Proper care and feeding of your March pump?

[bwarbiany]

Hey guys... I've had my pumps a few years now, and seem to have had some issues recently with one of them. As I was posting in another thread, I was trying to recirculate wort through my CFC back into my brew kettle, and I just couldn't get any flow. The pump was properly primed, and later when I tried to pump into my fermenter (which was physically ~1 foot lower than the kettle), I was able to get it going. But it wasn't developing enough flow to recirc... The pump also seemed to be slow during sparge, but not quite as slow (largely because I was pushing through a much shorter length of tubing).

Anyone had issues like this? It seems to have gotten progressively worse over several batches recently. Is my pump dying, or do I perhaps need to do something with cleaning/etc? Normally after brewing I just spray hose water through the pump to clear any debris -- is it possible there's some chemical/mineral buildup in there that I need to get rid of?

[DrDually]

Some things to check:
What size is pick up tube? If using 3/8 od tubing, it will choke the pump
Are you using lots of hops etc? I am using a filter from Brewers Hardwere to filter wort before hitting pumps.

After building a new stand, I decided to fabricate a backwash system that will clean plate chiller, pumps then pick up tubes. One thing you can also do is backwash pump and run into a bucket to check what has dislodged

One final thought is to run PBW thru system for 30 minutes then flush

[JonW]

Just tear the head apart and see what it looks like inside. There's 4 screws to remove the head and then another 4 screws to remove the inner plate. It's simple to tear down and inspect.

Check if there is a white teflon washer on the impeller shaft between the impeller and head. If this tore and came off or is beat up, it can impede the rotation of the impeller.

[bwarbiany]

Thanks. Glad to hear it's pretty easy to open up and inspect.

Dually, my one concern is that while my tubing is 1/2" OD, the QD is not a full open port, so I do worry it impedes flow -- especially on the mash/wort side where there might be hop or other material.

The good thing is that since my beer in fermenter is a saison that should sit for ~1 month, I think I'll have time to dig into this

[DrDually]

If you are having problems with the QD diameter, take a look at Brewers Hardware. Derrin has full 1/2" ID connectors so you could have a full 1/2" dia all the way to pump.
+1 on taking the pump apart and inspecting...it may be the real issue

[BrewMasterBrad]

Make sure you lubricate it too.