RIMS through Autosparge

Is anybody continuously recirculating through their Autosparge? I like that I could just leave it installed in the MT for the whole brew session. It seems like the floating hose would work fine; but I admit I've never taken a close look at one. Thanks!

dave97 said:

Is anybody continuously recirculating through their Autosparge? I like that I could just leave it installed in the MT for the whole brew session. It seems like the floating hose would work fine; but I admit I've never taken a close look at one. Thanks!

Click to expand...

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/auto_sparge/auto_sparge.html

Says right here it works on RIMS.

But is anybody doing it? The reason I ask is I've read the valve seals may not last with hot wort constantly running through it. Pajama jeans "says" they'll lift your but, buuuuhht.

This is what I have been using for my RIMS. FWIW though, the whole "auto" part has never worked on mine. I have always had to manually adjust the flow rate, even before I was using it for recirculating.

Adjust the flow during the mash, but is it working for you while sparging?

Don't want to hijack the thread but does anybody know what size hose fitting goes on the threaded end? I plan on setting up my system so that the all recirculation goes through the sparge arm.

I contstantly recirc hot wort through my autosparge, No issues.

Of course during recirculation you're not adding any new water to the system so the float has to be adjusted so that it stays open. After that, you'd want to raise the float up a bit so that you can accumulate your desired water level over the grain during the sparge.

Bobby_M said:

Of course during recirculation you're not adding any new water to the system so the float has to be adjusted so that it stays open. After that, you'd want to raise the float up a bit so that you can accumulate your desired water level over the grain during the sparge.

Click to expand...

It works fine if you do these adjustments, but ...... I removed my auto sparge because I could just as easily do the adjustments on my return valve and not have an extra piece of hardware in the way.

Isn't the whole point to not have to make any flow adjustments?

I had to make adjustments between when I would recirculate the MLT (vorlauf) and when I would switch to fly sparging. I also had issues with it plugging at the beginning of the vorlauf because of grain bits so I'd have to mess with it then as well. I also didn't like having it in the way when I would mash in.

It does what it is supposed to do, but I guess I just don't mind setting my return valves for the proper flow and having one less piece of hardware in there.

Yes, we use the auto-sparge during the RIMS phase of mashing with no issues at all. I'm trying to figure out why people think it should be doing flow control on something. It's only purpose is to avoid overfilling the mash while you are sucking on some suds and not paying attention to your brew! As far as having to adjust the arm for the recirc, I guess we are lucky and don't have that problem. When we change the input to the pump from the hot liquor tank to the mashtun output, we drop the level of the mash just enough the auto-sparge opens and allows the recirc without issue. We handle throttling with a ball valve on top of our mini-rims heater. Works great, no muss no fuss.

The auto part has never worked for sparging for me either. Oh well. I just use it as a manually operated sparge arm.

schristian619 said:

The auto part has never worked for sparging for me either. Oh well. I just use it as a manually operated sparge arm.

Click to expand...

What fails as far as the auto part of it? I would like to know what to watch out for. So far we haven't seen the valve get clogged open or anything like that so I am curious about the failure modes to be aware of.