Shower Head as a Sparge Arm?

Hey Guys,
I was thinking and wondered if this was a stupid idea. Would this work as a sparge arm?

Its solid brass with a chrome plated finish. This one is only 3.5 inches in diameter. Maybe a bigger one would be better, like 8 inch.

Here's another one, 8 inches but a bit more expensive. Also, much more interesting looking. . .

i dont see why it wouldnt work. I might like into the possibilities myself :cross:

Here's another one . . .

Why don't you just buy a Listermann whirlygig for the same price?

I have read that the "whirligigs" are sometimes unreliable so I was kind of thinking "outside the box" for premade substitutes.

You can go really cheap here if you want. Take a couple of aluminum pie plates, poke a few hundred holes in them and set them on top of the mash bed. You can run your sparge water directly into them and not disturb the grain bed.

ian said:

I have read that the "whirligigs" are sometimes unreliable so I was kind of thinking "outside the box" for premade substitutes.

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Mine has yet to let me down.

But, brewing is also about doing things your own way, and making many parts of your brew equipment, so any of those shower heads would be fine, as long as they allow for unrestricted gravity flow. I say go for it and be different.

I'd probably just stick a few cents worth of pvc pipe together and drill some holes in it, or go with sailor's suggestion. However, if determined to use a showerhead I'd check to see if there is a Habitat for Humanity reclamation center near you. We have one here and you can buy unused job site stuff very cheap. Shower heads, hinges, windows, doors, toilets, sinks, shrubs, tiles, paint, you name it. You'd probably pay $1-2 for a showerhead.

I have thought about a shower head myself. My main concern is that I would be disappionted in the spray pattern using gravity fed water. I can see the water just drippling out combining into one stream.

ian said:

Here's another one . . .

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A couple of brewers in our club use shower heads and one uses something similar to that shown above. Anything can be used. One brewer in the club uses a lawn sprinkler very efficiently.

Wild

I was first considering a lawn sprkinker, the kind that whirls around then the showerhead idea came up.

I guess its just whatever works for you, huh.
I love that this is a tinkerer's hobby!

ian said:

I was first considering a lawn sprkinker, the kind that whirls around then the showerhead idea came up.

I guess its just whatever works for you, huh.
I love that this is a tinkerer's hobby!

Click to expand...

I've learned the hard way that some thngs are better left un-tinkered. This one is a quite easy project though. When I got my whirlygig sparger in the mail, I was pissed I didn't make it myself.