BIAB -- am I doing it all wrong?

[Spartan300man]

A sparge will always give you better efficiency over a top up with water alone. That is an entirely different situation though. Totally unrelated to the enzymatic dilution you are sugesting. Diluting the wort with water extracts no sugars and reduces efficiency. A sparge would be preferable.
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I did not mean to suggest anything like that, perhaps a poor choice of phrasing that inferred that i think a partial mash is an option for me when it is not. My only point is that due to a limited mash pot size, I can not do a full volume mash, therefore I can choose to do some kind of sparge or not do anything. I have chosen the dunk sparge option, and see a great benefit to it. I don't see it as a waste of time, I can see and measure the added sugars in the dunk wort that I use to top off my boil pot.

 

[Gavin C]

I did not mean to suggest anything like that, perhaps a poor choice of phrasing that inferred that i think a partial mash is an option for me when it is not. My only point is that due to a limited mash pot size, I can not do a full volume mash, therefore I can choose to do some kind of sparge or not do anything. I have chosen the dunk sparge option, and see a great benefit to it. I don't see it as a waste of time, I can see and measure the added sugars in the dunk wort that I use to top off my boil pot.

Totally agree

One of the great benefits of a sparge is to work around the issue of pot size when one's pot size precludes doing a full-volume no-sparge mash. You are very correctly doing a sparge to hit your desired preboil volumes by the sound of things. Definitely better than a top up.

The other procedural benefit of a sparge is that the desired preboil volume can be targeted with ease. Sparge till you hit the target preboil volume. With no sparge, I squeeze till I reach the target preboil volume. Not too dissimilar.

In my post I was merely trying to refute your suggestion that a thinner mash would have a negative impact on the efficacy of the enzymatic actions of amylases in the mash. This has been proven not to be the case. Quite the opposite is, in fact the case.

A sparge is enormously beneficial in these instances.of hardware restricting one's process. Understanding and working around these issues is inherent to being an accomplished brewer. Sounds like you are just that.