I bought a plate chiller recently, as my 88qt BK only covers about 1/3 to 1/2 of my immersion chiller, which makes chilling the wort a pain. My BK isn't fitted with a valve at the bottom, so I was thinking I will have to run a length of silicone tubing from the wort to the pump up and over the side of the BK. I know most pumps require priming in order to move fluids, and I would assume that a march pum p is no different. How would one most effectively run a pump in this fashion, or am I way off and will the pump draw enough vacuum to pull the wort up the intake tube?
How much priming does a march pump need?
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Don't run that pump dry!
You need to prime it before pumping. I would suggest getting a ball valve installed on your kettle. Or you can start a syphon from your kettle to the march pump to get liquid in the impeller.
You need to prime it before pumping. I would suggest getting a ball valve installed on your kettle. Or you can start a syphon from your kettle to the march pump to get liquid in the impeller.
The pump will not pull a vacuum. Orient the "OUT" side of the pump up and fill from that side to prime the chamber...they can be a bit finicky to prime. You will probably have to fill the "IN" tubing completely to help create a siphon.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Install a ball valve into your POT... It's not an actual kettle until it has a ball valve installed (at the very least).
You use gravity to feed from the kettle valve, to the lower input of the pump head (or center inlet) letting it fill the head before sending it out the outlet side. Also install a ball valve on the outlet side if you're going to run boiling wort through the plate chiller (a good way to sanitize the chiller before you use it to chill the wort).
You use gravity to feed from the kettle valve, to the lower input of the pump head (or center inlet) letting it fill the head before sending it out the outlet side. Also install a ball valve on the outlet side if you're going to run boiling wort through the plate chiller (a good way to sanitize the chiller before you use it to chill the wort).
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
I've not added a thermometer to my current boil keggle at all. I've also removed it from my mash tun. IME, it's more trouble in a mash tun and not as useful as you might think in a BK. I now have thermometers on the plate chiller's out port assembly and sensors I can drop into the boil kettle to watch it's temperature.
If you're not going to recirculate to sanitize and then chill the entire batch before running into the fermenter, having a thermometer in the boil kettle is going to be of even less use.
Also, I prefer the precision I get from the Fluke thermometer, and thermocouples, I'm using. Fast and accurate readings are a big help. Especially when I can see the actual temperature of the chilled wort as it goes into primary.
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