Bizoune
Well-Known Member
I seem to have a bit of a March pump issue that's getting annoying. Maybe somebody has a solution.
When comes time to fly sparge, I'm pumping my 175F water from my HLT to my MT and then letting to wort trickle down via gravity to my BK. I can regulate flow easily during the first 15 minutes so that my input (water going on my grain bed) equals my output (wort coming out of my MT). Ball valve on the output of my HLT is always wide open and I'm regulating flow from the pump head. After a while though the water pressure from the HLT to the MT seems to drop and my sparge water slows down to a trickle, so if I'm not watching the MT properly I risk the chance of drying up the grain bed. To get the flow back up, I then have to bring my hose down to the same level as my pump head, prime it then bring it back up to my MT and continue with sparging. Usually, I have to do this twice during a 50 minute sparge, mostly during the first 20-30 minutes.
My system is a 2 tier: BK and HLT on one level; MT on the other, higher up. I'm under the impression that it's a fluid dynamic issue related to temperature and probably height.
Any ideas on how to solve this? On the shot you can see the output coming out of the pump going up to my MLT then MLT draining to BK.
When comes time to fly sparge, I'm pumping my 175F water from my HLT to my MT and then letting to wort trickle down via gravity to my BK. I can regulate flow easily during the first 15 minutes so that my input (water going on my grain bed) equals my output (wort coming out of my MT). Ball valve on the output of my HLT is always wide open and I'm regulating flow from the pump head. After a while though the water pressure from the HLT to the MT seems to drop and my sparge water slows down to a trickle, so if I'm not watching the MT properly I risk the chance of drying up the grain bed. To get the flow back up, I then have to bring my hose down to the same level as my pump head, prime it then bring it back up to my MT and continue with sparging. Usually, I have to do this twice during a 50 minute sparge, mostly during the first 20-30 minutes.
My system is a 2 tier: BK and HLT on one level; MT on the other, higher up. I'm under the impression that it's a fluid dynamic issue related to temperature and probably height.
Any ideas on how to solve this? On the shot you can see the output coming out of the pump going up to my MLT then MLT draining to BK.