Kettle Pickup Tube Question

[ZeroMile]

I just got a brand new kettle from Spike, which has a pickup tube on the bottom valve. When I test drain the kettle with just water, it does not drain beneath the valve level despite the dip tube. This leaves 1.5 gallons in the kettle that does not get drained. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[brick_haus]

There must be a leak at the connection inside of the kettle. It should pull down to the level of the dip tube.

 

[Metzen]

I just got a brand new kettle from Spike, which has a pickup tube on the bottom valve. When I test drain the kettle with just water, it does not drain beneath the valve level despite the dip tube. This leaves 1.5 gallons in the kettle that does not get drained. Am I doing something wrong?

I would guess you don’t have a complete seal where the diptube meets the valve/port. If air can get pulled into the valve port when the liquid level lowers, the siphon through the diptube will break. I’m assuming the diptube has NPT threads where you are connecting it to the port/valve. If so, did you use Teflon tape to form a seal around the threads?

 

[SpikeBrewing]

We've had a couple people have this same question before. You'll need to have a piece of tubing connected to the end of your valve that goes below the kettle. Without this a siphon will not be created and the water will stop draining as soon as it reaches the valve.

 

[ZeroMile]

Thanks all. Got it sorted out by using all of the recs above. I wasn't getting a siphon previously, but I am now and it now leaves behind half as much (3 quarts).

 

[FunkedOut]

What size kettle?

 

[Qhrumphf]

yep, tubing needed to pull a siphon. Same thing for some of the common MLT false bottom devices. A simple piece of tubing can make a marked efficiency difference when batch sparging, in addition to increasing rate and decreasing the likelyhood of a stuck sparge.

 

[ZeroMile]

What size kettle?

15 gallon

 

[ZeroMile]

yep, tubing needed to pull a siphon. Same thing for some of the common MLT false bottom devices. A simple piece of tubing can make a marked efficiency difference when batch sparging, in addition to increasing rate and decreasing the likelyhood of a stuck sparge.

The more you know! *insert PSA graphic* Thanks, y'all. I find that I am constantly learning things that seem like they should have been obvious to begin with.

 

[Murphys_Law]

Thanks all. Got it sorted out by using all of the recs above. I wasn't getting a siphon previously, but I am now and it now leaves behind half as much (3 quarts).

I have a Spike 10G and get 3 qt batch after batch after batch...!

 

[TravelingLight]

yep, tubing needed to pull a siphon. Same thing for some of the common MLT false bottom devices. A simple piece of tubing can make a marked efficiency difference when batch sparging, in addition to increasing rate and decreasing the likelyhood of a stuck sparge.

I'm so glad you posted this. This explains so much why when I installed a new false bottom in a new mash tun and it left behind a sheet load of water in dead space when I did a run with just water. Now I need to recalculate my dead space!