bargainfittings.com cam locks disappointment

[Dgonza9]

After having flow issues I took apart my mcmaster.com quick connects to find they were constricted to at the bend. I was looking to upgrade the 1/4" opening of my mcmaster.com quick connects to these. I got these from bargainfittings.com and they have the same issue.

I need a 1/2" wide open fitting to feed 1/2" rigid copper pipe going to my pump head. Looks like $60 down the drain on these. Where can I get 1/2", wide open cam locks!

 

[Shooter]

The barb is designed to fit a 1/2" hose. So the inner diameter on the barb is smaller.

 

[Dgonza9]

Here's another shot of the openings. WTF!?!?!

 

[Shooter]

Have you watched BobbyM's videos on these? I think the way to go if you want the higher flow is to get the threaded disconnect and force the house on the way he does.

 

[bruin_ale]

Here's a link to Bobby's vid on youtube, explains it better than I ever could.

 

[weirdboy]

If you want larger cross sections, then use threaded fittings and get rid of the hose barbs.

 

[user 40839]

Don't buy these!

Harsh. I have these, and love them. I do have two hoses set up with 90 degree street elbows and threaded camlocks for applications where I need more flow.

 

[Shooter]

Harsh. I have these, and love them.

Me too! I just purchased a set and set up my hoses this weekend. I'm using a cheap little drill pump and was fine with the lower flow barbed fittings. They work great!

 

[weirdboy]

Also what exactly are you pumping that you need that much flowrate?

For like 90% of the time my flowrate is turned way down anyway.

 

[Dgonza9]

I'm having issues with sputtering and air in my lines since I hard plumbed it. I think the problem is that I'm feeding a 1/2" rigid copper line to the inlet with a flexible quick connect with a restricted flow rate.

Basically, I never had problems until I hard plumbed. When I just had quick connects and silicone hoses I never had a problem.

Either that or I have a pump problem.

Maybe I'll just get a pipe union and unscrew it if I need to lift the keggle.

I'm not trying to bash bargainfittings.com. But maybe it should be mentioned on the site how restricted the hose barbs are. Be nice if they could get them with a 5/8" hose barb. Wish I'd seen Bobby's video before doing this. His solution is nice, but I don't have a bench grinder. I might try threading the hoses on. Unfortunately, I don't have the right cam locks.

Anyone know their return policy off hand? I'll have to call them.

 

[Dgonza9]

I should say at this point that if you are using quick connects on both supply and outlet of your pump these may pose no problem and flow rate may be fine for you.

But if you ever plan to hard plumb your lines it could be an issue.

 

[the_bird]

Honestly, if you didn't know that the ID of those hose-barb connectors was that size, you didn't do much research - it's your own fault you're "out $60." That gets discussed every time these camlocks get mentioned, and someone usually posts Bobby's video about this very topic (I've posted it probably a dozen times myself). It is what it is; I've run these things with my pump going full-bore, and I have a hard time imagining what kind of setup would require much more speed.

If they REALLY won't work for you, put them in the Classified section, someone will take them off your hands for $50. They're selling a metric ****ton of those, and they're out of stock half the time.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Yep sorry, this info has been on the board since the discovery of cam locks. Sorry you didn't research a product enough before buying it. It doesn't make the product bad or the company you got it from bad. You got exactly what you ordered in, I bet, a timely manner and received a well made product...as advertised.

 

[Dgonza9]

It's not a bad product. All I said was that I was disappointed by them. I'll edit the "don't buy these" remarks from my original post.

My point is, WHY should I have to research homebrewtalk.com to find out how restrictive the hose barbs on these things are? Why can't bargainfittings.com have a one sentence line saying, "for those interested in high flow, please note these hose barbs restrict flow to around 1/4."

Anyway, time for a homebrew. Cheers guys.

 

[gunner65]

I love mine and I found the title of this thread is kinda misleading. Sounds like bargainfittings was the problem not the fittings themselves. Would it have mattered where you bought them?

 

[IrregularPulse]

It's common for the fitting regardless if it's a cam lock or brass barb from Lowes. Plumbing fittings can be confusing to size sometimes. The 1/2" refers to OD. These are things we all learn with these builds when it comes to areas we're not familiar with, it just sucks your lesson was with stainless fittings.

 

[weirdboy]

I'm having issues with sputtering and air in my lines since I hard plumbed it. I think the problem is that I'm feeding a 1/2" rigid copper line to the inlet with a flexible quick connect with a restricted flow rate.

So, before you hard plumbed, what were you using? I am guessing 1/2" hose barbs.
I think it is more likely that you are getting sputtering because of how you have your plumbing set up, than the hose barb connections on these camlocks.

 

[Dgonza9]

Here it is. I added the second autovent because I thought my problem was coming from the air in the dip tube. Now I think that is sucking air. Until I solve this problem I'm going to remove both autovents and plug them, and just use the bleeder valve.

Be nice if the problem was not the quick connects.

 

[Dgonza9]

Update: My autovents were both broken. The bottom tab had snapped off somehow, disabling the device. So maybe the problem isn't the inlet hose.

 

[wildwest450]

Update: My autovents were both broken. The bottom tab had snapped off somehow, disabling the device. So maybe the problem isn't the inlet hose.

Well it's a good thing you didn't poop on a vendor or product that wasn't to blame, then you would look just plain silly.


_

 

[Dgonza9]

A broken autovent doesn't mean bargainfittings shouldn't consider adding a one sentence description to clarify their product's capabilities.

I don't think I should have to scour the forums for this info when a simple line of text or picture would make it clear what you are purchasing.

 

[SankePankey]

If you want, bash the manuf.- that would be better than bargain fittings. He's just a distributor who started carrying them after they became popular on HBT. I for one think he has a bunch of info on his site, where as pro-flow dynamics does not have any homebrew related concerns (like that you'd want to switch out the o-rings).

I use both of these cam locks (barb and threaded) and everything has a hose but isn't connected to my wort pump (where I'm fighting seconds on the clock) gets the barb one. It's on my mash recirc, my starter immersion chiller (retired from the boil kettle), etc.

 

[IrregularPulse]

A broken autovent doesn't mean bargainfittings shouldn't consider adding a one sentence description to clarify their product's capabilities.

I don't think I should have to scour the forums for this info when a simple line of text or picture would make it clear what you are purchasing.

Stop putting this on bargainfittings. It's not their product. They're a distributor. We as a forum asked them to carry all these products for us and they did. Seems pretty awesome to me. I couldn't find a 1" SS coupler and asked Bargain Fittings. Guess what they now carry as a stocked item based on my request?

Like I said, this is common in plumbing fittings. They shouldn't have to put this on their website. It's considered common knowledge in that field. You just needto look at things better before buying. You going to buy a new car then complain that you didn't know it was only a 4 speed automatic instead of a 5 speed after buying it just because you didn't look at it?
I'm also curious to how many emails you sent to Wayne about your concern and disappointment and possible addition to his website before coming here to bash him. I'm going to guess 0 because we all know, given the chance, Wayne is nothing but awesome to work with. He'd likely have refunded your purchase and most likely put the note on his website.

 

[logdrum]

A broken autovent doesn't mean bargainfittings shouldn't consider adding a one sentence description to clarify their product's capabilities.

I don't think I should have to scour the forums for this info when a simple line of text or picture would make it clear what you are purchasing.

See 4th line in red, from bargainfittings.com:

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=51&product_id=135

Granted doesn't specifically address the sizing reduction, but it does point out an available option.

 

[gunner65]

"Wayne is nothing but awesome to work with"

enough said!

 

[Dgonza9]

Is it my fault for ordering an item that didnt' suit my needs? Yes. Is the item clearly described on their website? Possibly not as well as it could be, okay?

My purpose in posting this was to express my dissappointment with the size of the camlock opening. I didn't say anything bad about Wayne (who I don't know) or bargainfittings.com as an organization. I've bought a lot of items from them and they are a good company.

My recommendation, add a line or two to clarify the size of those openings.

If Bargainfittings.com prefers to assume it's customers must know exact specifications of their items from research on homebrewtalk.com, that's their choice. If they're interested, this was my experience in that regard.

Are we done here yet, guys? RDWHHB.

 

[IrregularPulse]

We're all just making sure that anyone else who comes in here unaware and see's this thread realizes it's not the fault of Bargainfittings.com and doesn't avoid using a great vendor because of misplaced blame. That's is all.

 

[Bobby_M]

As a vendor, I will admit that we should accurately describe what we sell to the best of our ability. In truth, the barbed connector works as intended but the manufacturer really could do much better by offering a 1/2" cam coupling size with a 3/4" barb so that the smallest ID is 1/2" actual. I don't think bargainfittings is intentionally misleading customers. Customers want camlocks and they want access to all the fitting types.

 

[weirdboy]

To BobbyM:
I have seen your previous posts about this issue and the related videos, but I'm still confused as to when in your brewing process the flow rate through the barbs becomes an issue. I know that in mine I am almost never running my pump at full bore anyway, except maybe when I'm cleaning the system.

 

[twardnw]

Couldn't you just drill it out a little? The thickness of that nipple seems a bit on the heavy side to me.