Brewer Gerard

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I'm in the middle of putting a design together for an eHerms brewery. Think I'm gonna go down the route of using some asco solenoid valves to control the flow from tank to tank. Anyway, the intention is to use some 0.5 inch (internal diameter) silicon tubing to transfer the hot liquid/wort from vessel to vessel. In terms the pipe size specification for the valves what would match 0.5 inch tubing. I don't want the valve to restrict flow in any way. I already picked up a cheap one on ebay that has a pipe size of G1/4 but this too small!

If anybody could recommend the right size hose barb to screw into such a valve that would also be helpful!

insurgus

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1/2"

Your pumps will be your limiting factor anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about having a straight 1/2" run throughout your system. Pipe and tube is measured differently so you'll just have to do your best to match things up.

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audger

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G1/4 is 1/4". 1/4" pipe flows 4x less than 1/2" at a given pressure.

if you have 1/2" ID tubing, then you want 1/2" pipe for the rest too. also- solenoids are harsh on the system, you might want to look into motorized ball valves.

Brewer Gerard

Recipes 

Just had a look at some motorized ball valves, god they're expensive! In what way are the solenoid equivalent valves harsh on the system? I think i might still use them on low priority stuff like filling the HLT and Herms tank.

Cheers for replies

KitB

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Your best bet is probably this:
Open Source Control Systems :: Valves :: 1/2" NPT 2-Way Stainless Motorized Ball Valve

Brewer Gerard

Recipes 

Cheers, they're priced a lot better than the other stuff i was checkin out! Gonna email them now and see will they deliver to Ireland.