Little brown pump stopped. :(

[sablesurfer]

I have been testing my brand new first electric board. Part of my build is the little brown pump some people are using. Reviews indicated that it was perfect for me. For three days of testing its been great.

Last night I was testing and pump quit. Not sure if I killed it. Here is pic of the phone plug I used for power and the pump lable.

 

[ryan_george]

Is the power supply dead or the pump itself?

 

[sablesurfer]

Honestly no idea.

 

[jakenbacon]

your power supply is only rated at 5V, while the pump calls for 12V. It is also almost half the wattage required. May be causing some issues but I doubt the death of the pump. The power supply on the other hand may be a possibility. Do you have a multimeter? Check the votage coming off that power supply and let us know. Good luck

 

[ryan_george]

Honestly no idea.

Get a multimeter and see if there is proper voltage coming from the power supply. This will at least give you some idea :cross:

 

[ryan_george]

your power supply is only rated at 5v, while the pump calls for 12v. It is also almost half the wattage required. May be causing some issues but i doubt the death of the pump. The power supply on the other hand may be a possibility. Do you have a multimeter? Check the votage coming off that power supply and let us know. Good luck

+1

 

[mattd2]

your power supply is only rated at 5V, while the pump calls for 12V. It is also almost half the wattage required. May be causing some issues but I doubt the death of the pump. The power supply on the other hand may be a possibility. Do you have a multimeter? Check the votage coming off that power supply and let us know. Good luck

Does anyone know if the DC motors on the tan pumps are blushless or steppers? I don't know much about the electrical design of DC motors (or even AC motors). But with an AC motor if you drop the voltage the motor actually pulls more current and heats up - and this can kill a motor.
Edit: Looking into a bit more there may be controls in the tan pumps so that any voltage (up to 12V) can be used - But I would expect that if the pump still runs at the same speed that a lower voltage would result in higher current which would smoke your adapter.

 

[sablesurfer]

Hmm. Ok so I need to test the adapter to see if power coming out. All I have at home is a circuit tester...one of those little light thingies. That should work to see if the adapter is working.

But, looks like I really need to find a better adapter. (Too bad I did the whole off to best buy recycling purge a few months back...sigh.) The tan pump thread didn't readily produce info on kinds of adapters, but then I started to get too depressed at all the 'buy a chugger and never look back' posts.

I love this small footprint, I love it's simplicity, and it recirc'd my test water perfectly when I didn't have it hooked up to board. (Too bad they are a 2-3 week shipment since going through Chinese customs.)

 

[alien]

your power supply is only rated at 5V, while the pump calls for 12V. It is also almost half the wattage required. May be causing some issues but I doubt the death of the pump. The power supply on the other hand may be a possibility. Do you have a multimeter? Check the votage coming off that power supply and let us know. Good luck

Running a motor at way less than the rated voltage can burn it out quick if it stalls under load. My guess is it was struggling to pump the load (5V will give less than 1/4 the rated power), stalled, and overheated.

 

[sablesurfer]

Running a motor at way less than the rated voltage can burn it out quick if it stalls under load. My guess is it was struggling to pump the load (5V will give less than 1/4 the rated power), stalled, and overheated.

I thought DC motors could run at different voltages, that is how you control speed on them right? If the voltage lowers then it pulls higher amps. (This I don't understand, just repeating what I have read.) So I am hoping maybe the pump tried to pull too many apps and killed the adapter.

 

[at3brew9]

I'd try to find an old "wall wart" style power supply that's rated at 12VDC output and at least 0.8 amps. Some likely sources are power supplies for old cordless phones, portable radios or CD/DVD players, or printers. I also doubt that your pump motor is dead--it's much more likely that the wall wart 5VDC, 1A supply died trying to feed a load designed for more than double the voltage. You should also find that a new, properly sized power supply will spin the pump a good deal faster and get you near the 2.11 GPM listed on the pump label.

 

[MuddyCreek]

but then I started to get too depressed at all the 'buy a chugger and never look back' posts.

YOu know, what you ought to do is buy a chugger and never look back.

: - )

 

[alien]

I thought DC motors could run at different voltages, that is how you control speed on them right? If the voltage lowers then it pulls higher amps. (This I don't understand, just repeating what I have read.) So I am hoping maybe the pump tried to pull too many apps and killed the adapter.

Lower voltage = lower power but when the motor stalls it pulls maximum amps = more heat which is probably what killed the pump.

 

[sablesurfer]

A follow up post.

It's ded. Ded ded ded. I found a 12vdc output adapter and no pump activity. So I just tested the adapter wires using my auto circuit tester, it lit up fine...actually the little 5v lit it up too, but kinda orange instead of bright.

So the pump must'a died from abuse. Don't report me please.

Anyway, I have some of the small black pumps on the way. I couldn't seem to find a brown pump with the same volume flow anywhere on ebay or amazon. They were all under 2 gal flow rate. Grrr. I tried to dismantle the pump as I have seen other pics of, but it appears to be all glued together after you get the pump housing off. (Wanted to see if it shorted from water getting in or from motor frying.)

Def would have gotten another one, but lower flow rates and the black ones were only like $6 more with a deal for two.

 

[Drifting79]

have you got a link to the little black pump you are referring to ?

I had some issues with my power supply to my little brown pumps
I bought some cheap 12v phone chargers and they worked well for a while but after a few brews they carked it


ive just upgraded to some laptop power supply and upped the volts to 16v
4.3 amps im hoping to get more life out of the power supplys as i dont want it to stop mid way through a brew day

 

[sablesurfer]

As far as I can tell, these are the same as the one at $70 each. And I can't figure out what stainless steel threads get you when the main pump housing on those is still plastic.

Here's the link to what I bought:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E0FXR6K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Oh, and I have run two brews with the pump now. Both were full on recirc electric BIAB's so it was running for an hour. Haven't run it with boiling yet, hoping to try to whirlpool maybe, we'll see.