# Crownridge Wine Transfer Pump Review



## smurfe (Jan 26, 2006)

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. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><O></O>
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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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## smurfe (Jan 26, 2006)

Well, I get home today and I have an email from the owner of the company that markets the pump. Says I have a replacement part is on the way to me and is including return postage to return the defective part. They included an office and cell number as well so it looks like we have some good customer service here as well. Must be a Texas thing cause everyone in Louisiana is plain rude when it comes to customer relations. Good customer service will knock the rating up a little so I now say 2 stars out of a possible 4.


I really want to like this product and with some modifications, it could be a valuable tool for the hobbyist but alas, like I said, as it sits, there is not a lot of value there for the home wine maker. Once they get it down to where you can rack carboys with it, they will sell a lot of them I believe because the price Inst bad at all. May be the manufacturer lurks here and will read this and to to modify the units to meet our needs.


Smurfe


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## PolishWineP (Jan 26, 2006)

Thanks for all your effort and information! It's always good to get a review from a real customer!


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## Funky Fish (Jan 27, 2006)

Smurfe - great review! Thanks for sharing it with us.


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## rshosted (Feb 11, 2006)

I saw this in a magazine and thought: 'That guy stole my turkey oil pumper'. It's identical! You could go to your local sporting good/hardware store and try one out. I have a question. How much did you pay for this unit? I know I got mine for $20. 

After seeing it in the magazine, I thought of going and buying another 'oil pump' and trying it on my wine. You are right about it not being long enough to reach the bottom of a carboy, which would be an issue for me. I think if the person marketing this unit does look in this forum, and
they extend the wand a bit it would be more suitable for us.

Thanks for the review!


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## tcb54 (Nov 16, 2007)

I am very intrigued with this pump... I cannot find it on the Crown Ridge Winery website that was mentioned. Is it still available?


Is this definitely the same pump: Three Battery Cooking Oil Pump as the one smurfe is using?


Also, where can you get the extender that will allow you to reach further down in the carboy?


Thanks for everyone's help...


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## smurfe (Nov 16, 2007)

tcb54 said:


> I am very intrigued with this pump... I cannot find it on the Crown Ridge Winery website that was mentioned. Is it still available?
> 
> 
> Is this definitely the same pump: Three Battery Cooking Oil Pump as the one smurfe is using?
> ...




They probably discontinued it as it wasn't a very high quality item. I had constant problems with the on/off switch with mine. The cooking oil pump is the same pump. I saw one at Cabella's the other day. It will not reach the bottom of a carboy without the extension that Crownridge had made up and sold extra. 


I would still have to give a big thumbs down on this product. I might give it 1 star on a 5 star scale. I rate this item mybiggest waste of money in winemaking yet to day.It is nice when it works but with mine, that was a rare occurrence. 


The company replaced the switch once but it got old having to return the defective switches at my expenseto them before they would consider sending a replacement. The switch they sent to replace the defective one was identical in operation as the first one, meaning it didn't work. I could flip it on and off maybe 50 times to get it to turn on. 


One thing I will add to is although the company attempted to make their product good they made it very hard. At the time it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack to find their email address on their site. I had to actually order an item and go to PayPal check out to get an address. It took a bit for them to respond to my inquiry. Not what I am used to.


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## Fly boy (Nov 16, 2007)

I bought one of these a while ago. I thought it would be a good idea, but I found it to be less than adequate. I would agree on the one out five stars. Instead of buying this, buy another kit.


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