Mashtun ball valve size....

Greetings! After several delays and quite a few trips to the local Home Depot I have finally put together my first mash tun. Tested today for leaks and it does pass the test. All in all, probably spent about $40.00 to put it all together. Anyways, here's the question. Obviously I wanted to do a "test run" and just filled it up with water and drained it.... slowly.

I am using 3/8" fittings on the valve and assembly. I tested to see how quickly it drained and I was getting about a cup every 30 seconds. I'm planning on doing a batch sparge for the next brew day, but do you think this is going to take too long? Should I have gone with 1/2" fittings? I did some quick calculations and it looks like it will take close to 45 minutes for 6 gallons of wort to drain from this setup. What do you guys think?

that is pretty slow. Is anything stuck in it? how much fluid did you have in the vessel when you timed this? The deeper the fill, the faster it might flow with the downward pressure.

Ha... Good question. I honestly did not have much in the cooler when I tried this out. I'm going to go fill it up right now and I'll have results soon... Don't have anything stuck in the assembly as far as I can see. It's brand new, so grains, etc wouldn't be an issue yet.

A lot of people use 1/2" fittings and hose... flows are much faster. If you can, Id use 1/2" fittings. They dont really cost any more and they are more versatile. I have never understood the 3/8" fittings craze when most pumps and other brewing supplies are 1/2" components. Yah, you dont have a pump now, but, you will... someday... you will.

1/2 in is the preferred size but you could possibly get more flow by adding some tubing to the valve on the outside. It helps the siphon effect by lowering you point of suction. Probably the wrong terminology but Its aready 2:00 and I'm not thinking as clearly as I was a few hours ago.

Darn, beat again.

Thanks for the responses guys. Just got done running it up with a full volume. Pretty much SHOT out of there. Didn't even need to time it to see that it was flowing much faster. Had to have been the force of the other water pushing down and out like you said.

Good looking out on the 1/2" fitting suggestions too guys. It's good to know that most of the March pumps out there work in 1/2" because that will be an investment I'm willing to make in the future. Right now I'm just waiting to get out there and do my first AG brew. I think I'm going to be trying that Centennial Blonde recipe that has been floating around here the past few days.

BM's Cent Blonde is great. One of the brews I try to have on tap at all times.