The re-purposed 3/8" wort chiller that I was using for my DIY HERMS coil just didn't cut it on brew day. The flow rate caused a lot of stress during the sparge process and that was not the only flow choke point in the system. There is no way I want to face another brew day like this one so I made the decision today to order a new stainless steel 1/2" coil and fittings from Stainless Brewing. I Hope to have it installed for the brew day I have set for the 28th.
I decided to go with Stainless Brewing because you just can't beat their price and all the online comments I could find were glowing. Not only can you order the coil in 2 different lengths but you can also select between 6 different diameters and you can even have custom bending done! My kettle is a little over 15" in diameter and about 18" high so I went with a 25' length and a 10 inch diameter. The page states that the bent ends that connect to compression fittings on the inside of the kettle should be between 2 and 2.5 inches long so I should be able to center it pretty well. One thing that I plan to do though is use some short pieces of silicon hose as spacers in 4 places around each coil to separate them. This should allow better water circulation hence better heat transfer. I discovered what a difference this can make when experimenting with the old copper wort chiller. Simply stretching the coils to allow 1/4 inch gaps increased output of the coil by 2 degrees.
I also ordered some parts to convert my MLT over to all 1/2" ID fittings. This includes a top return bulkhead with inside hose barb and outside male camlock, a 1/2" hose barb for the inside connection from the drain bulkhead to the false bottom and a full flow 1/2" barb elbow replacement for the false bottom itself.
With these upgrades installed my entire system will have 100% 1/2" plumbing! This should increase the liquid I can move along with giving me more control over the flow with the pump outlet valves. I also found that when pumping out of the MLT on brew day the pump would get louder. After reading some on-line forums I found out that it is not a good idea to restrict a chugger pump on the inlet side and that it can cause it to overheat.....
Sorry... Still no photo of the new pump config.... I should be able to post it this weekend.
UPDATE*** The HERMS coil is running behind for shipment due to a backlog at Stainless Brewing. They say my order should be shipped by the end of the week 3/13.
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