Braided manifold?

When I converted my cooler to a MLT, I made a copper manifold. I've been getting good efficiency into the kettle, but I've been having a hard time getting my wort to clear when lautering. I think this is mostly due to some of the slots on my manifold being wider than I meant them to be (my rotary tool didn't cooperate with me all the time, especially when the cutting piece started to wear). I think this is letting some husks and little particles into the boil, which I'd like to solve.

To that end, I decided that I would just get a SS braid and go that route, since I'm a batch sparger. But then I read about some people getting lower efficiency with a braid than with the manifold, because the braid has a tendency to go all over the place in the MLT. This isn't a really big deal, but I don't really want to have to go through trying to dial in the numbers on my system again.

Then I got the idea that I could put a braid OVER my manifold, thinking this would give me the best of both worlds: the same efficiency as my copper manifold, and the increased straining power of the braid.

Has anyone else done this? Is there some kind of downside that I'm not thinking of?

 

Sounds like it would work to me. I get 87-82% with just the braid, I'm happy with that.

 

I think it should work but you might have to do more cuts or bigger cuts on the copper.

 

I made something similar for my sanke MLT and it worked great. It's a diptube/manifold with a slit in it that I put a SS braid on top of. Here's a photo of it without the SS braid on it;

But... with all of this said, I have a cooler MLT with a SS braid that I also rigged up so that it's very rigid. I stir like crazy and it stays put just fine.. Here's a picture of that;
I put a piece of 10ga copper wire that I coiled up inside of the braid and it keeps it very rigid.. The cooler MLT is brand new. I just used it for the first time last weekend and I got 79% efficiency with it.

 

I get between 75 and 80% with just the braid. I don't think it would hurt at all to put it over your existing manifold. One thing, my braid does get beat up a bit with the paddle. It will probably hold up better fitted over your existing manifold. I have to take my braid out now and then and kind of straighten it out and unkink it in places. Its no big deal and really works great!