Hello,
I’ve got a Permacool ethanol chilling system with a mastervapor liquid pump attached to cycle ethanol and chill the solvent through a heat exchanger. We have been having trouble keeping the diaphragms from blowing out extremely rapidly and I’m about to swap it out for a magdrive sent as a replacement from Permacool. I’m wondering if anyone else is seeing the diaphragms fail at an extremely rapid rate. I’ve had to rebuild the diaphragms 4 times in the last 3 months. Permacool is saying they have had issues with the pumps because the design isn’t for them to be pumping so cold so they sent a replacement. I’m waiting for the electrical upgrade but also wondering if others have had this problem. Master vapor sent us a couple upgrade kits with stainless steel parts but it literally sounds like a freight train is in our extraction room and the diaphragm gave out in two weeks since last rebuild. Also wondering if anyone knows of any other diaphragms that may hold up for more than a couple weeks or where to find them I would appreciate the help. Direct replacements are 320 bucks and having to do this way to often is starting to get to my wallet not to mention my production line. Basically just looking for feedback and to see if this is something everyone else using Mastervapor liquid pumps has been dealing with. Also note that the first set of diaphragms lasted way longer than any of there replacements.
Yikes. These pumps are meant for their butane ffe. I was going to get one but it sounds like a nightmare. Hopefully it will do better at warm temps. I imagine they will be fed cold butane by many people… At least on the first loop of the ffe the butane could be super cold. My advice to the butane crowd would be to let the solution preheat in the vessel before cycling.
Anyways… You’re on the right track with the mag drive pump. Read "cold ethanol pumps " thread there is plenty of discussion on your options.
They have a couple versions for hydrocarbon and this pump is for ethanol called there Mastervapor liquid pump
Yes it’s used for hydrocarbons as well to create a recirculating loop and to pump against pressure. Like I said I was going to buy one