

At least I can see the pic, let me know if you can't.
Attached another for clarity, only mocked up btw, wouldn't leave it like that.

Yeah CH solar pump in the last build.

Looking good, I never bothered myself with a bleed and just cycle a few times at the start or half way through, but I've have seen enough of others to know they work and worth the effort.

I had a bleed off on my Chuggers to allow me to flood them

If it's below level of mt no problem

Thanks very much Spud that helps a lot. I hadn't a clue where to start but should be able to put something similar together easy enough at the weekend I think.

Hi Darren, haven't posted before but had a question on brewpump 3000. I have a single tier 3 keggle system and bought one of these pumps from Ali express to get a stainless steel head. Arrived today and I have installed under my keggle. It is sitting below the keg about 18 inches or so but I attached it to the bench so it's screwed  pointing upward.

When turned on it was struggling to pump up to the next keg, I reckon just over a metre. I gad to lift the outflow hose down until water flowed out then lift into keg to get it flowing. 

Looking at your video,  and others on Web it looks like every one has them on the flat. Do you reckon it makes a difference?

As far as I know the pump is not self priming so it's likely to be air in the headspace. I would recommend that you read the following article on chugger pumps & pay attention to the image with the bleeder valve.

https://www.love2brew.com/Articles.asp?ID=604

Basically by putting two ball valves on the output side the head space of the pump can be filled first. Then when the liquid has filled the head space open the bleeder valve to release any air, this should mean liquid flows out. When you get a continuous flow close the bleeder valve. Now your pump head is primed & you switch on the pump while @the same time opening the outflow ball valve & your pump should push the liquid out with out any problems.

I have adopted this design with my chugger & it works well. I also added an additional mod to the input side with three ball valves to allow me feed the pump from three different sources e.g. HLT, mashtun & boiler without having to detach the input sources.

Shanna

As Shanna saiid it's not self priming, I would say u are getting an air lock.

Turn pump off, open valve on the kettle . As long as the pump is at a lower level the pump will prime with liquid then turn on the  pump. Sometimes I will turn the pump on and off quickly 2 or 3 times, similar to what a braumeister does to prime

If you put a Tee piece on the outlet of the pump and fit a valve to it you can bleed the pump of air before you start the pump up. This liquid will flood the pump and thus you can then pump away.