Category 03 · Milk room

Pump seal kits matched to the plate, not the paint colour.

Q: Do you install or rebuild pumps?

No. We supply the pump or the kit and our parlour technician answers fit questions by phone. The fitting is done by you or your own service person.

Pumps: per unit, on inquiry Seal and impeller kits: per kit Wetted parts: 304 stainless Freight and Wisconsin sales tax extra

Read this before you order

A leaking milk pump is almost always the seal.

The motor hums, milk goes where it should, and there's a white crust building under the casing or a drip onto the plinth after every wash. That's the mechanical seal. A seal kit costs a small fraction of a pump, and on most milk transfer pumps it goes in with the casing off and an hour of patience.

So the first thing the desk does with a pump inquiry is ask whether you need a pump at all. Plenty of people ring for a new 2 hp unit when the motor is fine and a kit would do. We'd rather sell you the kit. You'll come back for gaskets.

This page covers two parts of the dairy parts catalog: the centrifugal milk transfer pump itself, and the seal and impeller kit for the pumps already on your floor. Both are identified the same way, from the plate on the motor and the size of the impeller. Further down there's a table that shows you how to read that plate.

Stainless centrifugal milk transfer pump on a plinth

Item 03.1

Centrifugal milk transfer pumps

Stainless pumps that move milk from the receiver jar to the bulk tank, or from tank to vat in a small processing room. Every wetted part is 304 stainless: casing, back plate and impeller. Motors run from 1 to 3 hp.

We match a replacement by impeller diameter first and horsepower second. Two pumps with the same motor can move very different volumes if one has been trimmed to a smaller impeller, and a replacement that pumps harder than the old one can pull the receiver dry and cook its own seal inside a week. If your old pump did the job, we want to copy it, not upgrade it.

Inlet and outlet are tri-clamp. If your lines are a different size from the pump ports, a reducer from the tri-clamp fittings page sorts it out cheaper than a new pump would.

Price basis Per unit, quoted on inquiry Depends on hp, impeller diameter, voltage and phase, port size

Transfer pump specification
Wetted parts	304 stainless casing, back plate and impeller
Motor	1 to 3 hp
Matched by	Impeller diameter, then motor hp and speed
Connections	Tri-clamp inlet and outlet
Seal	Mechanical seal, kit listed below
We need from you	Photo of the motor plate, impeller diameter, voltage and phase at the pump

Send a part inquiry

Pump seal kit with seal faces, o-rings and impeller — Carbon rotating face, silicon carbide seat, EPDM o-rings. The impeller ships only when the kit calls for one.

Item 03.2

Pump seal and impeller kits

A carbon face running against a silicon carbide seat, with EPDM elastomers for the o-rings and the bellows or cup. Kits are listed by the pump model on the plate, and some include a new impeller where the old one wears at the hub.

Carbon against silicon carbide is the pairing we stock because it tolerates the hot caustic and acid of a CIP cycle and forgives the odd short dry start. It does not forgive a pump left running for ten minutes on an empty receiver. That's the failure we see most: the carbon face heat-checks, chips at the edge, and the pump starts weeping within days.

EPDM is the right elastomer for milk and for alkaline wash. If your plant runs a high-fat product or an oil-based cleaner, tell us, because EPDM swells in fats and a Viton set may be the better call. The gaskets and seals page has the full material table.

Price basis Per kit Priced once the desk has matched the pump model

Seal and impeller kit contents
Rotating face	Carbon
Stationary seat	Silicon carbide
Elastomers	EPDM as standard; ask about Viton for fatty product
Impeller	304 stainless, included where the kit for that model calls for it
Listed by	Pump model on the motor or casing plate
If the plate is gone	Shaft diameter at the seal, impeller diameter, photo of old parts on a ruler

Send a part inquiry

How to read a pump plate

Wipe it with a rag and a little vinegar before you photograph it. Milkstone hides the one digit we need. Send the photo straight on, not at an angle, with the flash off.

What each field on the plate tells the desk
Field on the plate	Looks like	Why the desk needs it
Model	Letters and a number, often on the casing	Lists the seal kit directly. The single most useful line.
Serial	Longer number, sometimes with a date code	Separates two builds of the same model that took different seals.
HP	1, 1.5, 2, 3	Confirms the motor frame and, with the impeller, the flow.
RPM	about 1750 or about 3450	A 3450 rpm pump and a 1750 rpm pump are not swaps for each other, even at the same hp.
Volts and phase	115/230 V 1 PH, 208-230/460 V 3 PH	A single-phase pump will not run on a three-phase supply without changes. Check what's at the wall.
Frame	A short code such as 56C	Tells us the shaft and mounting face the pump end bolts onto.
Impeller diameter	Stamped on the impeller, or measure it	Not usually on the plate. Measure across the vanes with calipers, in inches or mm.

No plate at all? Measure the shaft where the seal sits and the impeller across its vanes. Two numbers get us most of the way. A photo of the old seal parts laid next to a steel ruler gets us the rest.

From photo to dispatch

Send the plate
A photo of the motor plate and the impeller diameter, by the form below, by email to [email protected] or read out over the phone.
The desk cross-references
We match the model to a kit or a replacement pump. If it's close but not certain, our parlour technician calls you and asks the question we can't answer from a photo.
You get stock, price and lead time
A written reply with what we have on the shelf, an indicative price and when it can leave. Nothing ships until you confirm.
Invoice and dispatch
Seal kits confirmed by early afternoon usually leave the same day. Pumps travel on a pallet and freight is arranged with you first. See how ordering works.

Who this counter is not for

Installs
We don't send a fitter. We supply the kit and talk you through it on the phone, and your own service person does the work.
Rebuilt pumps
No reconditioned or used units. A second-hand seal has already taken its wear, and you can't see how much.
Guesswork
If the plate, the shaft and the impeller don't point to one kit, we tell you that. We'd rather lose the sale than ship a seal that weeps on day two.

Questions the desk hears weekly

Pump questions, answered short

My plate is unreadable. Can you still find the seal kit?

Usually. Send the shaft diameter at the seal, the impeller diameter and a photo of the old seal parts on a ruler. If those three don't narrow it to one kit, we say so rather than guess.

Do you install or rebuild pumps?

No. We supply the pump or the kit, and our parlour technician answers fit questions by phone. The fitting is done by you or your own service person.

Why did my new seal fail in a month?

Most often the pump ran dry after the receiver emptied. A mechanical seal needs liquid across its faces to stay cool. A float switch or a level probe on the receiver is cheaper than a seal kit every few weeks, and far cheaper than milk on the floor.

Should I go up a size while I'm replacing it?

Only if the old pump couldn't keep up, and even then look at the line first. A bigger pump on the same 1.5 inch discharge mostly makes more noise. The milk hose and sanitary valves pages cover the other half of that line.

Pump or seal kit inquiry

Send the plate, get a match.

Put the model and serial in the spec line, or just the shaft and impeller measurements. Attachments go by email to [email protected] with your name in the subject. Or ring the desk on (608) 355-8791.

Name *

Phone *

Email *

What you need

Delivery address or town and ZIP *

Spec

Overwrite the blanks. Measurements in inches or mm, just say which.

Notes

Foremost Farms may contact me about this inquiry. I have read the privacy policy and the terms.

Inquiry only. The desk replies with stock, an indicative price and a lead time. Nothing is charged online.