Manifold design question

I bought an Igloo 50-Qt square cooler last week for $10 and am trying to put a manifold made of CPVC pipe (1/2 inch) in the bottom. I've got a hole on the side level with the bottom for the drain, and had the pipe cut when I realized I had a choice about design. Better late than never, right

I've got two design and am wondering if there is an opinion (or data) supporting one over the other.

Original idea:


As I was putting it together I noticed I could do this:


In the first I was thinking slits along the long pieces and the short pieces.
In the second slits along the three long pieces. (you can see 4 slits already here before my cutting tool stopped cutting)

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

If I were to choose one of those, it would be the second one. Simply because from what I've read (I'm no scientist, so I read books) you want to pick a method that gets wort from the farthest end of the manifold to the spigot in as little time as possible. The first design is causing the wort to sort of take a "side route" to the spigot.

If you were to turn the first design 90 degrees and build it so the center arm runs parallel to the spigot instead of perpendicular, you'd probably have a better design.

Just my thoughts... I'm no expert on manifold design.

From those two I'd go with the second. Less parts, easier to clean, and the middle pipe likely won't do much. However shouldn't the entire assembly be larger and closer to the edge? I don't have my copy of How to Brew in front of me but Palmer's ideal designs cover more of the bottom.

DavidP said:

From those two I'd go with the second. Less parts, easier to clean, and the middle pipe likely won't do much. However shouldn't the entire assembly be larger and closer to the edge? I don't have my copy of How to Brew in front of me but Palmer's ideal designs cover more of the bottom.

Click to expand...

+1 on Palmer's design suggestions. The outer manifold tubes should be about 2" from the MLT wall. The space between manifold tubes should be about 4". Definitely check out http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD.html

Very good read to understand why the spacing is crucial to flow/extraction.

The second one. Although you probably would be just find with the first variant.

Since you started a thread up about manifold design...

Im getting a cylindrical beverage cooler from a friend and i was contemplating building a round, spiraled manifold out of flexible copper tubing. Do you all think this would be more similar to a false bottom or a regular manifold? Is it worth doing?

BJ

I think a round manifold would work just fine. Something to think about when making a rectangular/square manifold, is to put in a center strut which then attaches to your outlet. I have found that a center tap helps with getting a more even flow of wort (I've actually measured this with my arduino/3xL34 setup).

Awesome :rockin:
Thanks for the suggestions guys. ShaggyT, the reading link was helpful. I'd seen this a long time ago, but had totally forgotten about it.

The inside of the cooler is 12"x12" so I had been thinking 3"-pipe-5"-pipe-3" for this

If I by a 4-way I can make this 2"-pipe-3.25"-pipe-3.25"-pipe-2".

I have about 30 inches of pipe left to work with. I should have asked first

I may be wrong, but I heard that if you are not fly-sparging, the manifold design is not that important for flow. You will be rinsing the sugars from the grain when you add your batch sparge water and mix it up.

With fly sparging, some of the grain may not be introduced to clean water and not get rinsed as well. (If your manifold is poorly designed).

I like the second design better. Simpler and looks to be as effective.

brianj434 said:

Since you started a thread up about manifold design...

Im getting a cylindrical beverage cooler from a friend and i was contemplating building a round, spiraled manifold out of flexible copper tubing. Do you all think this would be more similar to a false bottom or a regular manifold? Is it worth doing?

BJ

Click to expand...

I also have a round cooler, and (as many people have) I looked to Palmer for my design. He says that a round manifold is almost exactly as effective as a false bottom (if you keep it the right distance from the wall). You are continuous/fly sparging, right? Otherwise, it doesn't matter so much.

GMesick said:

I also have a round cooler, and (as many people have) I looked to Palmer for my design. He says that a round manifold is almost exactly as effective as a false bottom (if you keep it the right distance from the wall). You are continuous/fly sparging, right? Otherwise, it doesn't matter so much.

Click to expand...

brianj434 said:

Since you started a thread up about manifold design...

Im getting a cylindrical beverage cooler from a friend and i was contemplating building a round, spiraled manifold out of flexible copper tubing. Do you all think this would be more similar to a false bottom or a regular manifold? Is it worth doing?

BJ

Click to expand...

I used a round copper manifold that I made for my cooler for years. It worked great until recently, but that was my own fault. I don't use the cooler much anymore, so it doesn't bother me much. Anyway, mine runs about 2" away from the sides all the way around. Very simple design. If you do this with a cooler though, you'll need to find some way to prop it up in the back because the weight of grains causes the circle to hit the bottom of the cooler in the back (edge farthest from valve).

I will probably be exclusively fly sparging. Whats the problem with the manifold touching the cooler bottom? If it isnt supported by the cooler, doesn't that force the bulkhead to take on the role of a load bearing joint?

brianj434 said:

I will probably be exclusively fly sparging. Whats the problem with the manifold touching the cooler bottom? If it isnt supported by the cooler, doesn't that force the bulkhead to take on the role of a load bearing joint?

Click to expand...

That's exactly the problem. You DON'T want the bulkhead to be load bearing or you'll eventually wear it out and cause leaks.

It all depends on the coolers though. Some coolers may place the spigot low enough so that your manifold will sit evenly on the bottom and that's fine. I'm talking about the circular drink coolers that most people use. The spigot is placed a few inches above the bottom, so your manifold will basically float above the bottom after it's all put together. With this setup, you don't want the manifold to be uneven with one half on the floor of the cooler and one half 2" above connected to the ball valve. It'll just cause uneven flow rates.

Currently I'm set up for batch sparging. So if the difference is negligible when batch sparging I'll stick to design 2.

Thanks again for all the input. Now I just have to finish getting the slits cut in my pipes. I'm hoping to do that this week and be able to make my first All-Grain brew this weekend. Since my basement is a constant 40F now it should be perfect for a pilsner.