Auto Sparge placement

[Sinnick]

I am about to install an auto sparge on a 60 QT cube cooler and I was wondering where I should install the auto sparge. I would like to be able to bounce back and forth from 5 and 10 gallon batches but I am afraid that if installed to high it would not work for my 5 gallon batches and if too low it would not work for the 10 gallon batches. Has anyone here dealt with this?
Thanks, Nick

 

[n240sxguy]

I have a 48 qt. rectangular cooler, and I built my copper sparge arm right against the lid. I was thinking about making it adjustable, but that was just going to be a PITA. I have done two five gallon batches, and it seemed to do fine. One to two inches of water above the grain bed, and it didn't seem to disturb it at all. That was one of my concerns when I built it. I didn't know if the water dropping 10-12 inches would have enough force to disrupt the bed. With a 10 gallon batch, it will have even less force. As long as the bed stays covered you should be fine.

 

[Sinnick]

Looking at the sparge arm again, I do not think that this will be as big of a deal since it is adjustable. The only issue that I am having with this 60 QT ice cube cooler is that the angle of the existing drain plug causes a lot of water to be left behind. I was looking at the way that some people used PVC to "suck up" the liquid from the bottom. I have some spiraled copper left over and was wondering if that would be ok to use. If I attach the copper and have it go to the bottom with slits cut into it is should work just as well as PVC right? See any issues with this?
Thanks, Nick

 

[n240sxguy]

I made a copper manifold for mine. It is three long rows running lengthwise, and connected at the ends. The first dry run I did with mine, I had 2 gallons left behind. I was freaking out. My pickup line goes out to the center of the manifold so it doesn't all run right down one side and miss half my grains. After that first run, I soldered the last 90 that goes into my middle piece of pipe. With a hose attached, it will siphon out all but a couple cups. I realized after the fact that that didn't really matter that much because I just kept sparge water over the bed, and never lost that suction anyway. But I have that option I guess if I ever wanted to just use a set amount of sparge water, and just drain it all.