Is my Flysparging too sloppy?

Hello I want to run my sparging technique by you guys too see if I need to make changes. It all starts with my igloo 5 gallon drinking water cooler with a brass valve installed. I don't have any kind of filter installed in the bottom, I've just been lining the cooler with a Jumbo Coarse Nylon Bag with the grain in that. So far I've had no stuck sparges and no grain particles in the wort. After the mash I collect a good 2-3 quarts of wort and recirculate it back in the mash tun. Now I start collecting to the brew pot, I open the valve so slow that I barely get solid stream running, takes about a hour give or take to collect 3.75 gallons for my 2.75 gallon batches. My sparge water gets heated to 175 where I then shut off the heat. As I'm collecting my wort I am steady adding my sparge water to the mash tun as needed, stirring the tun maybe 4 times through out the hour long drain.

How does this look? Do I need to make changes? Since I shut off the heat to the sparge water when I start draining, my 175 water ends up in the 150's by the end of the hour long drain. Is this bad or is 30 or so minutes of sparging in the 170 range enough as the water slowly cools down. Thanks for any info in helping me improve my techniques.

I'd say your system is fine for batch spargibg but your process is fly sparging. Fly sparging needs a false bottom or a manifold to prevent channeling. Channeling is not a concern in batch sparging. You will more than likely get better efficiency batch sparging with your system. How is your efficiency?

What sort of efficiency numbers have you been seeing with this method?

How is my efficiency? The beer tastes great, LOL, after 6 great tasting batches of beer and now one that tastes like garbage, I'll be using a hydrometer for the first time and I'll actually be able to calculate what my efficiency is.

The one I'm drinking now that tastes like crap was supposed to be a irish red around 5.5 percent alcohol but it tastes like its in the 11's. Real strong hot alcohol taste that is almost unbearable. The thing I can't figure out is, that I calculate my efficiency in beersmith at 75 percent and even at 100 percent eff. the beer would only have 7.21 percent alcohol. Its horrible, the recipe called for brown sugar, so I went and got dark brown sugar from walmart, maybe thats where i messed up. I don't know.

I wouldn't think it would be very efficient due to channeling but I also don't think stirring the mash during the fly sparge is a very good idea. It's quasi batch sparging at that point but more like the worst of both worlds. Drain the tun fully, close the valve, add all the sparge, stir, drain.

Well thats simple Bobby, I like that, much less work. Im going to try that on the next batch, do you get decent efficiency since that method is a much faster draining technique.

You should get at least 80% and the draining only takes like 5 minutes each.

Cool, is the water/grain weight ratio to use for sparge water when batch sparging different than the ratio for fly sparging?