Stainless Camlocks on Copper Chiller a Bad Idea?

Northern Brewer General
1

I have a copper immersion chiller that I want to put some kind of quick disconnects on. My current plan is to solder threaded copper fittings on both ends of the chiller and use these to attach the quick disconnects to. As of right now, I don’t have any other kind of quick disconnects in use anywhere in my brewery so I would like to make a good choice now that I can standardize on for future improvements.

Stainless camlocks seem to be quite popular and they are pretty cost effective. If I go this route I would get a threaded Type A adapter to attach to the threaded copper fittings on the chiller. However I’m a bit concerned about the galvanic corrosion possible between the copper and the stainless.

Another option is brass high-flow hose couplings from McMaster-Carr. These are quite a bit more expensive though. Also this would most likely be the only place I would use this style of disconnect in the entire brewery thus defeating my goal of standardizing.

So am worrying about nothing mixing the stainless with the copper? Is there anything I can do to minimize the possibility of corrosion? Or should I suck it up and shell out for the brass disconnects?

Thanks!
–Brian

2

The fittings are cheap enough that they could be replaced in a few years without much loss if needed. I would go ahead with the stainless and copper.
I have copper pick up tubes connected to stainless couplers in both my hlt and kettle. Corrosion didnt even occur to me but I still wouldnt change my setup.

3

I also have copper pickup tubes connected to SS couples on my HLT and BK without any issues. I wouldn’t have any concerns of going with SS.

4

Agree with above. My HLT, MT, and BK are copper to SS, no issues.

Are the gaskets for the camlocks food grade? At work we use 2" aluminum for low pressure pumps and SS for high pressure pumps, but they have a standard
buna gasket.

Camlocks would be handy. :cheers:

5

I love camlocks, very handy and havne’t seena leak yet. I have them on my kettle and March pump, I brew in the deck and this lets me break things down quickly.

6

Awesome, thanks for all your replies! Sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and realize just how small of scale things are with homebrewing and that a lot of this stuff won’t really affect us. :smiley:

Yes, they are food grade silicone.