Sawdustguy,
I'm kinda afraid to ask this, but regarding #41, 42. Any chance you did have the nipple length correct at 6"? I'm looking at your beautiful pictures, and I can't see how that is a 10" long pipe. Knowing that the tee ports are 2", it just doesn't map out. The 7" long element would fit easily once you add 2 of the 4" long tees. I keep going back to the pictures, and looking at several other threads and have seen several others using the 6" nipples. I hope you could clarify.
FWIW, you have finally swayed me over to the RIMS camp. I really wanted to go HERMS for several reasons. One, I already had extra copper coil, so the cost would have only been a couple of fitting. Second, I was hoping to gain HLT temperature automation as a freebie. Third, intuitively, the indirect heating used in the HERMS seemed more ideal.
After reading what seems like 200 pages of posts and may good natured 'discussions', I can not discount the experience of you and the many supporters of RIMS. With all of those batches under the collective belt, and the years of experience here on HBT --now I believe, I believe! So by spending a little more money to go RIMS, I can untether my MLT from my HLT, simplify the brew day process and have a future project to look forward to (automated HLT).
Thanks again to everyone who keeps helping others,
Jason