I Love me some Harbor Freight!

[Stark]

So, picked myself up a 1/2 HP submersible pump from HF (On sale for $30+10 for the 2 year warranty=Happy Starky.).
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94648

So, here is the plan, I want to hook this up to my Wort Chiller, drop the pump into Cold/Ice Water, then pump the chilled water through the Wort Chiller to chill my Sweet Wort. Planning on 2 things here, 1, Save some water (No one warned me about how hard a water bill will spike with you brew 20 gals in 1 weekend, Sheesh.), and 2, cool that wort down faster than waiting and hour and some change just to hover at 76 degrees.

Now, all this sounds promising and I feel I have thought it out pretty good, Except for one small, tiny problem. The Connection on the pump is 1", the connection on the Chiller is about 1/2 (Garden hose size actually.). Trying to figure out how to do this without going overboard. I thought about sacrificing a Garden Hose, but not sure it is going to fit over the Pump's extension. Ideas?

Oh and if any of you have tried this (It's simple enough, I could not possibly be the first to try this!), feel free to share.

[backyard brewer]

The picture looks like the pump has a barb fitting plus some threads. What size are the threads? Garden Hose should be 3/4, not 1/2 and it is a specific thread pitch as well, ie: not compatible with 3/4" NPT.

If the discharge has threads, there will be an adapter or several to get it to 3/4 garden hose.

[Rezzin]

So, picked myself up a 1/2 HP submersible pump from HF (On sale for $30+10 for the 2 year warranty=Happy Starky.).
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=94648

So, here is the plan, I want to hook this up to my Wort Chiller, drop the pump into Cold/Ice Water, then pump the chilled water through the Wort Chiller to chill my Sweet Wort. Planning on 2 things here, 1, Save some water (No one warned me about how hard a water bill will spike with you brew 20 gals in 1 weekend, Sheesh.), and 2, cool that wort down faster than waiting and hour and some change just to hover at 76 degrees.

Now, all this sounds promising and I feel I have thought it out pretty good, Except for one small, tiny problem. The Connection on the pump is 1", the connection on the Chiller is about 1/2 (Garden hose size actually.). Trying to figure out how to do this without going overboard. I thought about sacrificing a Garden Hose, but not sure it is going to fit over the Pump's extension. Ideas?

Oh and if any of you have tried this (It's simple enough, I could not possibly be the first to try this!), feel free to share.

If you are brewing a 5 gallon batch then it works REALLY well. I just save ice from the the icemaker during the week and usually 2 1g sized ziplock bags + whatever ice is in the ice bucket is plenty to take me from 100d to pitching temps even on the hottest days in summer. If you keep the chiller moving you can go from boil to pitching temps in around 20 mins or so. Or, you can go the fancy route and do this.

[Stark]

The Adapter on the Pump's Discharge is barbed or ridged at the business end, but is threaded where the adapter meets the unit. It appears to be about an inch and a 1/2 large. Probably impossible to find a reducer, although I could probably revisit my old Potato Gun Days (not too long ago.) and hit Lowes or Home Deport and see if I can fashion something from the Lawn section...

[jward]

I have that pump or similar model. I took the output to one of Lowes or Home Depot. I used a length of 1" tube to some cheap barbed adapter that fit close enough to that and the next size tube that worked with a cheap garden hose adapter. Be sure to look at in the fittings section and not just the garden section. I think the brass garden hose fitting was cheaper then the hose repair fitting which I found very surprising.

[bwarbiany]

I use a counterflow chiller with 2 pumps.

When I start, I use one pump pushing wort through the chiller recirculating into the boil kettle, to get it down to 100 deg F or so.

From there, I then recirculate ice water in my keggle using the second pump while pumping wort from the kettle into the fermenter. That can get me down below 60 deg F if I moderate flow rates properly.

This is with 15-gallon batches

If you try using ice water to go from boiling down to pitching temps, you'll go through a LOT of ice... Especially with large batches. I recommend using the CFC with the hose and recirculating, or if you only have one pump, using an immersion chiller to get you down to 100 deg F or so, THEN use the ice water.