March 809 or 815?

[Lennie]

I'm wanting to upgrade from an IC to CFC and I'd like to whirlpool as well, so I'm looking at pumps to accomplish this. I see that the new 815 design seems to have fewer cavitation issues, but my question is do I need the higher flow rate and will it be overkill if I want to pump relatively slowly? Also how do I control flow rate? I know you don't want to restrict on the input to the pump so I assume I have to put some kind of valve on the outlet side?

 

[celticcolorado]

The best way to restrict the flow is to add a ball valve to the outflow side. This way you can control the flow but not have any issues with priming the pump.

 

[lpdjshaw]

A little off topic but if your buying a pump AND want to whirlpool you could save some money by buying (or making) a whirlpool arm and attaching it to your current immersion chiller. You will cut your chilling time down and have an awesome whirlpooled cone of trub and hop residue in the center of your kettle at the end.
As far as which pump, I'd go with the 815 if price is equal or close. I've only owned the 815 and it does sound like there is less occurance of cavitation with it. Either one will probably pump wort as fast as you'd want. And yes, you will want a ball valve on the out side of the pump to control the flow rate.

http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

 

[Lennie]

Thanks, I did just run across another thread that referenced Jamil's whirlpool IC and when I read that I realized it would be cheaper than my original plan and probably superior.