heat shield for ball valve?

I just installed a ball valve on my BK. It is the ss 2-piece from bargainfittings.com. The info on their sight says that a heat shield is necessary for the sight glass (which I don't have at this time) but then seems to indicate that you also need to use a heat shield under the valve.

I am using a Blichmann burner with a 10 gallon pot. Do I need to use a heat shield? How do I attach the heat shield or keep it in place under the valve? Also, is there a preferred material? I suppose a nice piece of ss would be great if I had one.

thanks.

Paul

Hello Paul,

Any piece of flat metal will work to keep the valves plastic parts from melting. It takes quite a bit of heat to melt the ptfe seals inside the valve (when kettle is filled with liquid) but the plastic handle cover will melt and burn pretty easily.

You can position the piece of metal between pot and the burner stand to shield the valve.

Some burners / stands are better at keeping the heat off the fittings.

On my own rig I can position the valve / sight gauge over a burner stand strut and it keeps it form heating up too much.

Go to the hardware store and get a piece of sheet metal (steel). If you have some tin snips, then get a 6"x12" piece and just trim it as needed.

On the Blichmann burner, just rest the metal on the tops of the legs, using the kettle to hold it in place.

Brewhardware.com has some snap on heat shields in several different styles, that are worth checking out

I bought one of BobbyM's shields and it simply clips right onto the valve. I boiled water in my new kettles for 45 minutes to break them in and my sight glass which is part of my ball valve never boiled. On my old 10gal kettle, it would boil over through the sight glass every time and could not figure out why. Now I know it needed a simple shield.

I just used a tin can, cut and flattened out. wedge it between the brew stand and the kettle below the sight glass. looks like crap but works

Only issue I have with the ones from Bobby_M is [last time I checked] using them on a 3 piece ball valve is a PITA to get on/off. Besides, I use the piece of metal (damned cheap too) so that it also shields my sight glass assembly. Prevents the wort, inside it, from 'boiling' and making the reading difficult. Simple few dollars worth of steel is all it takes.

Thanks for all the quick replies. Sounds like I need to stop at the hardware store. I like Wayne's idea of just positioning the valve over one of the legs. If that works, problem solved. If not, a bit of work with the tin snips and then setting it on the pot supports sounds almost as easy. I just don't want to destroy my new valve.

Paul

It is true that you can't really remove the shield regularly if you have a 3pc valve but it does fit nicely if you don't need to remove it often:



It easily snaps on and off of the 2pc valves.

Any chance you could make one to customer required size?? I have my sight tube to the left of my ball valve. So, IF I was to get one, I'd want it to extend to cover that too... Or get a shield that will work with the bottom sight tube fitting.

I use a pie tin, and I get a delicious pie out of it too.

Bobby_M said:

It is true that you can't really remove the shield regularly if you have a 3pc valve but it does fit nicely if you don't need to remove it often:

Click to expand...

Just a tip that it's very much advised to install the heat shield prior to installing the ball valve into a pot. I tried to install it afterwards and I still can't get one of the bolts back into place. It's a really, really tight fit.

sorry to resurrect an old thread, but -
is there a video or something showing how to install these things? i've tried and tried and even cut the hell out of my hand but have not succeeded in getting them installed.
thanks.

How's this? They just clip right onto the valve. After receiving mine, I realized I ordered the wrong orientation, but it still works and I never have boil overs through my sight glass anymore.

...just realized you are using the 3-piece valves and mine is actually clamped to a Tee.

sorry, i was referring to the ones installed on the 3-piece ball valves. they're a PITA.

yeah, that looks tough

commander flatus said:

sorry to resurrect an old thread, but -
is there a video or something showing how to install these things? i've tried and tried and even cut the hell out of my hand but have not succeeded in getting them installed.
thanks.

Click to expand...

You know, I actually did shoot a short video of doing this but realize now that I never posted it. Let me see if I can find it. Which 3pc valve do you have? What does it say on the handle? You did remove the two bottom bolts before trying to clip it on right?

I wrap my valve in aluminum foil (kept loose for air insulation. So far so good.

^+1 a piece of tin foil wrapped loosely around the bottom of my ball valve and sight glass/ thermometer fitting works fine for me. It doesn't look great but deflects the heat for sure.

Bobby_M said:

You know, I actually did shoot a short video of doing this but realize now that I never posted it. Let me see if I can find it. Which 3pc valve do you have? What does it say on the handle? You did remove the two bottom bolts before trying to clip it on right?

Click to expand...

The three piece is one that I got from you, I'll get the name off of it...