An often underappreciated component of water cooled systems is the pump; the literal heart of your cooling system! Centrifugal pumps are the best option for water cooled applications for several reasons, but namely: relatively low head is required which centrifugal pumps can handle very efficiently and reliably over the long term, heat producing components are mostly isolated from pump housing which reduces heat exchange to cooling fluids.
With so many options on the market it can be tricky to choose the right construction and brand of centrifugal pump. Many collective years of experience in HVAC design, manufacture, and service has taught us never to compromise on this critical component, so the pumps we offer provide the best combination of value, quality, and reliability for our customers. In our opinion, our centrifugal pumps are affordable enough that we recommend customers consider upgrading with a back-up pump for redundancy and added assurance. Relative to the total cost of your cooling system, and the potential cost of unforeseen down time, we believe redundant pumps are an essential part of responsible design.
Correctly sizing a pump for your cooling application is a very important part of the design process! Please feel free to reach out so we may offer design assistance if you have questions, concerns, or just want to double check your estimates.
A general rule of thumb for sizing a pump is to plan for a minimum of 1.25 GPM / 1 ton of cooling capacity, with a 20F differential. For example, if you have a 6 ton cooling system which is presumably sized appropriately for your grow room or wort chiller (the specific application doesn't really matter) where your target target temp is 75F and your water chiller is set at 55F LWT, you'll need at least 7.5 GPM pumped through your heat exchanger in order to adequately cool your space or wort. There are some nuances for certain situations (like adding heat exchangers in series) but this method will at least get you in the ballpark.
