I recently finished cutting and drilling a Keggle to use as my hot liquor tank. I used a ball valve and a standard dip tube for a false bottom(only I didnt buy the false bottom since there is no need). Problem is that the water stops pulling off the bottom when the water line goes just below the pipe section where it connects to the valve…why is this?? I have a blichmann 10 gal vessel that pulls from the bottom and that has about a 1.5 inch height from the valve to the bottom of the kettle, yet it works fine…HELP PLEASE.
You are not creating a siphon to continue to draw water from below the ball valve. Make sure all you fittings are tight and sealed with teflon plumbers tapes. If your dip tube uses a compression joint where it connects to the ball valve assembly make sure it is tight enough to create an airtight seal.
Most importantly make sure the end of your out put tube is below the bottom of the keggle. If you dont have an output tube you need to get one that extends below to bottom of the keggle to create a siphon.
what greg said
:cheers:
You guys are da Best! I bought some plumbers tape and am going to try that on both fittings tonight and see if that doesnt get er fixed. I am a little confused though because last night I tried testing the kettle, after tightening/tinkering with the fittings, with water. Same thing happened where after water level was below the pipe section running into the kettle, it stopped draining.
Here is the odd part…even after tipping the kettle and moving the water forward it still would not drain the last gallon or so of water…Still think it might just not be air tight???
Cheers
-Mark
Do you have a tube on the output of your ball valve?
Your problem is that it is sucking in air from one of your connections you need to seal it off some way with more tape or just look to see if you can see where it might be pulling in the air.
I had the same problem with one of mine I had saw cut a slot in the elbow so I could slide then clamp it on the copper pipe going to the bottom of my kettle.
I found that I had cut it to far back so it was sucking in air once redone no more problems.
Just in case anyone else sees this thread looking for an answer. You have to have a hose on the output nipple that is lower than the dip tube, otherwise the siphon will always stop at the hole you drilled for your ball valve. Hose lower than diptube inside keggle. Works.
