Ball Valves

I'm working on building more of an automated brewing system, gas fired electricly controled. But, all that I can find for accuated valves are threaded brass and stainless steel. I did however find tri clamp three way ball valves (but I'm not trying to spend $500 a valve, and I would still like it to be cost effective of the Sabco system). Does anyone know of any problems with using threaded fittings and/or brass for wort flow?

beally24 said:

I'm working on building more of an automated brewing system, gas fired electricly controled. But, all that I can find for accuated valves are threaded brass and stainless steel. I did however find tri clamp three way ball valves (but I'm not trying to spend $500 a valve, and I would still like it to be cost effective of the Sabco system). Does anyone know of any problems with using threaded fittings and/or brass for wort flow?

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I use a lot of brass parts on my system both threaded and the sweat type. No problems so far, or at least none that I am aware of.

Well as for threads I have used a combination of thread tri-clamp and cam lock on my rig. the old rig I built had allot of brass on it..... I have gotten away from brass now because of lead risk and cleaning of rig..... Many on here think brass is a poor choice but I am just not sure. If you are worried about cost than brass is your ticket if not than we have many other options.

Cost is not really that big of a deal, however $500 a valve is just insane. Stainless definantly seems the way to go. What are some other options? Or a website that I could just find a simple stainless steel electric accuated 2 way valve.

"cheap" and "electric actuated" and "stainless steel" (and "two way") are all contradictory. if you are looking at industrial process equipment, $500 is a decent price. unfortunately for us (who dont necessarily need all the NSF features and millions of hours MTBF/actuations), there is not much of a market for cheap electronic valves.

the issue with threads and wort contact.... they are hard (maybe impossable) to keep clean and if you dont take it appart (guess most people wont every time they brew) you wont even know.

that being said... I currently have threads in wort contact (pre boil) and I also use brass fittings. It is one of the risks you take kind of like brewing outside you know there is a chance a bird could fly over and relieve himself in your brew pot but you do it anyway and if it happens you tear it down and clean it all.

JT, as far as threads go, in your opinion would just pumping boiling cleaner thru the threads clean them or a good scrub need to be done between every brew?

Pre boil I pump cleaner through them. Post boil there is no way to make sure something that is growing in them isn't lodged in there (why I dont use them post boil) without taking them appart and scrubbing them. Just my opinion but it seems like a convienent place for mold to grow: dark, moist, probably some leftover sweet wort/ grain bits.

I use them preboil without concern because I figure I will be boiling off anything it might pick up before it has a chance to do anything... that could be wrong but it makes me feel better about it and I haven't got sick yet!

Nothing wrong with using brass.

Up until recently, most plumbing fixtures were brass in your home. Alternate materials are now used principally because brass is expensive.

The cooking and restaurant business continue to utilize a great deal of brass. The lead issue is completely blown out of proportion with respect to leaching from brass. Even the lead solder in most household plumbing hasn't been "proved" to be a heath issue under normal use. However, it has been eliminated in building codes just because it's the smart thing to do.

you could always rig up a servo on a standard valve and control it that way.

Brek81 said:

you could always rig up a servo on a standard valve and control it that way.

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what do you mean servo?

somthing like this

many microprocessor control systems will interface with them, and also gives you many postitons on the ball valves in case you want partial flow. not sure of tourque requirements, but its what i have been looking at setting up when i get to that point.

If you elect to control a valve with some type of servo for some reason, you need to think through the actual torque required. Most manual valves have a fairly high force requirement to change their mechanism. Applying a servo to this type of valve really isn't practical.

If you need variable flow there are valves out there which will accomplish this but they ain't cheap and then there's the requirement for something to control them. This isn't cheap either.

What is your specific requirement you're attempting to satisfy?

Looks good from here... Whats the servo on this?

not mine, but according to the poster the servo is a hitec hs-5955tg. but that was discontinued

here are 3 that spec out similar or better (although not titanium gears)
http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-805bb_mega_power.html
http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-805mg_servo.html
http://www.servocity.com/html/hs-7954sh_servo.html