I know you're not trying to be a smart ass, you are just smart, and if you are anything like me, your probably as ass too! (just kidding, you always have good answers for me lil SParky).
The problem is, eventually the water will stop flowing into my boil kettle. Now, I dont believe this is a stuck sparge, cause I can always get it going again by oopening the valve. I think it has somethig to do with a "siphoning" effect or some sort of couter pressure causeing the wort to not want to travel through the hoses. It is large diameter hose, but sometimes the flow just seems to stop. Sometimes if I jiggle the hose, it will start to flow again, sometime it wont until I open it up.
Also, regarding the "drop", I think I might start feeding a hose to a plastic lid under the water level.
The fact is guys, I have brewed 3 all grain batches, and have not got over 60% efficiency (one was close to 40%). I have so much going wrong, that I have no idea where to start improving. I am either boiling away too much, or not boiling away enough. My first batch, I put 6.5 in the boiler, ended upw ith about 4 gallons, my second batch I boiled 8 gallons, and nailed 5.2 gallons, my 3rd batch I boiled 8 gallons but ended up with 6.5 at the end of the boil. How am I supposed to hit a targe gravity if I cant get my boil volumes to turn out properly? Also, I have no idea if I am getting all the required sugars out of my grain. I keep heating it up too much during the mash (last time only to about 160 at its highest), but then my grain bed is too cold during my sparge (measured it yesterday at 145 while I was sparging with 168 degree water). SHould I heat my MLT during the sparge to get the temp up, and for what exact temp should I be shooting for? SOme say high temps, but then I dont want any tannins... This all confuses the crap out of me. Unfortunately, I havent actually tasted any of my all grain beer yet, so I have no idea what it will be like (im pretty sure the 1st will taste horrible, but the last 2 might be ok).
I know I will get my system dialed in eventually, but for right now, Im pretty sure my techniques SUCK!!! I need to find someone that brews exactly like I do (3 keg gravity system, false bottom, fly sparge, etc.) and pick the hell out of their brain. I built this system because I thought I was supposed to get great efficiency, but so far it has been crap.
Everyone tells me "relax, have a homebrew" and all I want to do when I hear that is scream, because so far, going all grain brewin has been stressful. I want more than anything to have good beer, and so far, im pretty sure Im making something far less than good.