Need plumbing help

I have a Blichmann Boilermaker 10 gallon pot which has a ball valve that came with it. I have a 1/2" npt thread on the inside of the valve so I temporarily attached a hose to go from that to my chiller. Problem is, I want to make that a quick disconnect at the pot itself and also at the chiller end. I don’t want to have to use my brewpot as my cleaning water or to sanitize the plate chiller when I want to use it. I did quick disconnects on the chiller for the water side and that seems to work wonderfully. Can anyone give me suggestions on how to plumb this up the right way with some sort of disconnects to make it easier?

I use three union
http://plumbing.hardwarestore.com/52-332-copper-unions-and-couplings/copper-union-251348.aspx
connections on my brew rig, one each at the MLT and Brew Kettle, and one on the intake side of the pump. Relatively easy to disassemble with two good wrenches, no leaks in over 7 years. They do need to be lined up well to work correctly.

Example: union
http://plumbing.hardwarestore.com/52-332-copper-unions-and-couplings/copper-union-251348.aspx

ahh thanks for that. I’m not sure I want to be bringing out the wrenches. I think there has to be a way to make a quick disconnect out of all of this. I have a “real” plumbing store not far from my house. I may head over there with the valve and the chiller and see if one of the pros can put something together. I want to be able to use my bottling bucket to clean and sanitize the chiller before use so the quick disconnect needs to be at the chiller at least. I was hoping one for the kettle side so it’s easier to clean and sanitize that hose as well.

Ideally, Kettle side would be a QD that I could take off, and just connect up to my bottling bucket and go back and forth when needed. The chiller side I guess doesn’t matter as much as I thought.

ruinah69,
I admit I’m not quite following what your trying to do. But, my comment is more to do with your later statement “Ideally, Kettle side would be a QD that I could take off,…” . Can you get away with that even with full metal (brass or SS) QDs? I haven’t taken one apart to be sure but likely some form of a seal that may not stand up to the heat when attached to the boil kettle. Silicone o-ring may be able to handle the heat but relying on the QD not to fail without a valve backup could be a mistake.

Sorry ahead of time if I’m not understanding what you meant.

VK

maybe I am over-explaining or over-complicating it. I basically want to hook up my chiller. I put pictures of my kettle with valve and then pics of my chiller. If the hose is hooked up to my kettle while I boil I was thinking it could melt, etc. So how can I plumb this so that I can hook the chiller up when the boil is done? I want to be able to do do this quickly as that valve will be hot from the boil. I dont want to be threading that hose barb in there and trying to get a hose attached when that valve is hot.

http://imgur.com/a/6XoxF

Could you replace the yellow highlited fitting (see QD propose.jpg) with the brass male QD fitting (see Mc-Carr brass QD.jpg)?

It looks like it would take an adapter(s) in between to go from female on cloverleaf to female on brass fitting.

You might find that you need to cool the male fitting before attaching the QD if tolerences are too tight when at high temp.

Take this as a suggestion since someone else may have it figured out already. The adapters seem to be the most questionable part in my suggestion. I don’t know what you have for a female thread on the cloverleaf so can’t look it up. Have you checked with Blichmann? It would seem to be a very useful thing you are trying to do.

Good Luck,
VK

Correction to what I wrote:

The thread on the male fitting of the brass QD is a male hose thread, not a female as I wrote. I suspect that is a NPT thread on the cloverleaf so still need an adapter.

http://www.rittenhouse.ca/asp/Product.asp?PG=356

This may work as an adapter to go from cloverleaf to brass male QD. See that they have it in 1/2 or 3/4 NPT thread.

Good Luck!

VK

not sure why I didn’t think about asking Blichmann. I think this is exactly what I am after. Now if I could just find someone who sells it.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/qui ... itngs.html

[quote=“ruinah69”]not sure why I didn’t think about asking Blichmann. I think this is exactly what I am after. Now if I could just find someone who sells it.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/qui ... itngs.html[/quote]

Maryland Homebrew Inc
Columbia

http://www.mdhb.com

Ph: 410-290-3768

Looks like a small operation, but I am sure they will special order it if you ask nicely enough. Assuming your location in your profile is correct it is the closest.

I use brass quick disconnects on my system - the the High Flow Hose Couplings for Coolant found on this page: http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-quick … gs/=gobux9 The sockets have silicone O-rings that are fine for brewing temperatures.

The plugs [6739K59] thread into the valves on all my vessels (HLT, MTT, BK), my March pump, and the return for my WIC. I made up hoses with the sockets [6739K68] or [6739K64] and the high-temperature tubing from NB. The QD fittings work great as long as I remember to close the valves before removing the fittings. The QDs get hot when recirculating or transferring hot wort, but that’s solved with a pair of leather work gloves.

[quote=“brans041”][quote=“ruinah69”]not sure why I didn’t think about asking Blichmann. I think this is exactly what I am after. Now if I could just find someone who sells it.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/qui ... itngs.html[/quote]

Maryland Homebrew Inc
Columbia

http://www.mdhb.com

Ph: 410-290-3768

Looks like a small operation, but I am sure they will special order it if you ask nicely enough. Assuming your location in your profile is correct it is the closest.[/quote]

sadly, this is where I got my pot from. I didn’t see any of this hardware though when looking through what they had. I will just have them order it, shouldn’t be more than a few days and they get it. It’s a great operation and they usually have everything I need. I just blanked on how to best do what I was looking to do. thanks for all of the help folks. I do appreciate it. Cheers!

I just ordered the Blichmann QD’s from NB. Not bad for $13 a piece.