3 way ball valve

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bensiff

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
4,835
Reaction score
411
Can you use a 3 way ball valve to throttle flow on the outside of a pump or would that cause bleed over to other ports?
 
I tried a 3 way ball valve (t-type) for a while on the output of my pump. I could throttle back the flow maybe 50 percent, but beyond that it would start to leak out the other port...
 
thanks...so really need to have a 2 way ball valve first to throttle and then a 3 way to switch between lines it sounds like.
 
Yeah, for a while I made due without being able to fully throttle back the flow, but I think a 2-way then a 3-way would be the right way to do it. (My 3-way was just there to give me an easy way to bleed air out of the lines, so ultimately I just decided to keep it simple and switch back to a 2-way.)
 
I was just thinking about the blichmann tower of power and this has me doubting myself. On that, I'm pretty sure you can send the flow two directions, but you can also throttle back the flow all the way, all with a single 3-way valve. So maybe this is possible with an L-type valve, just not a T-type? Or are they using some kind of custom valve?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/media/catalog/product/cache/3/image/800x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/o/tower_plumbing_closeup.jpg

EDIT: Aha -- here's a schematic of various 3 way valves:
http://www.plumbingsupply.com/images/three-way-ball-valve-landt-port-diagram.jpg

So it looks like they're using a "vertical single-l port" 3 way valve?
 
A tee on the outlet with two ball valves would work. Only downside is you could inadvertently open both
 
There's 2 ball styles in 3 way valves. A T style will bleed over. An L style will not.
 
Back
Top