This video just saved my brewday!

[Brian Pylant]

Well, I could've still gotten through the brew session, but I've come to really rely on my pump due to my bad back. I also wasn't looking forward to shelling out $200 for a replacement.

The story:

Setting up for today's session, I plugged in the pump, with the switch OFF (or so I thought) and went down to mill my grains. Came back upstairs, smelled a slight burning aroma, checked the pump, it was completely silent and very hot. Thought I'd burned out the motor for sure.

Turns out when these impeller pumps run dry they can be salvaged simply by re-drilling the hold the shaft goes in, to ensure the impeller spins freely.

YAY YouTube!!

Hopefully this may help someone else someday (if you're a dumbass like me, anyway).

Brian

 

[Mtorbik]

Nice! I should probably try this with my rip tide pump. It squeals at higher flow rates.... probably needs a slight opening

 

[Brian Pylant]

Can't hurt... and in the bigger picture, it's good to know that when the pump is run dry, or is making noises, it's not actually the motor but the impeller (which is much cheaper to replace!)

 

[jimfish]

Brewhardware has rebuild kits for the impeller for chugger heads. They might have them for the riptide also, worth checking out.