Hello, I just screwed up one of my first brews due to pitching yeast too hot, so I have decided to look into a wort chiller. I have a wort chiller, however I don't use it because I don't like hooking it up to the sink. I want to get set up with a pump. However i noticed that they are all really expensive. What do people think about a manual pump like this, http://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Drum-...UTF8&qid=1385755797&sr=8-2&keywords=drum+pump, or even just using a siphon and continuing to pump. Also does anyone pump cold water through their chiller with a pump system that is not 100 bucks?
You can get a pond pump for less than $50 (http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html) You can get by for even cheaper (no chill), so make your hobby as cheap or expensive as you choose.
For further info, I had a 25' immersion chiller, later got a 50' IC and used the 25' as a pre-chiller. That worked not well at all; negligible benefit for the cost. A sump pump with IC and whirlpool return can get my wort down to 46dF in 30 minutes in summer. Getting to mid-60s for ale brewing is almost too quick: I don't have enough time to get my yeast/O2 stuff together before my wort is colder than I want.
I made my own counter flow chiller for about $70. It's made of high temp garden hose with I believe 1/4 or 3/8 inch copper coil straightened and slid through. It's a total of about 30 feet and coiled up. I have copper fittings I sweat together and have a cheap hose bib attached as an inlet for the water so I don't have t run back and forth from the brew location to the house. It takes about 15 seconds for the beer to travel the length of the chiller and ends up dropping from the 213 degrees to about 65. I find that it airates pretty well during the 12-15 minute process.
