Sight Glasses and Electric Pump issues

[A_woodward3548]

I have 2 concord 20 gallon kettles and one 15 gal spike kettle for my electric setup and i want to add sight glasses to them. I was looking at some polycarbonate weldless setups and I was wondering if not having a top to the tube would promote issues when pumping liquid out of the kettle. Does anyone have any advice or have had or seen this problem before? thanks

 

[30Bones]

You mean a cap on top of the site glass? My old setup didn't and I had zero issues. A friend had his site glass mounted inline with his ball valve and he had to cap it as it causes issues pumping.

 

[A_woodward3548]

The sight glasses on the cheaper end do not have caps on them the more expensive ones do. I was looking at the cap-less ones

 

[30Bones]

The sight glasses on the cheaper end do not have caps on them the more expensive ones do. I was looking at the cap-less ones

You should be fine without one

 

[BrunDog]

My sight glasses enter the kettle at both top and bottom. Makes it easier to clean/rinse out.

-BD

 

[Bobby_M]

If the sight glass is on its own port it will not affect draining at all. Where you have problems is if you try to hang a sight glass off the drain bulkhead hole with a tee.

I also have an easy to install kit with a top and bottom port called the "flexsight".

 

[jcav]

That's a really nice kit Bobby! A great solution and looks very professional.

John

 

[augiedoggy]

You mean a cap on top of the site glass? My old setup didn't and I had zero issues. A friend had his site glass mounted inline with his ball valve and he had to cap it as it causes issues pumping.

I do this but use a 3 way valve which allows me to "cutoff" the sight glass when draining... the downside if if you only have the one hole and you can easily see the level as your using it to fill or drain the liquid... it works in my setup because I only use that valve to drain to my chiller.

prior to all this I just used a tiny stopper or my finger when starting to pump into the tee/bulkhead with the sightglass...

I use Bobbys number decal kits... they work very well..

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I use Bobbys number decal kits... they work very well..

Not sure if he recently changed them as they look different than his video.

All i can say is they are a ***** to install. They constantly stick to the front contact paper stuff and do not stick to the sight glass very well when i tried to install...I had a buddy come over and we got them all on on all 3 vessels, but it took way too long. A lot of prying a corner off the front bit and then kind of sideways smashing it on and pulling off super slow ended up working.

I hope he changes back to his old vendor or explains how to do it properly with the new ones we couldnt figure out an easy way for the life of us no matter how clean my sight glass was. For the record its a welded 1/2" polycarbonate one from Bargainfittings.com

Out of the several hundred dollars of stuff i ordered from him for my new EHERMS its funny the only thing im dissapointed in is a $5 set of stickers. Its only a one time deal putting the stickers on so its not a big deal to me anymore, but at the time i was cursing his name.

 

[Bobby_M]

I personally cut the vinyl in house so there are no vendor variations. Picking the best masking tackiness is the hardest part. Most people like the plastic clear mask and it requires the substrate to be extremely clean and the adhesive has to be pressure activated. Think of the process as burnishing where you rub over the masking with a hard edge and firm pressure. Also the angle at which you peel the masking off matters a lot.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have the same bargain fittings poly sight glasses and the decals went on fine... funny thing though I didnt realize the clear backing came off and the next day I was like why are the corners all lifting.... I should have paid more attention to the directions I guess
anyway mine are the older lines instead of triangle markings and work well.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have the same bargain fittings poly sight glasses and the decals went on fine... funny thing though I didnt realize the clear backing came off and the next day I was like why are the corners all lifting.... I should have paid more attention to the directions I guess ironic because I used to service wide format vinyl cutters.. (still do technically but its been a while)
anyway mine are the oler lines instead of triangle markings and work well.