I've bought a couple of sight glass/thermometer kits for installation on a cooler and a kettle and I'm a little disappointed in how much water is needed in the vessel before the level is even readable on the sight glass. So I had an idea - I couldn't find anything searching for this, but surely someone here has tried it. I'm going to do some tests this weekend, but thought I'd post it here and maybe save myself some trouble if it has been tried before.
The problem, as you know is the height that the fittings take up above the "T" coming out of the cooler/kettle. So what if I cut the sight glass say about a half inch above the top of the fitting, slipped a piece of silicone tubing over that stub, then connected the other end of the tubing to the bottom of a long straight piece of polycarbonate tubing which would serve as the sight glass? The bottom of the long piece would be even with the "T" coming out of the cooler or kettle. I'd think the siphon effect would keep the level in the glass even with the liquid level in the vessel, even after the level gets below the "hump" in the tubing. Of course, I'd have to figure a way to mount the long sight glass beside the "T". I plan to use this only for a cooler HLT and a kettle to be used only for heating strike and sparge water, so wouldn't expect steam bubbles to be a problem.
Anyone tried this already or know for sure that it wouldn't work?
The problem, as you know is the height that the fittings take up above the "T" coming out of the cooler/kettle. So what if I cut the sight glass say about a half inch above the top of the fitting, slipped a piece of silicone tubing over that stub, then connected the other end of the tubing to the bottom of a long straight piece of polycarbonate tubing which would serve as the sight glass? The bottom of the long piece would be even with the "T" coming out of the cooler or kettle. I'd think the siphon effect would keep the level in the glass even with the liquid level in the vessel, even after the level gets below the "hump" in the tubing. Of course, I'd have to figure a way to mount the long sight glass beside the "T". I plan to use this only for a cooler HLT and a kettle to be used only for heating strike and sparge water, so wouldn't expect steam bubbles to be a problem.
Anyone tried this already or know for sure that it wouldn't work?