smurfe
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2005
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Hello all. I recently got a new toy to try. It is the Crownridge Winery Model 204 Racking Pump. The day it came on the UPS truck, I just happened to have a kit that needed racked so here we go. If you have read part 2 of my wine kit tutorial you have seen the pump and it in action. <?
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First let’s describe the product. It is battery powered and uses 3 D cell batteries in the handle. There is a rocker switch in the cap of the handle to turn it on and off. The entire unit is about 24” long. The pump impeller is in the bottom of the tubing that is covered by the basket. The basket will come off of the end of the suction tube. A filter paper can be place over the basket on the end of the tube to aid in filtering lees from the transfer. <O></O>
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So now lets review it in action. I put my 3 batteries in it, placed my filter over the strainer basket and ran sanitizer through it. I soaked the discharge hose in sanitizer as well. I then placed the strainer end on the pump into the primary and switched it on. It immediately primed up and started transferring liquid. The statements are true, it transfered the materials in less than 5 minutes.
So we racked this must to the carboy. How did it work? Well, I have mixed emotions about this product. The idea is great but in my opinion the design is wrong. This product is basically only useful to pump out of the bucket. You can take the strainer off of the pump and it WILL fit down in a carboy but it will only go to the half way mark. It will not go to the bottom.
The filter pad that covers the strainer does a so so job. It will suck gunk over the top of the strainer and suck sediment if you are not real careful. I sucked up a few of the oak chips with a filter pad on. I don't think I had it perfectly in place though.
Next lets talk about the quality of the product. Overall, it appears to be a fairly well made product. I will say though that the on/off switch is weak. I went to clean the pump after using it and it would not come on. I had to flip the switch numerous times to get it to come back on.
I seen in another post that someone asked some specific questions about this product so I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.
Does it allow you to get almost every last drop from the corner, or does the tip keep you from getting into the very corner of the bucket?
With the strainer basket in place, you will not get all of a liquid out of a bucket. With the strainer off you could get quite a bit of it out of the bucket.
Also, does it provide some sort of filtering capability (besides the one on the end), or is it pretty much purely a transfer pump?
Besides the filter paper that goes over the strainer basket, that is about it, It is basically a transfer pump. There are no other filtering capabilities with this unit.
How far from the bottom of the carboy does the discharge hose stop?<O></O>
The discharge hose goes probably 3/4 of the way into the carboy. It basically all depends on how close you carboy sits to the bucket. The suction side which goes into the materials being pumped if that is what your asking is a different story. It will only reach approximately the half way mark of a carboy.
So, we have discussed how it works and answered some questions about the product. Now I will give my rating of the product. We have discussed the faulty on/off switch. It basically won't be of any use transferring materials from a carboy. I will also say that I have emailed their customer service department a couple times with no reply. Now, in their defense, George told me last night when I emailed him that he could not reply to my emails due to my digital signature security certificate I have in my email. Maybe they had issues returning a message to me as well. I haven't had anyone else have issues that I know of but then again, if they don't rely, I don't know they have an issue.
So in rating this product, I would probably give it 1.5 Stars on a 4 star scale. I don't really find any value in the product the way it sits today. It is basically only a fantastic item if you only use bucket so a beer brewer might find this a better suited item than wine making. I don't know of anyone that uses a primary bucket for a secondary but if you do, this is the tool for you. This unit will not replace your regular racking cane you currently use.
If you notice in the pictures on their website, they are transferring wine from a bucket to a bucket
So there you have it. I hope this will answer any questions you might have. If it don't please feel free to ask and I will give you my opinion. I pretty well had the feeling when I ordered it that it would not suit my needs but thought I would give it a fair and honest evaluation and report my findings so if it would be a benefit to someone, they can have someone to ask their questions to.
Smurfe
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Edited by: smurfe
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></O>First let’s describe the product. It is battery powered and uses 3 D cell batteries in the handle. There is a rocker switch in the cap of the handle to turn it on and off. The entire unit is about 24” long. The pump impeller is in the bottom of the tubing that is covered by the basket. The basket will come off of the end of the suction tube. A filter paper can be place over the basket on the end of the tube to aid in filtering lees from the transfer. <O
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So now lets review it in action. I put my 3 batteries in it, placed my filter over the strainer basket and ran sanitizer through it. I soaked the discharge hose in sanitizer as well. I then placed the strainer end on the pump into the primary and switched it on. It immediately primed up and started transferring liquid. The statements are true, it transfered the materials in less than 5 minutes.
So we racked this must to the carboy. How did it work? Well, I have mixed emotions about this product. The idea is great but in my opinion the design is wrong. This product is basically only useful to pump out of the bucket. You can take the strainer off of the pump and it WILL fit down in a carboy but it will only go to the half way mark. It will not go to the bottom.
The filter pad that covers the strainer does a so so job. It will suck gunk over the top of the strainer and suck sediment if you are not real careful. I sucked up a few of the oak chips with a filter pad on. I don't think I had it perfectly in place though.
Next lets talk about the quality of the product. Overall, it appears to be a fairly well made product. I will say though that the on/off switch is weak. I went to clean the pump after using it and it would not come on. I had to flip the switch numerous times to get it to come back on.
I seen in another post that someone asked some specific questions about this product so I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.
Does it allow you to get almost every last drop from the corner, or does the tip keep you from getting into the very corner of the bucket?
With the strainer basket in place, you will not get all of a liquid out of a bucket. With the strainer off you could get quite a bit of it out of the bucket.
Also, does it provide some sort of filtering capability (besides the one on the end), or is it pretty much purely a transfer pump?
Besides the filter paper that goes over the strainer basket, that is about it, It is basically a transfer pump. There are no other filtering capabilities with this unit.
How far from the bottom of the carboy does the discharge hose stop?<O
></O>The discharge hose goes probably 3/4 of the way into the carboy. It basically all depends on how close you carboy sits to the bucket. The suction side which goes into the materials being pumped if that is what your asking is a different story. It will only reach approximately the half way mark of a carboy.
So, we have discussed how it works and answered some questions about the product. Now I will give my rating of the product. We have discussed the faulty on/off switch. It basically won't be of any use transferring materials from a carboy. I will also say that I have emailed their customer service department a couple times with no reply. Now, in their defense, George told me last night when I emailed him that he could not reply to my emails due to my digital signature security certificate I have in my email. Maybe they had issues returning a message to me as well. I haven't had anyone else have issues that I know of but then again, if they don't rely, I don't know they have an issue.
So in rating this product, I would probably give it 1.5 Stars on a 4 star scale. I don't really find any value in the product the way it sits today. It is basically only a fantastic item if you only use bucket so a beer brewer might find this a better suited item than wine making. I don't know of anyone that uses a primary bucket for a secondary but if you do, this is the tool for you. This unit will not replace your regular racking cane you currently use.
If you notice in the pictures on their website, they are transferring wine from a bucket to a bucket
So there you have it. I hope this will answer any questions you might have. If it don't please feel free to ask and I will give you my opinion. I pretty well had the feeling when I ordered it that it would not suit my needs but thought I would give it a fair and honest evaluation and report my findings so if it would be a benefit to someone, they can have someone to ask their questions to.
Smurfe
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></O>Edited by: smurfe
