Looking for a sight glass and thermometer for a keg kettle.

I am having two kegs converted to kettles and was wondering if anyone knew where I might be able to find reasonably priced sight glass and thermometer. The guy doing the conversion said that he doesnt stock those things but will weld them in if I provide it. Any help or direction would be nice. thank you. -shawn

Buy one 1/2" NPT SS pipe coupling and one 1/2" NPT SS half-coupling. Have the your welder install the full coupling low on the kettle just above the welded seam at the bottom. Tell him to make it flush on the inside and to protect the threads on both sides when doing the welding. It's nice to have it flush mounted on the inside for easy cleaning and you may want to use the available threads on the inside for a siphon tube. Then have him weld the half-coupling five inches or so above the lower coupling. This will be your thermometer port. You only need the threads on the outside for this. Again, it's best to have it flush mounted like the lower coupling.
Now then, if you insist on a sight tube, have him install another half coupling just above the bottom weld and offset 45 deg or so from the others to keep it out of the way of the thermometer and drain valve. Personally, I don't care to have a sight tube or thermometer on my boil kettle. It's just one more thing to get in the way when cleaning and I find it just as easy to measure the volume with the dipstick method. Actually, I don't use any sight tubes at all. You can easily plug any ports not in use, so it's better to have too many than not enough in this case.

can you recommend a good supplier for these parts (both couplers and thermometer)? thanks for the info, very informative. -shawn

betacrash said:

can you recommend a good supplier for these parts (both couplers and thermometer)? thanks for the info, very informative. -shawn

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McMaster (specialty parts), Bargain Fittings (sight glass and fittings), and Ebay (thermometers).

Waiting on mine from Bargain Fittings myself...

Will let you know how everything looks when I get them...

I'm going to recommend checking out the one's that HBT member Bobby_M sells.

Forsale

Here's what I have right now:

Two combo sightglass/thermometer kits, one is weldless ($38), the other needs to be welded ($33). (I can sell both as welded for a bit cheaper. These are all 1/4" NPT. The one on the right is just a sightglass with 3/8" NPT to the kettle ($18).

PM me if interested

thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. i just went ahead and ordered two from Bobby. -shawn

Bobby,
Hope you still see this, if not I'll PM you, but with the welded one. Can I solder this with Silver Solder? I don't have access to a welder and I am kind of skeptical of the weldless parts, as I am afraid they'd be more likely to harbor bacteria, mayl eak, and replacement of seals over time.

I soldered all my couplers and have a few of Bobby's sight glasses. They work great. Although I need to make some heat shields for them.
I didn't get the combo cuz I already had a temp probe port in my BK and I use temp probes with my system for the HLT and MLT with the controllers.
He has quality products, you will be happy with them.

Chris7687 said:

Bobby,
Hope you still see this, if not I'll PM you, but with the welded one. Can I solder this with Silver Solder? I don't have access to a welder and I am kind of skeptical of the weldless parts, as I am afraid they'd be more likely to harbor bacteria, mayl eak, and replacement of seals over time.

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Chris, I was in the same boat a few years ago but if it's any vote of confidence, I have zero leak reports in thousands of weldless sight glasses out there.This design doesn't leak unless the user fails to follow the very clear and simple instructions. Unless you go through the dimpling process to make the surface area between the keg and coupling greater, I wouldn't use solder. Hands down, I'd go weldless. Bacteria? If it's not a fermenter, you have no worries. Hot side = sterile.

Thanks for the response Bobby. Everyone has nothing but praises about your products. I read somewhere about weld's holding bacteria, so ASSumed that wedless would definitely harbor bacteria if welds would. Didn't think it was possible either because of the heat from either flame or element. How often do seals need to be replaced?

Chris7687 said:

Thanks for the response Bobby. Everyone has nothing but praises about your products. I read somewhere about weld's holding bacteria, so ASSumed that wedless would definitely harbor bacteria if welds would. Didn't think it was possible either because of the heat from either flame or element. How often do seals need to be replaced?

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As Bobby mentioned, boil side makes bacteria a zero issue. You sanitize post boil.

As for replacing seals, I have yet to need to do so. Place it wisely and you'll probably go several years before you need to replace an o-ring.

I offer replacement seals but I think I've only sold a dozen ever. There are hundreds of weldless kits out there as long as 3 years so I'm going to say they last about 3+ years minimum.

I have the weldless one on my HLT, and I think it's been a couple of years(?) since I bought it from Bobby_M. I don't have one on my boil kettle, as I feel that I don't need one, but I definitely love it on the HLT. No leaks, easy to install, and I like the numbers that come with it.

Having one on the HLT is nice, but I find having one on my boil keggle is of more use. I measure out my sparge water via a graduated bucket (from a restaurant supply store) and large measuring cut (gallon size). KNOWING what my actual pre-boil volume is, as well as seeing (at a glance) what my current volume is, is more important (for me).

I make my own tight glass/tube assembly. On my current boil keggle, that connects via TC ferrules welded into the keggle side. The sight tube uses TC fittings to connect to those. Easy to install/remove. I'll post up a picture to it on the keggle later.

For the purists among us, you can also use Borosilicate glass tube as the sight glass. This reduces the issue of melting to a small extent, but should be shielded or enclosed to prevent a brew day disaster. The cover on commercial coffe makers has been said to work nicely. This will raise your resistance to melting from flame wash but the orings or delrin ring will still melt if exposed to excess heat so take appropriate steps to minimize exposure to flame and high temps.
Wheelchair Bob

The tube in my assembly IS Borosolicate glass.

G'Diggie,
That is a very nice looking vesel. Did you build it yourself or have it built? I particularly like the o-ring levels and the closed loop design as well as the use of the sanitary fittings too. That is an excelent demo of a well thought out and built system. I also really like the housing to protect the glass from breakage too. Congrats on a great set up.
Wheelchair Bob

Thanks... I did design, and build, it myself. I had the ferrules welded into the keggle (after polishing and drilling it). Same machine shop put the groove in the shield. Everything else is 'off the shelf' parts.

I do have some stickers from Bobby_M to add lines to the shield, for the levels, but haven't gotten around to putting them on there.

During the keggle rinse, after yesterday's brew-day, I simply ran rinse water from the top fitting (inside the keggle) to 'wash' the tube inside. I can also simply take it off the keggle, remove the glass tube (o-rings under the nut, and between the end of the tube and inside of the fitting) and use either a nylon brush (made for keg dip tubes), or give it all a good PBW soak.

I took some design ideas from the Blichmann setup, but made it actually easy to take apart and clean.

I had a weldless version on my first keggle, which I sold (entire setup).

I used to take the sight tube off when going to my brew-buddy's place (couldn't brew at home). Now that I'm able to brew at home, I just take it off to clean and that's it. I store it on the keggle, to make setup easier.

BTW, I also have a pair of o-rings between the glass tube and shield. Those act as spacers so I don't need to worry about the shield doing any harm. I guess you could say I thought about this a bit before making it.