Scott,
I have a similar system that I am still trying to debug. The system came in a vacation home we recently bought. The pump that was in the 1 gallon bucket of gylcol was a small condensate pump mounted to the edge of the bucket. It was burned out so the system was inoperable at first. A friend of mine thought the 15 foot rise from my garage to the tap was probably too much for the original pump and suggested something stronger. I bought a 1/3 hp stainless steel Honda submersable pump (paid $134.00 at a local Honda store) and put it into a larger bucket of gylcol in the freezer of the refrigerator where the keg is stored. (The gylcol is in the freezer section, the beer is in the refrigerator section)
That works great but after about an hour of constant running the pump begins to heat up the gylcol so I go downstairs and shut it off. The beer runs well and after about another hour I go back downstairs and put it on again, and so on and so on....
I shut off the pump when I am done pumping beer. I do the whole thing over again each time I pump beer and loose the small amount of beer that is still in the line. I clean the system about every two weeks. I made the mistake of forgetting to shut off the pump for about 5 hours one time and went out. I came home remembering that and went downstairs to see how it was holding up. The gylcol had turned from cold to a very warm bath and the beer was foamy as hell.
As I said the system works but I think my 1/3 hp pump is overkill or requires a larger bucket of gylcol or bags of ice around the bucket to keep the gylcol and the pump cold.
Good luck with your pump search. Let me know how you make out.
Lou
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