Aluminum RIMS tube

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McCuckerson

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I was just on my other favorite web site (McMasterCarr) and apparently they sell aluminum threaded pipe and fittings in all the same sizes as SS, for about 1/2" the price. Could AL pipe be used for a RIMS tube. I don't know if I am comfortable with AL and pipe threads in the same application, but it should be ok? right?
 
Sure it'll work! Maybe insulate it, since it'll conduct more heat away.....
 
The only things I could see as a problem is heat conduction which as Steve suggested could be solved with insulation and mucking up the threads which can be solved by being very careful when threading on a fitting. I think it would work just fine unless there is a problem I did not think about..
 
The only things I could see as a problem is heat conduction which as Steve suggested could be solved with insulation and mucking up the threads which can be solved by being very careful when threading on a fitting. I think it would work just fine unless there is a problem I did not think about..

My only worry would be stripping the threads. I know the brass coupler I use wont seal around the element until the rims tube is heated and another half turn is put on it. It really requires a bit of torque. I would be more worried about galling the threads up and the threads seizing. If the price is right it certainly is worth trying.
 
The aluminum nipple is cheap, but once you add the aluminum Tees the price goes up.

Might as well go with two Sanitary Tees.

My $0.02 anyway.
 
Aluminum forms a protective layer, without that it's not a good choice for food use. With a kettle it is easy to see the layer and monitor the condition of the kettle. I'd worry a bit about the inside of a tube, unless you set it up to remove the end frequently to check it. Chloride from what I've read can attack the aluminum and cause pitting and early failure. So you might save up front but lose in the long run vs. SS or Copper. Do some searching on Aluminum boilers for espresso machines, which is a similar concept (closed water boiler).
 
Just watch for galling as you are fitting it up and use a good thread lube/sealant and you should be good. You won't be able to clean it with some cleaners, but it's on the hot side, so super clean isn't really an issue in my mind.
 
It looks like I could also do a sweated copper piper tube for about the same price. I would not be able to take it apart for cleaning though, but the sweated connections would be much smoother than threaded pipe. So in my mind its a trade off.
 
I just discovered the same thing- a basic RIMS tube design with a 12" pipe, two tees, and appropriate reducing bushings (two to 1/2" for fluid I/O, one to 1" for the heater element and one to 1/4" for the thermocouple) works out to range from $204 in 2" stainless to $84 in 1.5" aluminum. The 1.5" stainless is $149 and the 2" aluminum is $139. Seems like I'm going with 1.5" aluminum. I'm not a big fan of cheaping out, but I'm also not a big fan of overspending.
 
Well, if you don't want to strip your threads by manhandling the fittings, I've had good luck with food grade silicone adhesive. It'll seal the threads up better than teflon tape and you don't have to crank things down in order to get the threads to seal.
 
Yep, I went and screwed that pooch. Got all my parts from mcmaster, put it together with teflon tape assuming that if it leaked, I could just undo it and use better silicone sealant. Ran it on plain water to test (and cooked a sous vide dinner at the same time, heh), and each joint leaked just a little bit. Ended up tightening them down a bit more, but still leaky. So I went to disassemble it in preparation for the better sealant.

All six of the 1.5" joins are stuck firm (the pipe nipple to the two tees, plus the 1.5" x 0.75" bushing on the other parts of the tees). I managed to back out the 0.75" bushings that I was using to reduce down to the QDs and RTD ports, but that's it. Also got out the heater element.

Going to spend the day working with penetrating oil and see if that helps, but at this point my choices are: invest in a big 2" wrench and hope, or switch over to a different technique. I think I might try a copper/sweat solution after all. If I'm clever, I can probably get that working relatively cheaply.

My other option is to put the whole thing back together and maybe use some kind of silicone caulk to manually seal the leaky parts of the thread, but that's unsatisfying.

There's a neat picture I found online of a dude who put a flange on a piece of copper pipe (basically soldering a bit of 6-gauge wire all around it), so I will try to do the same thing- cut the tube in half and add the flange / triclover joint to make cleaning easier. Pricing it out makes it still seem a lot cheaper than stainless (even cheaper than aluminum, but you've got to actually know how to sweat the pipe yourself).
 
Yep, I went and screwed that pooch. Got all my parts from mcmaster, put it together with teflon tape assuming that if it leaked, I could just undo it and use better silicone sealant. Ran it on plain water to test (and cooked a sous vide dinner at the same time, heh), and each joint leaked just a little bit. Ended up tightening them down a bit more, but still leaky. So I went to disassemble it in preparation for the better sealant.

All six of the 1.5" joins are stuck firm (the pipe nipple to the two tees, plus the 1.5" x 0.75" bushing on the other parts of the tees). I managed to back out the 0.75" bushings that I was using to reduce down to the QDs and RTD ports, but that's it. Also got out the heater element.

Going to spend the day working with penetrating oil and see if that helps, but at this point my choices are: invest in a big 2" wrench and hope, or switch over to a different technique. I think I might try a copper/sweat solution after all. If I'm clever, I can probably get that working relatively cheaply.

My other option is to put the whole thing back together and maybe use some kind of silicone caulk to manually seal the leaky parts of the thread, but that's unsatisfying.

There's a neat picture I found online of a dude who put a flange on a piece of copper pipe (basically soldering a bit of 6-gauge wire all around it), so I will try to do the same thing- cut the tube in half and add the flange / triclover joint to make cleaning easier. Pricing it out makes it still seem a lot cheaper than stainless (even cheaper than aluminum, but you've got to actually know how to sweat the pipe yourself).
How did this end? Did you get it working?
 
Nope. I just looked at it today, actually. Still totally sealed up. I ended up making a copper tube instead- worked pretty well, I just had to be imaginative with the parts at the local plumbing shop (there's a great store near me, with lots more stuff than a typical home despot).

The current setup is a lot like the picture I liked, but without the cut and triclover part for easy drying. I think I'm going to add that, though, as right now I get a little bit of rust in the water when I rinse it out due to incomplete drainage whenever I use it. Probably not the end of the world, since I clean it pretty thoroughly before use, but still.
 
Rust? Did you use steel somewhere in the build?

Copper and solder shouldn't rust.

can you post a picture?
 
The rust seems to be coming from either the heating element or its base. I used a 220V ULWD element, but I think the exterior to the element itself is mild steel. I might have been better served with a (much) smaller, but stainless 120V HWD element, even if that means it might snap if I fire it dry.
 
The rust seems to be coming from either the heating element or its base. I used a 220V ULWD element, but I think the exterior to the element itself is mild steel. I might have been better served with a (much) smaller, but stainless 120V HWD element, even if that means it might snap if I fire it dry.

I dry fired my 220v 5500W Incoloy (stainless steel) element a couple of batches back. It is run at 110v, but it was heating up for a couple of minutes. When I pulled it out to check it, there wasn't any problem at all. It did just fine. Maybe it wouldn't have tolerated the heating if it was powered at 220v. At least I didn't have to replace it.
 
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