DIY Sparge recirculation system

I was ordering some tubing from morebeer and shipping was exorbitant - my purchase wasn't enough for free shipping. What to do? By a pump cause it would be fun and make my life easier. Yeah, right. OK, a note (disclaimer) up front. I am not an electrician. I make no promises for the accuracy of anything I write or show. In fact if you try to replicate this you are likely to burn down your house.

So I got the pump and decided to make a recirculation setup. ok ok ... so it might not be that useful, but it was fun and it will allow me to ignore the recirc at the beginning of the sparge. Was it worth not paying for the shipping? Naw. But hopefully it will make my life easier. Here it is as a trial run with water only:



I wanted it controlled by a float switch. So I got one of those from a vendor at work. Typical float switches can't deal with spikes in the amperage for turning on/off a pump like this. So instead of wiring the circuit through the switch i used a relay. I didn't really know what a relay is but it takes a "test circuit" and translates that to a "business circuit." --- yes those are my terms. For the relay I used (DPDT), if the test circuit is closed then the AB loop is closed, if test circuit is open, AC loop is closed. So I wired the pump into the AB loop (see diagram). pic left is the relay. Top lead connected horizontally is the "hot" that went through the float switch. Bottom connected horizontal goes to the common. Vertical ones go to the 3 way switch and the hot of the pump plug. It's ugly, yes, first time using those connections. I used a two switches: a standard one to turn the whole system on/off, and a three way switch to control the pump either by the float switch or just always on. I also have an extra outlet that will always be on if the box is plugged in. --- for a boom box, heat stick, etc, etc. The wiring is shown to the left, the finished product to the right and a wiring diagram below. Here's some more comments/issues.

Some relays need 6 or 12 V DC, or other, for the test circuit. I originally was going to do this. I had a transformer from a cell phone and was going to use the "extra" plug to power the transformer. In that case I would have powered the transformer outlet by the first switch, i.e. connecting wire x to wire Y and not the power source. For the reservoir, I just got a food grade bucket, drilled a couple of holes and screwed in a spigot and the float switch.

I had to jerry rig the box cover because I couldn't find the proper one i needed.

I have a vacuum cleaner that doesn't work. I cut the plug off of that and used that for the power - all I have to do is plug it into a GFI outlet in the kitchen.

I can't run both the heat stick and pump at the same time... too much amperage for this system because of the wiring. Plan accordingly.

I want to connect the pump via disconnects instead of barbs.

Because the float switch is wired into the box, the box and reservoir bucket are permanently connected by a fixed length. I want to insert a plug and and outlet inline so I can separate the bucket from the box.

If the reservoir is stainless, you could heat the wort during this. Like a HERMS???

Was this worth it? Any improvement ideas? Let me know.