I just wanted you guys to know I'm replacing this setup with a heated grant. Here are some of my experiences with this part of my setup over a dozen brews:
Flow Meter:
- Did exactly what I wanted and measured my GPM for my recirc
- I did take it apart and clean it a few times, sometimes chucks of grain dried on the inside and that didnt work so hot.
- It adds unnecessary backpressure to the pumping setup
- Something extra to clean
- Now that I have a feel for recirc rates and sparge rates I dont need this any more
RIMS Tube:
- I had it turned the wrong way, I would orient the tube so there is always wort in the tube and have wort enter and exit the top. When the flow rate slowed and the element got hot, steam was generated and left part of the element exposed. The site glass would empty out and it was no good.
Site Glass:
- Pretty cool at seeing your wort flowing through, Im keeping this as a component by basically placing this inline in the hose leaving the heated grant.
3 Way Valve:
- Worked as expected and I didnt have to move a hose full of hot wort
- Im going to remove the 3 way and just move a hose full of hot wort
- Cleaning, disassembly and reassembly were just way more work than moving the hose
I ran a wet test with this setup yesterday and added the new flow meter in on the left. So far so good, although the test was only with water.
By having the flow meter before the RIMS tube and part of the MLT wort out, I can attempt to dial in the sparge and recirc rates. Right now sometimes I sparge in 20 minutes, and other times 40 minutes or more. It will be nice to know how fast I'm really running.