CPVC Manifold or Stainless Steel Braid for rectangular Mashtun?

[BonzoAPD]

What do you prefer and why? CPVC Manifold or Stainless Steel Braid for rectangular Mashtun?

 

[pondochris]

I use a 12" bazooka screen in mine. Never a stuck mash or sparge. No clamps or plumbing work to mess with it just screws into my ball valve. Once I vorlauf I can open the valve wide open and the wort flows out like a kitchen sink.

 

[k_mcarthur]

CPVC has a tendency to float until you work all the air bubbles out of it, which makes for a pretty inefficient false bottom. I have never used stainless braid but have heard of others using with great success. I personally have a copper manifold I built in just a couple of hours. Clamped my jig saw upside down in my bench vise and locked trigger down and cut all the slots in the pipe in minutes. It never floats, and I consistently get 85% efficiency no problem.

 

[Dustinj]

I built a 1/2 inch cpvc manifold for my 70qt Colman extreme. I made it fit tight so it wouldn't float. It works awesome and I can pull it apart to clean. Nice and cheap too. I can open the valve wide open after recirculating and drain the tun as fast as I want and no stuck sparge yet.

 

[k_mcarthur]

Not sure if it would make any difference in efficiency, but in Palmer's "How To Brew" he advises when you build a manifold that you need 1/2 of the space between the manifolds on the perimeter off the walls of the tun. This will keep from channeling down the smooth sides of the tun and bypassing the sugar drenched grains that you are trying to rinse off. Logic sounds good, but like I said I have never tried it to compare efficiency difference. When I built mine I just followed Palmer's advice.

 

[matt2778]

Not sure if it would make any difference in efficiency, but in Palmer's "How To Brew" he advises when you build a manifold that you need 1/2 of the space between the manifolds on the perimeter off the walls of the tun. This will keep from channeling down the smooth sides of the tun and bypassing the sugar drenched grains that you are trying to rinse off. Logic sounds good, but like I said I have never tried it to compare efficiency difference. When I built mine I just followed Palmer's advice.

Pretty sure that's only an issue if you're fly sparging. I built a similar manifold but instead do 90 degree ends I used t fittings with end caps. I also made the manifold two inches narrower that the tun. This kept the manifold off the sides of the tun but still keeps it tight. I batch and fly sparge with this setup and have yet to have a stuck sparge.