For many years, I have been using a 1/5HP thermoplastic submersible pump I got at Home Depot to run my CIP ball in my 5 gallon stainless steel fermenter. It’s getting old and a little corroded and I’m wondering if there’s a better solution nowadays rather than just buying another all purpose submersible pump. Anybody have any good options?
Thanks
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Blichmann RipTide is likely the best homebrew level solution.
Chugger makes good pumps, cheaper than blichmann but they get the job done. With a bit of tinkering you can make it more user friendly.
There’s even a cheaper generic chinese pump that a lot of people use.
They’re all magnetic drive motors. I think you’d be very happy with the Rip Tide.
You also need to keep in mind the extra fittings and hoses to really make it work.
It takes high pressure at a somewhat low flow rate to run a CIP ball well. The typical homebrew pump can only produce maybe 10 or 12 feet of head and that ball would need at least twice that. That off-the-shelf submersible probably has double or triple the horsepower and is designed to operate at higher head.
Forget a homebrewing pump for this use.
I use my Riptide pump which is attached to an inline stainless steel strainer (to filter out any hop residue that might make it out of the kettle) and then to my plate chiller which then feeds my CIP spray ball. That way I can clean the pump, strainer, and fermenter all at the same time. It works well for me and has the pump has the appropriate amount of pressure to do all three. You can also adjust the flow rate on the Riptide pump to what you want to adequately drive the spray ball. In addition, I clean my plate chiller in both directions to make sure I get everything out of it during the cleaning process.
I also use this same arrangement to sanitize the pump, strainer, and fermenter before transferring the beer from the kettle to the fermenter.
