Butterfly versus Ball Valves

[vballdrummer]

Anyone @HBT have experience with butterfly valves? Are they Clean-In Place (CIP)? Unlike ball valves which need to be disassembled to really clean the gunk out. We're not really concerned about high pressures, so ball valve ratings aren't really beneficial. I do know (from another thread) that a ball valve is better for controlling flow and that makes sense.

 

[Bokonon]

Anyone @HBT have experience with butterfly valves? Are they Clean-In Place (CIP)? Unlike ball valves which need to be disassembled to really clean the gunk out. We're not really concerned about high pressures, so ball valve ratings aren't really beneficial. I do know (from another thread) that a ball valve is better for controlling flow and that makes sense.

Only butterfly and diaphragm valves are considered sanitary and can be CIP. Ball valves are fine on the process side but butterfly should be used exclusively on the cold side. Of course we're talking about homebrew so a ball valve on the cold side isn't the end of the world

 

[Catt22]

I agree with the above that a butterfly valve would be the better choice regarding sanitation and CIP concerns, but OTOH I have been using ball valves in my system for a very long time without problems and none of them are the three piece design. IIRC, butterfly valves are also considerably more expensive than ball valves, but I will admit that it has been a long time since I did a price comparison on them.

Now then, for more precise flow control, I switched over to gate valves on both my pump and my elevated (gravity flow) HLT. There is a day and night difference in the flow control precision and no downside that I can detect. I do practice thorough cleaning and sanitation procedures, but I also do not go to extremes. I don't autoclave equipment and such and I have never had an infection or contamination problem to date. IMO, you either have to be very careless with your cleaning and sanitation procedures or be very unlucky if you have ongoing issues with contamination. If it were very easy to go wrong, it would have happened to me by now. I'm generally not a lucky guy, so if beers were gonna go south with any regularity, they would do so with me first.

 

[454Casull]

Hi,

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread but this came up while I was doing some research for a corn syrup processing application.

I would like to point out that there are no ball valves available on the market that are approved for CIP by any standards organization relevant to hygienic processing (3A, BPE, EHEDG). Furthermore, for the most part, the same goes for butterfly valves, with the interesting exception of the T-smart butterfly valve which is currently in the product portfolio of GEA Tuchenhagen. There is a mixproof version of the T-smart butterfly valve, but I do not believe it to be superior in a homebrew application. The mixproof version is definitely CIP-capable, and I cannot confirm it at the moment but the non-mixproof version should be CIP-capable as well. I will post a followup once I get confirmation, as I am interested in using this very valve for corn syrup.

For more information, please see this link:http://www.tuchenhagen.us/fileadmin...alves/633e-Tsmart-Butterfly_Valves-012013.pdf

Very cool stuff IMO.

Disclaimer: I am not an employee of, nor contractor for, GEA Tuchenhagen or any other company in the business of the manufacture, distribution, or sale, direct or otherwise, of hygienic process valves.

 

[454Casull]

Well, no sooner than when I post, I check online and find that there are several ball valves available which are claimed by their manufacturers to allow CIP. Examples include the PBM Valve Igenix ball valve, the AWH Ball Valve, the Lee Fluid Transfer Sanitary CIP Ball Valve, and the Alfa Laval SBV. Luckily, I do not need to immediately contradict myself as none of them appear to have any indication of certification by 3A, BPE, or EHEDG, nor do they claim compliance with said standards.