CFC problems

so i recently got a CFC. i am using with a converted keg with a 1/2" ball valve. the keg has a home made hop stopper in it. i used whole hops last night and i was barely getting any flow out of the CFC into the primary. is this from the hops that were piled up in the bottom ofthe keg? or can CFC's be slower? i have brewed with setup once more and the flow seemed to be better. what is whirlpooling? will this skirt this hop problem in the future?

I had problems with my CFC when I started using mine. How far below your kettle is your CFC?

I tried several things, but in the end decided on a pump.

If it's anything like mine, you need a filter over the outlet, or a false bottom to catch the hops. The one time I forgot to put the false bottom in, it took over 90 minutes to drain the wort. With the false bottom, it's usually done in about 10 minutes.

-a.

I had a similar problem using the Bazooka-T, not enough surface area.
Went to a 1/4" x 38" stainless braid, drilled some of the fittings to get better flow (careful not to go to large and ruin the integrity).

You said you were using a hop stopper, so you should be allright, but maybe it is the size of the holes in the screen, they coulds be to small andare getting clogged. I could see this more with pellets than with whole.

How restrictive are your fittings? what is the diameter of the tubing in the CFC? Try to get the ports in your fittings to match this diameter.

At least with drianing thru a CFC you wort is staying hot, even with slow flow my wort will stay above 200 if the lid is on the kettle. And with the chill water valve at the CFC barely cracked I'm still below 60* going into the fermentor.

You may want to try a stainless braid with larger fittings. Go to a local hardware store, I found them in 60" lengths, in packs of two for what the oversized, overpriced crappy hardware stores wanted for 18" sections. I found 3/4" barbs with 1/2"MPT to fit the bung on my ketttle, it will provide more flow than the CFC can handle. It's a bit difficult to get it on there, but if you can manage to spread the braid before fitting it over the barb, you can clamp it down with a s/s clamp.

ajf said:

If it's anything like mine, you need a filter over the outlet, or a false bottom to catch the hops. The one time I forgot to put the false bottom in, it took over 90 minutes to drain the wort. With the false bottom, it's usually done in about 10 minutes.

-a.

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see i think my home made hop stopper might have been the problem. it seemed like the hops sank to the bottom of the keggle and the dip tube had to pass the wort thru all those hops just to get into the CFC. what kind of a pump do i want? how do those work?