hafmpty
Well-Known Member
So I'm a bit confused about the location for a priming/purge port with my pump. Here is how I currently have my pump oriented and setup.
In the picture you will see that the beer leaves the MLT from the LEFT, goes through a vacuum gauge, and then into the pump. It then exits to the right. To prime the pump I have both ball valves on the right open and slowly close the purge valve (the one with the stainless 90 attached).
As I do, the wort begins to flow up through the hose into my HERMS coil and back into the MLT to start the process over. I (like many) was having priming issues and added the purge/priming valve to solve this problem. It did.
But I was looking today at MoreBeer's March Pump assembly HERE and they have their purge/priming valve on the INLET side of the pump. Not the OUTLET side like I have. Here's a picture of their assembly:
And here is a picture of how they have it attached to their sculptures:
When I looked at the item description of the pump assembly, they actually answer the question of why the purge valve is on the input rather than the output. Here's what they say:
"Some people wonder why we put the priming tee on the inlet rather than the outlet. The priming ball valve is there to allow air pockets out, and if it is positioned after the pump head, the air bubbles would get caught in the pump head and continue to cavitate."
As you can see from the picture above, their pump heads are oriented vertically with with the inlet side down and the outlet side up. I've seen a lot of other guys here on HBT who have their pumps mounted this way as well. I assume it works and works well.
As you can see though, that's not how I have my pump head oriented. It is horizontal. Should I change where I have my purge/prime valve though? I'm trying to figure this out. Anybody using a horizontally oriented pump that has the purge valve mounted on the inlet that can give some input?
There is one issue I've seen with my current setup. Maybe changing up the location of the prime/purge valve will help. Here's what happens. When the mash is over, I unhook the MLT from the pump and then hook my HLT up to the pump. But the pump will not pump water from the HLT through the pump, up through the HERMS coil and out onto the top of the MLT for the sparge. To get the pump to actually pump, I have to siphon the remaining wort out of the HERMS coil. If I don't it won't pump.
So what I do is detach the output ball valve (not the purge valve) and allow a siphon to suck all the wort out of the HERMS coil. I collect this and dump it in the MLT. After that, I reattach the output ball valve, open both the output ball valve and the purge valve, turn the pump on, let the water begin to squirt out the purge valve and then slowly close it. Then the pump starts pumping sparge water through the output ball valve, into the HERMS coil and over into my MLT.
This is kind of annoying, but it's what I do. Will relocating the purge valve to the inlet side of the pump fix this problem? Will it allow me to simply unhook the MLT, hook up the HLT and go without having to siphon the wort out of the HERMS coil? Tell me your thoughts.
In the picture you will see that the beer leaves the MLT from the LEFT, goes through a vacuum gauge, and then into the pump. It then exits to the right. To prime the pump I have both ball valves on the right open and slowly close the purge valve (the one with the stainless 90 attached).
As I do, the wort begins to flow up through the hose into my HERMS coil and back into the MLT to start the process over. I (like many) was having priming issues and added the purge/priming valve to solve this problem. It did.
But I was looking today at MoreBeer's March Pump assembly HERE and they have their purge/priming valve on the INLET side of the pump. Not the OUTLET side like I have. Here's a picture of their assembly:
And here is a picture of how they have it attached to their sculptures:
When I looked at the item description of the pump assembly, they actually answer the question of why the purge valve is on the input rather than the output. Here's what they say:
"Some people wonder why we put the priming tee on the inlet rather than the outlet. The priming ball valve is there to allow air pockets out, and if it is positioned after the pump head, the air bubbles would get caught in the pump head and continue to cavitate."
As you can see from the picture above, their pump heads are oriented vertically with with the inlet side down and the outlet side up. I've seen a lot of other guys here on HBT who have their pumps mounted this way as well. I assume it works and works well.
As you can see though, that's not how I have my pump head oriented. It is horizontal. Should I change where I have my purge/prime valve though? I'm trying to figure this out. Anybody using a horizontally oriented pump that has the purge valve mounted on the inlet that can give some input?
There is one issue I've seen with my current setup. Maybe changing up the location of the prime/purge valve will help. Here's what happens. When the mash is over, I unhook the MLT from the pump and then hook my HLT up to the pump. But the pump will not pump water from the HLT through the pump, up through the HERMS coil and out onto the top of the MLT for the sparge. To get the pump to actually pump, I have to siphon the remaining wort out of the HERMS coil. If I don't it won't pump.
So what I do is detach the output ball valve (not the purge valve) and allow a siphon to suck all the wort out of the HERMS coil. I collect this and dump it in the MLT. After that, I reattach the output ball valve, open both the output ball valve and the purge valve, turn the pump on, let the water begin to squirt out the purge valve and then slowly close it. Then the pump starts pumping sparge water through the output ball valve, into the HERMS coil and over into my MLT.
This is kind of annoying, but it's what I do. Will relocating the purge valve to the inlet side of the pump fix this problem? Will it allow me to simply unhook the MLT, hook up the HLT and go without having to siphon the wort out of the HERMS coil? Tell me your thoughts.