Tri-Clamps

Hey where have you guys been picking up your tri-clamps. I am looking for 1.5" Tri-clamps with a 1" MPT and 1" FPT to make a quick disconnect for my RIMS tube hot water heating element. Brewers Hardware is currently out of them.

Thanks
Chromados

Here are a few good sources I've used:

KLG Stainless
St. Pats
GVC
McMaster-Carr

All had excellent quality and service. There are some others, but these are the only ones I've used so far.

Thanks for the info, I was looking at St Pats but did not order right away from them because they did not quote shipping. Have you dealt with them before? and was the shipping reasonable?

Chromados

I just got done spending too much money on getting parts that wont work for my RIMS build so hopefully I can keep you from doing the same, lol.

I picked up a 1.5" triclamp in a 1"NPT female style with the idea of threading in the heating element. Problem I saw was that with a 1.5" triclamp there is not enough room to clear the end of the larger heating elements. It will fit through but the part of the element that folds over at the end and comes back towards the base will contact the triclamp fitting itself. This was with a 5000w element though so if you using the smaller ones it shouldn't be an issue.

You could buy one of those cheap triclamp end plates and have a machine shop drill or lathe a hole out for the element to run through then use one of the 1" lock nuts on the inside to secure it. This will give you the clearance and will be cheaper then a triclamp with the 1" female NPT fitting you would need.

I would also sugest building the disconect portion from 2" Triclamps for more room to work with the heating element. I picked up a 2" Triclamp with a 1.5" NPT female thread to attach to my 1.5" stainless pipe for the RIMS tube.


Hope this helps
Mark

JME Sanitary has good prices and fast shipping:
http://www.jmesanitary.com/

Derrin has them @ www.brewershardware.com
A vendor on this site and has good service

Some people have had issues with St. Pat's customer service, but I gotta say, I've ordered several times and never had a problem. I'm not a fan of the delayed shipping quote, but the price was fair. Mcmaster-Carr does the same thing, and they are perhaps one of the best vendors on the planet....so hopefully that puts it into perspective.

Here is what swagman came up for me its 1 NPS nut tig welded to 1.5 ferrell.



Also this is the other item a removeable element and contact box.




Takes a 1.5 ferrell welded to the keg



Woodie

Swagman has done all of mine, great prices. I can post some pics if youre interested

Thanks I ended up going with Brewers Hardwares 2" Triclovers. Should be getting them tomorrow and am super excited to try them all out. Thanks for everyones input it was great information.

Chromados

For anyone's future reference. On my RIMS tube, I used a 1.5" MNPT/1.5" TC fitting for the tube side, and a 1" FNPT/1" TC fitting on the element side...

It works like a charm. Mine is the pipebomb style tube.

The 1.5"MNPT/TC fitting was from St. Pats and the other from derrin's