March pump (or similar)

[Martin Bridges]

Has anyone bought a March pump (or similar) recently? If so, from where? I'm finally in the market for a pump. MoreBeer in the States are claiming about NZ$300 landed. I've seen some on TradeMe for about $220.

 

What's good?

[Greig McGill]

I have one. I was pretty happy with it, but failed to read the instructions carefully. It required horizontal mounting (stated in smallprint in the manual, which I downloaded) and I mounted it vertically. Shortly after this it became very noisy, and didn't pump quite as well. I emailed the seller, and he told me I really should have mounted it horizontally. Fair enough, my failure.

It also has a max temp. of 80C, which can be a bit touch and go when compensating for cooling in the hose and trying to maintain a good strike temp for sparging. Maybe it was the heat which caused the noise? Anyway, I may get another and be more careful with it. We shall see...

[Martin Bridges]

Be aware that some of the "overseas imitations" do not have any thread on the input and output, which makes connecting hoses a little more tricky.

[Brendon]

I ended up buying a couple of these:

http://www.tescopumps.com/servlet/the-224/809pl-hs-dsh-c-beer-pump/...

 

Shipping was USD 61.00 in about Feb '11

 

B

 

 

[Greig McGill]

Nah, that's just mine. Some do. Check the model carefully. ;)

[Richard Jack]

A protip, thanks.

[Chris Mills]

You could also go to Pump Machinery in NZ. I got my March 809-PL from them. You can also get replacement heads and stainless steel parts if you want.

 

http://www.pumpmachinery.co.nz/brands_march

 

When you factor the freight it works out to be a reasonable price to go to buy local.

 

Cheers,

Chris

[MrC]

What are the advantages of a march pump over the tempercon pump?

[studio1]

I'm not fully qualified to comment as I don't own the tempercon pump - but March has reputation on its side and that means a hell of a lot to me when it comes to reliability, safety, value hold, serviceability etc