Hey all,
Earlier in the year I missed out on the Chugger deal and ended up buying a pump from GreatBrewEh. I'm starting to regret my purchase, and wondered if anyone else has some suggestions.
1) This thing is a pain to clean. Maybe this is all pumps (only one I've ever owned), but no matter what I do I've got to take it apart to clean the whole thing out every time. The last two times I've used it (total three brews) I've cycled hot water for 10 minutes, oxiclean for 10 minutes and then starsan for 10 minutes to make sure it's clean. However, when I opened it up before brewing this past weekend (just out of curiousity) I found a massive mold monster growing in the plastic section of the inlet -- it took me about 40 minutes with a tiny little bottle brush and anything else I could find to clean it out. Ran the same cleaning cycle this past brewday, and opened up just to be sure 24 hours later, and the same problem: a growth in that same section of the inlet (which I'm 100% sure I cleaned to high heaven beforehand).
2) The thing is a pain to prime. It's a crapshoot whether it's going to actually move any liquid any time I connect it. There's a lot of lifting and juggling hoses, moving the MLT up and down a foot or two and praying before the thing will prime. I've tried every trick I can find to prime it, still no consistency.
3) The power connector is terrible. My pump's power connector ended up being fault, causing it to power down randomly. GBE did offer to send a new one, but by that point I had already bought an inline switch and removed the piddly power connector entirely.
My current concern is that because the body is plastic, any hope I have of properly sanitizing this thing post-mold are out the window. Thoughts anyone?
Earlier in the year I missed out on the Chugger deal and ended up buying a pump from GreatBrewEh. I'm starting to regret my purchase, and wondered if anyone else has some suggestions.
1) This thing is a pain to clean. Maybe this is all pumps (only one I've ever owned), but no matter what I do I've got to take it apart to clean the whole thing out every time. The last two times I've used it (total three brews) I've cycled hot water for 10 minutes, oxiclean for 10 minutes and then starsan for 10 minutes to make sure it's clean. However, when I opened it up before brewing this past weekend (just out of curiousity) I found a massive mold monster growing in the plastic section of the inlet -- it took me about 40 minutes with a tiny little bottle brush and anything else I could find to clean it out. Ran the same cleaning cycle this past brewday, and opened up just to be sure 24 hours later, and the same problem: a growth in that same section of the inlet (which I'm 100% sure I cleaned to high heaven beforehand).
2) The thing is a pain to prime. It's a crapshoot whether it's going to actually move any liquid any time I connect it. There's a lot of lifting and juggling hoses, moving the MLT up and down a foot or two and praying before the thing will prime. I've tried every trick I can find to prime it, still no consistency.
3) The power connector is terrible. My pump's power connector ended up being fault, causing it to power down randomly. GBE did offer to send a new one, but by that point I had already bought an inline switch and removed the piddly power connector entirely.
My current concern is that because the body is plastic, any hope I have of properly sanitizing this thing post-mold are out the window. Thoughts anyone?