I recently got a march pump with ball valves, and I’m putting ball valves in my kettles. I’m interested in using some form of quick-connectors so I can switch tubing between mash tun, chiller, pump, kettle, and carboys. I’m concerned about plastic on my kettle given the proximity to flame, but it sounds like metal ones have their own problems (high heat conductivity means I’d have to wear gloves whenever I touch them). Anybody have suggestions or thoughts on the matter? Links to products you like?
I am interested as well! :cheers:
I just outfitted my brewery with these: http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Camlocks_c_8.html. The rings in the female side don’t get hot at all making it very easy to disconnect/connect. I am very happy with them; easy to use and inexpensive.
My thought is that I should use female on all the ball-valves and male on all the tubing, but I don’t want to make a big mistake. Any reason one way is better than the other?
I would put the female on the tubing. That has the locking mechanism on it. One hand operations.
I brew with someone that has it the other way on the plate chiller. 2 hand is not the way I would do it.
I put the females on the tubing, I thought it would be easier and safer to be pulling away from the hot kettle when forcing the arms down. It’s also slightly cheaper ie: 2 female couplers on hoses, 3 males on kettles and cooler. I also went with the “high flow” 1/2 npt x 5/8" barbs attached to the type D female couplers, although not really sure if it makes much of a difference.
Complete agreement with Jayoun - I use the same on my brew kettle, with the male fitting left on the pot at all times. The female fitting is on the tubing and connected when it is time to make transfers. I’ve found them very easy to use and have not had a leak or problem.
I have a few polysulfone fittings that I do not use anymore. I got them to connect the Therminator but found they restrict flow too much for gravity feeding. They sit in the bottom of my brewing toolbox now.
I went through a couple sets of the 1/2" polysulphone ones but hated the way the o-ring was sealing on the OD. Now I use the SS ones and the o-ring is squeezed axially. Much easier to connect and disconnect without destroying the o-ring.
I got my stainless camlocks from brewers hardware. They are sweet, allows me to pop the pump on/off for whirlpooling and transferring.
Hey, would anyone have a site to buy NG quick disconnects along with flex gas lines, also quick disconnects for Hot liquid. Just trying to find the best in quallity THANKS!
[quote=“drexelbrew”]Hey, would anyone have a site to buy NG quick disconnects along with flex gas lines, also quick disconnects for Hot liquid. Just trying to find the best in quallity THANKS![/quote]Home Depot has them. I got mine from a BBQ store.
Ok I will check them out thanks Greg!
I use the stainless QD’s, female ends on the hoses. I bought a pair of welding gloves and slipped them inside a pair of XL Blichmann gloves, so now I have a waterproof, heat-resistant pair of gloves for doing pretty much anything. My hands are between the L and XL glove size, so this works fine for me.
I thought long and hard about the stainless QD’s versus going to a clover/tri-clamp style fitting. I settled on the quick convenience and one-hand usage, plus the ease of adapting anything I have to handle a 1/2" NPT thread.
My next project is to add a QD to a corny keg lid so I can pump straight from the kettle into a 10/15G keg and replace my carboys. After that, I’m going to modify my kettles such that the ball valves are welded to the kettle versus the threaded weldless fittings; at that point, I expect that I’ll have sorted out my plumbing by then that the utility of threads will outstrip the cleaning hassle.
Cheers.
Where is a good place to get the SS QD’s? I see some at bargain fittings.com, NB, morebeer, etc. I’m not as concerned with getting the cheapest, as getting ones that will work the best and last.
brewershardware.com or bargainfittings.com. They’re pretty close in price and very much worth it. I would get the MPT fittings for the hose side rather than the barbed fittings. You can warm up your 1/2" ID silicone tubing under the tap and stretch them over the threads. You’ll have a much wider flow path vs the barb. I have some that aren’t even clamped and are still nice and tight.
http://www.brewershardware.com/CAMC12M12.htmlUpdate: Cam locks came in the mail today from Brewershardware. They make a great connection, but they aren’t exactly one-handed, and they take a bit of work to hook up. Maybe it will get easier with time, but I tried the Blichmann quick connectors at NHC, and I found them to take less time and are usable with just one hand. After using both, my vote is for the Blichmann connectors.
Alright here goes I have held both of these one’s close to the chest, but here yah go:
http://store.proflowdynamics.com/module ... gs_C68.cfmThese guys are by far the best price I have ever found for camlocks and they once sent me a badly casted piece and they sent two new ones as replacements along with a six pack of silicone gaskets free of charge that they were also out of stock of on my initial order to ensure I was thoroughly happy and surprised the bejebers out of me. Also I mounted a female camlock on my kettle and wish I would have gone the other way but it works still.
I can empathize with Muller as those regular buna n do get worn bad after just a few uses.
Muller or others here is the answer if you already own polysulphone QD’s or want to use them. I have been holding this under my hat also as nobody has ever posted on forums the size of these orings. I had to put a micrometer and calipers to one to get this info because two Colder CS agents were actually mad at me for asking and I was told this is proprietary information Sir, so yah------ your welcome. What I will show you all costs more than plain buna-n orings but I have used these PRIMO orings now for over three years and haven’t replaced one since and they show no scuffing or degradation at all due to the resilient shell over the oring and they work flawlessly as a normal buna-n would but way better.
[color=#00BF00]
FEP-Encapsulated Silicone O-Ring AS568A Dash Number 016 Mcmaster part# 9319K16
They are $3.70 each but I don’t see replacing them anytime soon and their 3 years old.
Again these are the PRIMO orings for CPC QD’s[/color] 8) In the pictures the FEP/silicone type is the red one.
[attachment=2]poly.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]poly1.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=0]poly2.jpg[/attachment]
[color=#FF0000]If you want plain jane buna-n this is the ones you want and their cheap:
NSF & FDA Buna-N O-Ring AS568A Dash #016 Mcmaster part#9555K17 ($4.29 for a pack of 25) So 17 cents an oring.
NB and others charge a buck a piece for these regular ones see:
Why do you think that? Isn’t 1/2" going to be exactly that—one half an inch–regardless of whether it’s a barb or NPT?
No the ID of the high temp hose is commonly 1/2" to fit a nipple that has an OD of 1/2" the actual nipple itself has around 3/8" to 1/4" ID flow path, but regardless I use the 1/2" nipple type to fit my 1/2" ID high temp hose(see link/pic) and have never had issue with pumps cavitation or flow reduction in any way.
I think they work fine.
Any reason you linked to the page you did, as opposed to this one?
http://store.proflowdynamics.com/module ... C37349.cfmThat’s via their “Camlocks for Homebrew” link. The products do look a bit different…
