Help me troubleshoot keggle gravity feed

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I’ve used this new to me keggle a few times without issues. I used a pump when brewing a ten gallon batch and was able to drain the keggle all the way to the bottom of the center pickup tube I made. Now I’m building a new brew setup and want to use this keggle as a gravity free HLT. It seems that if I fill the keggle to well above the pickup tube, eg 7 gallons when I drain it only gravity drains to the height of the bottom of the sight glass opening.

is there anything I can do to get my HLT to drain to the bottom of the pickup tube? Or is this just physics of water pressure equilibriums and I have to figure in this large dead volume into my hlt volume markings?

I’m thinking it’s the latter and my previous use of a pump always with this keggle had me fooled how it would work!

thanks for the advice!

 

[day_trippr]

Attach a hose that will provide at least a couple feet of drop to your drain valve and see how low it draws.
It takes a siphon to lift the fluid from the open tip of the dip tube up to the valve...

Cheers!

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Ok I didn’t have my drain tube hooked up tonight, just free flowing into a bucket to test, that should help, thanks!

 

[day_trippr]

It definitely will make a big difference. It should draw down to the same level as when you used a pump...

Cheers!