Weak sink/ toilet braid. How tokeep from crushing?

Ow do you keep your toilet braid/ sink braid from crushing it's super light and weak and will easily crush or did I get the wrong braid?

I got 1/2" braid for both of my mash tuns and removed the inner plastic and tossed that. My braid compresses all the time and there is no restriction in flow.

Like this?

It shouldnt matter if it compresses too much, most of the water is going to be coming from the first few inches of the manifold anyways.

Agreed ^

It's not going to crush enough to form a water-tight (or wort-tight) seal. If it really bothers you, you could upgrade to a CPVC or copper manifold, or just get a water heater braid to replace that little one with.

I have a water heater braid with a copper wire coil inside. It never gets crushed, and I can beat the dog snot out of it with my mash paddle without issue!

Check out the video in this post to see how to use a copper coil inside your braid.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/ss-false-bottom-ss-braid-289971/

Stauffbier said:

I can beat the dog snot out of it with my mash paddle without issue!

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Is the dog snot for pH balance or for color? If it keeps clogging the braid and needing to be beaten out, you might want to think about a false bottom or something.

SilverZero said:

Agreed ^

It's not going to crush enough to form a water-tight (or wort-tight) seal. If it really bothers you, you could upgrade to a CPVC or copper manifold, or just get a water heater braid to replace that little one with.

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Not true. I recently had my braid seal during draining. Turned out to be a huge disaster. I immediately grabbed a kettle screen to replace the braid. Won't ever deal with that nightmare again.

Gitmoe said:

Not true. I recently had my braid seal during draining. Turned out to be a huge disaster. I immediately grabbed a kettle screen to replace the braid. Won't ever deal with that nightmare again.

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Did you do this in a round cooler or rectangular? I was thinking I would like a false bottom instead of braid in my 48qt coleman, but I havent seen it done outside of the round beverage coolers. My reasoning isn't about stuck sparges though, I want to be able to use the blender to stir, but I fear I could rip the braid out.

I used a 3/4 inch water heater supply line. It is much heavier duty than the toilet supply lines. I never worry about bashing it around while stirring.

You can also get a spring or wire coil to put inside to keep it from collapsing.

I used stainless steel wire. Wrapping the wire around a sharpie marker I created a spring-like coil and inserted inside the braid. Super tough and will not crush.

SilverZero said:

Is the dog snot for pH balance or for color? If it keeps clogging the braid and needing to be beaten out, you might want to think about a false bottom or something.

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Dog snot adds body and prevents boil overs!

That looks like the cheap non metallic braid. I made the mistake of buying one of those at first as well.

Bought this today

Bazooka screen ftw. You won't regret it. I'm using a 40qt round cooler for whoever asked above.

mobly99 said:

That looks like the cheap non metallic braid. I made the mistake of buying one of those at first as well.

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This, i know people on here put in 20lbs of grain in the 10Gal circulars with braid manifolds and never have issues with it getting crushed.

If you can take the plastic center out and drill small holes in it and put it back in the braiding it would act like a filter to keep the mash out of the line and you don't have to worry about the line crushing.

brwmistr said:

If you can take the plastic center out and drill small holes in it and put it back in the braiding it would act like a filter to keep the mash out of the line and you don't have to worry about the line crushing.

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I'll also add the slightly less obvious. Before you do this, cut a few inches off of the tube first...its not going to go over your barb connector with the tube inside very well.