March Pump Alternative

[Chris Craig]

Yeah.  The fact that it says "BSP/NPT" should have made me think.

[DandyMason]

I spoke with the guy about this before buying them and he sorta warned me, but said with some teflon tape you can manage. He said everyone else has managed to get a seal anyway. Im trying mine for the first time tomorrow, so ill see how it goes.

[pliny]

Mmm, I got my fittings at bargainfittings.com and they're NPT and they fit on the small pump.
I've used them during a brewing session and they work fine.

[Chris Craig]

Mmm, I got my fittings at bargainfittings.com and they're NPT and they fit on the small pump.
I've used them during a brewing session and they work fine.

I'm sure I could get the fittings on, but the fittings on the pump are pretty poor quality.  That's the big issue. They're mangled pretty good.

[fakr]

The threads on my pump were quite sharp and very tight when threading on a cam lock.  When threading on an SS female NTP threaded fitting, it threaded on fine.  The threaded fitting was lose on all threads I tried, but the cam locks have a very precice thread with very little variation room.

I used some teflon plumbers tape on the pump threads, and threaded on the cam locks.  They only thread in about a third of the way, but they haven't leaked yet.  Remember too, it's not like our brew setups produce 30PSI of pressure or anything, so I wouldn't worry too much about leaking, just juse some teflon tape.

I'm still very very happy with my pump.

BUT, for the record, I was pissed too when I first went to thread on the first cam lock and it didn't thread on very far.

[pliny]

The threads on my pump were quite sharp and very tight when threading on a cam lock.  When threading on an SS female NTP threaded fitting, it threaded on fine.  The threaded fitting was lose on all threads I tried, but the cam locks have a very precice thread with very little variation room.

I used some teflon plumbers tape on the pump threads, and threaded on the cam locks.  They only thread in about a third of the way, but they haven't leaked yet.  Remember too, it's not like our brew setups produce 30PSI of pressure or anything, so I wouldn't worry too much about leaking, just juse some teflon tape.

I'm still very very happy with my pump.

BUT, for the record, I was pissed too when I first went to thread on the first cam lock and it didn't thread on very far.

I experienced this same thing.

[fakr]

Any of you guys try your new pump yet?

[chrismccull]

You can get BSP to NPT adapters if you want.

[Chris Craig]

I'll probably go that route.  It'll just be a little difficult to get SS adapters, I should think.

I'm going to have to get myself a file and clean up the threads before I can do anything at all though.

[DandyMason]

Exact same with me Fakr... Some teflon tape and no leaks.

Just finsihing up my brew day with my new pump. Still havent quite figured out how ill use the pump, Theres so many possibilites.

Worked really well though.

[pliny]

Any of you guys try your new pump yet?

Yep, used mine this week and all is well and I'll use it again.

[jeffsmith]

McMaster-Carr carries BSP to NPT adapters, but they're not cheap—anywhere from ~$25 to $45.

[fakr]

yeah Chris, I used a small triangle file to widen up the threads a bit.  

The first time I used my pump, I used it to recirculate the wort in the mash for the last 10 minutes of the mash.  Produced really clear wort and gave me the motivation to start building a HERMS or RIMS system.

The second time I used it was to transfer kettle wort through my CFC instead of lifting the kettle to a higher location to gravity feed through the CFC.  

just those two uses made buying the pump worth it.

[Chris Craig]

Yeah.  I can get the fittings on one side about a third of the way. I'm going to try to file down the burrs on the other side.  I don't think it'll be too difficult.  It's just shoddy craftsmanship.  If I could do it again, I'd get a march pump.

[Chris Craig]

So, I'm still trying to deal with these guys, but they're not very helpful. They keep insisting I need a different fitting.  I got looking closer, and I notice that the threads on the side I'm having trouble with are actually thicker!  They don't taper off like the other side.



If you're thinking of ordering one of these, hold off a bit until we see how they handle this.