Thanks for posting the info from John.
My 2 cents:
Blichmann developed the new valve to help with cleaning... The valve takes about 5 seconds to disassemble (much easier than the 3-piece) and requires no tools.
FWIW, I've had my original boilermaker's since 2008 and have never taken the 3-piece valves apart for cleaning. There's no need to (or advantage) since like everyone else, my 3 kettles are on the hot side of the brewing process. About once a year I recirc hot oxiclean to clean all. Good enough. Yes, some "stuff" may be in some of the crevices of the ball valve, but again, who cares? It's harmless. If this was a cold fermentation side of the brewing process I'd care.
... eliminates additional needed elbows and nipples.
Only if you want to exit sideways. If you use a Tee on the output to include an NPT thermometer like I do, then you may need an elbow. I also find it much easier to hook up a hose with a QD straight on with the QD hanging out beyond the edge of the table as it gives you a spot to hold a small bowl to catch drips. You can't do that now. It's actually as if they don't expect people to use the new kettles with a table at all and only with their burners and their 3-tier setup.
[*]It is easy to visually tell if the valve is open or closed (see the attached pics).
IMHO no where near as easy a ball valve. This new valves needs you to look at it from the side and know what it means since it's proprietary. A ball valve you can look at and know if it's 25% open, 50% open, or 100% open because they're standard positions from 0 to 90 degrees. Very easy to tell. On this thing, who knows. you can know is "I think it's open, but not sure if it's 10%, or 100%" unless you get out and measure the difference between a full open one and the one you're wondering about. Over time you'll probably get good at it but it's not as immediately obvious as a ball valve. A ball valve has that nice 90 degree sweep from closed to open so it's immediately obvious.
[*]I understand a lot of people just open their ball valves 100% percent and let downstream valves handle flow control, but there are some people that can benefit from the more precise control at the source.[/quote]
True. This would only be people that gravity drain. Anyone with a single tier setup has to use pumps so feature is of no value to them. I find it hard to believe that many people are buying what many consider expensive Blichmann kettles and then balking at the price of a pump and instead killing their backs or climbing up ladders to unsafely dump 20+ lbs of grain into a kettle high up in the air.
The outlet is 1/2 in. NPT, and has a lifetime warranty so being custom built for this purpose should not present any problems.
Only useful if (a) Blichmann is still in business, and (b) is still making the valve, and possibly (c) you may need to make sure you don't lose your original receipt. Not sure how the warranty works, but if you're required to go through the store you bought from that would pose a problem too as LHBS's come and go.
So again IMHO of course, but I don't see how this is anywhere as good as using truly common standards and non-proprietary parts like a standard ball valve. When I put together my setup I didn't want to assume or hope that any given company would be around 20 years from now. I wanted a system for life and intend on brewing for another 20-30+ years and didn't want to have to worry any companies still being around.
The 90 degree outlet reduces hose kinking and you can easily orient the outlet in any direction (up, down, left, right, and anywhere in between).
People must be using junky hoses.
I go out the front with everything and have never had issues with kinking:
I understand that the open style of the lid handle is a bit different, but the idea was that it gives you the ability to hang it in multiple places in your brewery, and not just on the pot (but it still can be hung on the pot!).
I would argue that the old version is easier to hang in different places in your brewery. All you needed was a hook, a nail, or some other protrusion on the wall. This no longer works with the new handle as it's open on one end.
The only place you can hang the new one is a vertical wall who's width is less than an inch or so (like a kettle wall) - the distance between the lid and the handle. To hang the new lid on a hook or nail, the hook/nail would have to stick out of the wall at least 50% of the diameter of the lid and you'd have to hang the lid with it sticking out sideways into the room. Nobody's going to do that.
All my 2 cents of course.
Kal
