Brew pump & housing

[Chris Craig]

I threw this together this afternoon so that the cheap-ass pump from greatbreweh.ca (*spits on ground in disgust) doesn't get destroyed one brew day.

[Kyle]

Well, the housing looks solid at least...

[Chris Craig]

At least the pump works really well.

[JohnQ]

Looks great, the only small concern I might have is the hose from the pump to the out looks to be the heat resistant silicone, and the next thing in line is a valve.
Don't know how strong the pump is, but I've read that the silicone can blow up like a balloon if the out valve is shut off with pump running, and potentially weaken and eventually burst after doing that a few times, then you'd be left with a nice box filled with wort, and the pump submerged in said wort.
If it is that stuff, maybe consider either
1. some reinforcing tape around it like the stuff that can fix pipes under household pressure, or
2. replacing with copper if you can find a fitting that could solder on to that.

Just a thought...

JQ

[Chris Craig]

Good idea JQ.  I'll investigate, but I'm not sure how much pressure I'd get from this pump.  A reinforcing wire may be all that's needed here, or I coule put a bit of garden hose over it as a sleeve. That should be sufficient.

[Kyle]

When brewing, I generally close the valve on the vessel being fed by the pump before switching off the pump (so as to make sure it stays primed). At the pressure generated by the March Pump, it is no problem for the silicone hose. However, I did test if it would burst under the pressure delivered from my hot water tank in the house (about 40psi, I think.) That led to water everywhere.

[fakr]

looks good Chris.  I think I'll do something similar.

[Chris Craig]

When brewing, I generally close the valve on the vessel being fed by the pump before switching off the pump (so as to make sure it stays primed). At the pressure generated by the March Pump, it is no problem for the silicone hose. However, I did test if it would burst under the pressure delivered from my hot water tank in the house (about 40psi, I think.) That led to water everywhere.

That's part of the reason I put a valve on the outlet.  The other reason being flow control.  I know it's not the correct valve for that, but it works just fine for me.

[Chris Craig]

I've been having priming issues with this, so I rotated the pump inside the box so that the intake was lower than the output, and I installed this waste port and ball valve.  Now it primes super easy!