Stainless Steel Braided Line Question

I batch sparge and my cooler mash tun uses a stainless steel braided line. It works really well, but recently while brewing last weekend I noticed that I had to vorlauf several more pitchers before the grain specs went away.

Afterwards I took a look at the SS braid and it seems to have a place near the fitting where the holes in it are stretched out a bit more than the rest. Could this be the cause of having more grain specs than usual?

I think I read one time that it's not actually the SS braid that creates a filter for clear wort going into the kettle...but it is the grain bed that actually does the filtering.

I'm just trying to figure out if replacing the SS braid is necessary or not.

Thanks!

yes that is probably it. The best stainless hose mesh can be found in the big box stores (lowes, home depot, etc) in the water heater section. This application is used to connect water heaters to the house water supply. They are a bigger diameter and come in lengths up to 24' They much more sturdy than the ones that come on washing machine hose. Should run you about $10-15 depending on the length you need.

Thanks for the reply. I thought I read somewhere that the grain bed creates the filter, and that the size of the holes in the line really didn't matter. But I can't remember where I read that or if it's true. I also remember reading that some people make copper or plastic "manifolds" for batch sparging, and cut slits into them. The slits I would imagine would be bigger than the the stretched holes in my SS braid.

Either way, I will probably replace it just to be safe.