Hello everyone, Just picked up a Blichmann Riptide pump to use during brew days, but have a question after doing a few water-only trial runs. With the pump setup lower than the kettle, I open the valve and allow water to go into the pump... However, air weirdly gets trapped between the pump and kettle... In a way that water is at the pump, but at some point there is an air void between the valve on the kettle and some point in the tubing to the pump. I have tried opening the valve on the pump before the kettle, and vise versa, but it doesn't seem to change much. The outlet side of the tubing from the pump is just going into another kettle... So there is no back pressure or valve closed or anything, if that makes sense. The pump is indexed properly, left in, right out. I just don't get why I am getting this air trapped upstream of the pump and the (initial) water that did flow to the pump itself. Even pulling the PRV, water will come out. So the issue is, when I turn the pump on, it will start until that air pocket reaches the pump and then cavitates. Then I have issues trying to burp the air and stop the pump from adding a bunch of air into the line. And yes, clamps are all tight with hose clamps on the fittings and all that. What can I try to eliminate this issue? Am I opening a valve too much or in the wrong order? It seems easy enough, things aren't working smoothly though. Once I do purge that air out, the pump does work as expected. So I am not sure what I am doing wrong in my process. Appreciate it!
That's strange .I don't see why this needs a PRV. My mark 2 has no air bubbles once the wort reaches the pump and pushes the air out.
If I remember correctly, doesn’t the riptide have a little corny keg style prv that you are meant to pull to bleed air bubbles and prime? Are you already doing that?
Yes, I am pulling the PRV on the pump to purge air. The weird thing is, water goes right to the pump as you would expect, but air remains "trapped" in the line in a weird location that pulling the prv doesn't do anything. It's weird, I must be doing something wrong I just can't figure it out. So basically the pump primes with water, but the tube then has a pocket of air upstream between the pump and kettle with water. And it won't fill that void. Not sure how or why it won't. It's so weird. I'll take a picture today if it happens during brewday. Hopefully not....
Weird. Maybe check that proprietary flow valve for a failure? Hate those things. The most frustrating thing about blichmann products is half of their stuff has a couple of awesome features and a couple of terrible ones. On these pumps, they have the tri-clamp and power switch, which are awesome. Then they go and add their stupid ‘linear flow valve’ and a bleed valve that spits boiling wort all over you, the floor and the pump...
Well, I think I solved my issue when o started to recirculate my mash just now. Before I turned the pump on, I had that pocket of air again. Made sure all hose clamps tight and all that stuff, but then I saw a drip from my mash tun barbed fitting (that goes into the ball valve). Grabbed a wrench and tightened it up and I was able to burp that pocket of air and seems to be working as expected now. I'll report back after the entire brewday, but I think that was the culprit. Never thought to check that fitting (installed and in use for years, but now with a pump it shows it flaws )
Huh...I like the needle valve...I get a little better flow control for recirc compared to the ball valve I have on my March. The PRV for a bleeder though is my one complaint...sprays wort everywhere. I'll bleed through the outlet if I can. Love the quiet operation of the pump probably best of all.
I guess it’s all system dependent. I hate them on my kettles. Much tighter gap that just begs to be clogged by hops and malt. Do you bag your hops?
Ball valves are not designed for flow control and that is why the suck. But you see them on everything. They are only meant to be wide open or closed, and they are incredibly reliable. You could have it unused forever and then when needed it works fine. Like on a fire sprinkler system or boiler valve but not on a pump. A gate valve, like the kind on your garden spigot, that's for flow control but that is very difficult to sanitize. Yeah, I obsess a little about valves I guess.
Magnetic-drive pumps used for brewing are notoriously finicky...cavitating, binding, air-locking, etc., but if you need to move a lot of wort, they are a necessary evil...hit with crescent hammer,burp, take apart, curse, repeat.
Ah...yeah, don't have those on outlets to my pots, just ball valves which are always wide open for transfer. I only have those Blichmann valves on the outlet to the Riptide and happy enough with its control...again mainly for recirc purposes better than the ball valve to @billandsuz point. I don't bag my hops but do have the hop filter device for pre-filter. Would be interesting to see a gated valve on a brew system...I'm sure there are some, but I've never seen one in use unless brewers are using automated valves (which i'm sure is pretty common as they are on fire trucks)
