Little Help w/ Buying New Equipment

So ever since last weekend (my first real up-close experience using a march pump/plate chiller setup), I've been enamored with this whole process. I've been messing around on various OHBS's, but I haven't really found anyone who seems to have everything I need under one roof. Morebeer comes close, but they don't have those plastic MPT-barbed fittings that I'd use to attach the silicon tubing to the pump. That, and their brazed plate chiller is $20 more expensive than the shirron at AHS, so I'm thinking it might be cheaper to just get the pump (which is also cheaper at AHS) and the chiller there.

So, questions, questions, questions.....

First off, I have a big, thick-walled 15 gallon aluminum kettle that I use for my boils. I was thinking that I could just get one of these weldless spigot kits. Then, I could get an MPT compression fitting for the back of it and this double bazooka screen. Then, I get some 1/2" silicone tubing, go from the barbed spigot to the 1/2" NPT coupling on the pump, then same thing out of the pump, then perhaps I could just spend the extra $20 on the blichmann quick disconnects at the wort in/wort out connections on the plate chiller.

Question #1, does this all sound like it'd work, and question two...

I also have this big 50L stainless kettle/tun that already has a welded bulkhead:





It came with this little spigot on it, but I'd want to replace that with one of the bigger, nicer ones.



So, is that a better idea than going weldless on my AL kettle? If so, where do I find these kinds of spigots:



But without the weldless bulkhead, so's I can just screw it into the existing bulkhead. And, in that case, how do I attach the bazooka screen to the inside, as I'm guessing the weldless bulkhead setup is the piece that 1/2" MPT coupling attaches to, and not the spigot itself.

So, yeah, kinda long, but I haven't dealt with this part of the equipment arena much, and so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You can use metal fittings on the March pump. You can get all your fittings at BargainFittings.com, great prices, great service.

The setup sounds like it will work fine... QDs are a great way to go. I personally like weldless, never had them leak.

AHS's prod page for their march pump recommends polypropylene fittings on the pump in/out to avoid damaging the plastic threads on the pump head. Is this a valid concern?

Only if you dont have the common sense to realize using a cheater bar to tighten a metal fitting on a "plastic" thread is a bad idea. I have always used metal and teflon tape, never had a problem. That is a disclaimer for those that are not very mechanically inclined as far as I am concerned.

what's a cheater bar? Forgive my ignorance!

A pipe that you put over the handle on a wrench to get more leverage

ah, I see...you were being hyperbolic...I get it now...

Only time I used one o' them was when the gas-powered 2-man auger got stuck in the ground when we were digging fenceposts.

There are just some folks with less mechanical ability than a gorilla that would cross-thread metal to metal joints and would absolutely ruin the march pump threads. Just be careful and use telfon tape. You'll want a ball valve on the output of the march so that threads right on. Into the other side of the valve, thread a male quick disconnect... From McMaster Carr. Search for items 6739K59 and 6739K68.

To get the QD on the input side of the march, just use a 1/2" stainless or brass coupling.

The only major gotcha with a plate chiller is kettle filtration. You don't want hop junk in there. So far I've been using hop bags but I really think my utilization is lacking, especially on flameout additions.

I'm thinking about maybe just building one of those deals with the pvc and the paint strainers, at least for the times when I have to use pellet hops. After what happened with Dude's setup and the pellet hops, I'm not taking any chances. So I just figure I'll got with the T-Bazooka screen, and drill the aluminum kettle, and go weldless. I'll put together a parts list and see what people think.

I made a pvc hop sock thing last night, and the whole rig made its way into my wort twice, user error. The sock worked nicely as sludge was lots less than normal. I just bought a keggle w/ ball valve no pick up tube. I tilted it and left some sludge plus wort behind.

I did the one bar method, and made it short enough that I could slide it to one side. The problem was that I did not put washers and nuts on it so it slid left to right and then in when my paddle hit the strainer bag..

I don't see a huge difference when I use a hop strainer bag in the amount of sludge left in the bottom of the BK. Am I missing something?

I guess it depends on how fine your mesh is because when I pull them out of the kettle, there are softball sized clumps of hops in there.