Supplies for braided steel ring manifold

Hi Forum- I've been poking around, trying to figure out the solution to my problem, searches of many types are being frustrating.

Anyway, I built a MLT out of a 10 gallon victory cooler, and wanted to be fancy, so I made the ring braid manifold out of How To Brew. The problem I'm running into is connecting the manifold output to my ball valve.

What I've got is a 3/8" ball valve screwed into a 3/8" x 3/8" MIP/MIP nipple. That's what is exposed on the inside of the MLT, 3/8 MIP. The ring braid is built around a 5/8" compression T joint. What I did originally was get a 3/8" compression nut and run a very short piece of tubing between the two parts. This is, naturally, unsatisfying- the tubing has a tendency to pull out (happily it only happened during cleanup phases so far, and not mid-run). It is also unsatisfying because the actual space required for this franken-adapter is long enough that the back end of the ring bumps up against the wall of the MLT.

The reason I've got that connection is because I am completely unable to find anything that runs basicially from a 5/8 male thread to a 3/8 male thread in one part. I have the sense that I'm more-or-less stuck at this point and should probably start over with a different pipe gauge either in the braid T or in the ball valve. Maybe I could find a better pipe nipple instead.

Any advice on this problem? In a nutshell, I need to connect a 3/8" ball valve to a 5/8" compression T in a small number of parts and low-ish price.

I've managed to work out a solution to my problem.

The braid ring design in HTB calls for the two ends of the braid to be connected to the straight-line run of a 5/8 compression T joint. This is the problematic part, because it's pretty much impossible to run anything *except* 5/8 tube from that joint to the ball valve, since there's really no such thing as a 5/8" female NPT connector (and I'm not convinced that the screws on a compression joint have the same turn rate as on NPT, meaning that if one existed it might not fit anyway).

The trick is to instead use a 3/8 female NPT T joint. You can buy 3/8" MIP to 5/8" compression converters as well (Watts A323, I believe), which will serve to anchor the two ends of the braid. The benefit here is that this setup is a LOT easier to connect to the ball valve, since you've got 3/8" NPT pretty much straight through.

I'm working on a few final details. The new setup is a bit too short actually, so the braid now bumps into the near edge of the cooler instead of the far one. I would also like the design to be modular enough that I can separately deal with the waterproofing of the ball valve seal and the attachment of the ring manifold - right now the T joint of the manifold is providing the pressure up against the inside gaskets.

Once I get those worked out (mainly just need to add an extra spacer), I'll post some pictures and a worked-out plan for posterity.

And yeah, I know- I should have just gone with the more standard straight braid manifold that's in all the threads. I wanted more complexity.

I decided to gussy up my solution and made a blog post about it. If anyone else is interested in doing a braided steel ring manifold, here's where to read about it.

Bringing one back from the dead to say THANK YOU!

I've been dealing with the same issue and was about ready to give up and go with the straight braid.

I found that the 1/2" compression threads from a 5/8" x 5/8" x 1/2" compression tee almost thread into a 3/8" FIP connector. Just enough to give me hope, but not enough to work.

(And I laughed the first time I heard that plumbing always ends up being a "three trip" job. I'll be on my fourth [and now final] trip to the hardware store.)

Thanks again!