Two Tier Rig design help please, pretty please....

[Karl Hayes]

Hi all.

I'd like some help in setting up a 2 tier rig with:

55L HLT (HDPE Mini-Brew vessel from INI Breweries via Paul Wickstead) and a 3KW dishwasher element.

Converted beer keg Mash / Lauter Tun with perforated false bottom and rotating sparge arm from Chris Banks (Awesome quality btw)

70L budget kettle with ball valve and pick-up tube.

2 ring burner (yes, I'm going to have to upgrade this I suspect)

Resun MD30 Magnetic Drive Pump.

 

I'd like the HLT to gravity feed into the mash tun for sparging as this would allow the greatest control over the flow rate to the rotating sparging arm. (I need minimum 500mm of head and about 1L per minute according to Chris' instructions) Or is there a better way to control this?

I'm worried that the use of a pump between mash tun and kettle will draw the liquid out of the mash tun too quickly, causing poor efficiency. Would I be best to have an intermediate vessel to collect the runnings and pump from that vessel? In that case, how would I prime the vessel?

 

Any design tips and tricks would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Karl Hayes]

The MD20 came with 18mm OD barbed connections.  The MD30 had 1" BSP Male thread.

Good luck

[mattd2]

Awesome, thanks Karl!

[mattd2]

Just got my order from Boyu yesterday and all looks good. It was a bit touch and go a few days after I placed my order as I got an email from them saying

"Hello Matt,

MD30 Magnetic pump lost of stock.

cOuld I replace with Resun MD40 ?

 Best Regards,
Stephen"

I thought it was going to be a classic pitch-n-switch scam to get me to spend more, but I sent back and email just saying yep send the MD40 (fully expecting one back saying please pay ~$50 more) and a few days later I got a shipping number! The package turned up and he just gave me a MD40 for the same price. The other stuff I ordered looks good too, need to rig up some ghetto plumbing to test the pump now!
Oh and the MD40 comes with a 3/4" BSP male thread, wierd that the 30 has bigger threads than the 40.

[MrC]

Those prices look pretty good.  Is it food grade plastic on those pumps?  

[mattd2]

It's hard to say 100% as the pumps seem to be a Asian knockoff of the Iwaki (but more probably the same pump with a different label on it and a Chinese plug - basically an upside down NZ plug). Being from asia the info is very minimal, but based off the Iwaki pumps they would be made out of:

"What are the materials in contact with the fluid?

For the MD/WMD series the liquid end is glass filled polypropylene including an encapsulated inner

magnet. The spindle is alumina ceramic and the bearings are Rulon (a fluoroplastic/ carbon mix)."

Nothing scares me to much there.