I know it will be different depending on input heat but how much water is needed to cool your plumbers delight condenser with room temperature water.

I am looking at one of these pumps to put in a 55 gallon drum of water
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...em=200204859037&rd=1

any thoughts would be helpful.

I use a submersible pump I picked up at Lowes. pumps 1100 gph through a 5/8" hose. Probably overkill but at $64 it was a good deal. The pump you link to says 500gph at 6' head. how far to the top of your condenser? Also, just curious, why a 12v pump?

Tony

The head will be close to 6 or 7 foot I think. My condenser is around 4.5 foot.

I guess the biggest reason for the 12 volt pump is cost and I have batteries and chargers readily availible but that is a lot of messing around. Maybe I will look into a sump pump like you said. thanks for the info!

I use this 12V HF pump that only does 260GPH at maximum speed, and I don't even run it at maximum speed, and have no problems with the return water being too warm. The impeller in the pump itself isn't so great...but it gets the job done.

I happen to like using a 12VDC pump because I run it off a laboratory 12V power supply where I can dial the voltage to exactly the flow I want. I usually run it at only 7-8V to maximize contact time within the condenser, yet still keep the exiting water temp below 100F.

the best thing i have found is just running a hose from the spigot outside... i just water the lawn with the water coming out of the "hot" side of the condenser. i have found that all that's necessary for my typical appleseed setup is probably 0.5 gal/min... i mean just barely a trickle. i tried running a HF pump (regular blue one) but found that the pump itself heated the water quickly.

I bought a very inexpensive submersible pump in the pond accessories section of Lowe's. Maybe $35. It came with fittings needed to hook to a 5/8" water hose. I dropped the pump in a 5 gallon bucket. I cut a big hole in the lid with 3 small holes. One hole for the extension cord, one for the water output, one for the water return. I just have to make sure that I put some ice in the bucket to make the water cold during the methanol recovery phase. This works very well for me and takes up very little room.

Ive been using a submersible sump pump like would be used to dewater a flooded basement. I already had it from a previous garage flooding issue. I throttle it down a little with a valve, though I am not sure it is necessary to do that.