DIY Inline Oxygenation

[nicadrick]

Anybody got one? I am trying to find an oxygen diffusion stone with 1/2" MNPT and barb that I can place in a SS Tee on the output of my CFC.

Like this one:

 

[Displaced MassHole]

Morebeer has one in their printed catalog, but I'm not seeing it online. I'll dig it up and post a part number if I can find it.

 

[JewBrew]

Ive been at a brewery that pumped in oxygen through a tee without any stone at all in there situation the oxygen has to travel 30+ feet to the conical so diffusion happened naturally without a stone. Perhaps if your line is long enough you could just install a tee with a check valve and barb, and work with that.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I've seen the part you're talking about, and honestly I think you can buy the regular diffusion stone and just JB weld it into a bushing...then screw that bushing into a tee. It's food grade, hi-temp, and once it sets it sure as heck isn't going to come undone or leak.

 

[JewBrew]

Although JB weld is high temp I do not know if its food grade. I do know that it is not water soluble so it should be ok. It could be they just didnt want to pay for FDA licensing. I think i saw a post about this somewhere...

 

[Sawdustguy]

I've seen the part you're talking about, and honestly I think you can buy the regular diffusion stone and just JB weld it into a bushing...then screw that bushing into a tee. It's food grade, hi-temp, and once it sets it sure as heck isn't going to come undone or leak.

Steve,

They make compression fittings for soft tubing. In fact there is a thread here somewhere that shows exactly that.

 

[dstar26t]

I used to use an inline setup. It was a barbed .5 micron stone and I used a compression fitting on the hose. I didn't like the inconsistency with the wort transfer times. Depending on the time of year, the CFC would chill better or worse, sometimes never down to my desired temp, especially for lagers. Sometimes, the unpitched wort would have to sit in the fermentation chamber for hours before it was the right temp for pitching. If I had only inline O2'd in those cases, the O2 would come out of solution by the time I pitched. It's better to pitch immediately after O2'ing so I abandoned the inline set-up and went with the wand in the carboy. Much more consistent results that way. So now, I time the O2 with the wand, check the DO level and pitch when it's right. Here's my old set-up if you're hell bent on an inline system. I used compression fittings and part of one of Bobby_M's keggle sightglasses to watch the bubbles.

 

[gicts]

I'm in EMS and the more I play with oxygen bottles and the tubing we have on the truck the more I think that could be adapted to fit this need. FWIW the regulator goes as low as .5psi.

 

[dstar26t]

Controlling flow rate is more important than the pressure if you're looking for consistent O2 injection.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Guy- Thanks for that....I knew those fittings were out there but I guess I didn't put 2 + 2 together.....

I'm in the medical community as well, but I can't figure out how I might adapt the flowmeters that are designed to go right over the tank......

I guess if we happened to be missing a tank and reg out of the 100's we have, it wouldn't be SO bad

 

[gicts]

Guy- Thanks for that....I knew those fittings were out there but I guess I didn't put 2 + 2 together.....

I'm in the medical community as well, but I can't figure out how I might adapt the flowmeters that are designed to go right over the tank......

I guess if we happened to be missing a tank and reg out of the 100's we have, it wouldn't be SO bad

Lol. I'm wondering if the medical hosing could take the place and everything else could be made witht that hose in mind. I guess I have some reading and research ahead of me

 

[fastricky]

I used to use an inline setup. It was a barbed .5 micron stone and I used a compression fitting on the hose.

I don't understand how the carb stone sits in the threaded nipple? It looks like the barbed end of the stone is in some tubing which is threaded thru the nipple, but what makes that stay in place without leaking?

 

[dstar26t]

Compression fittings usually have an internal stop. I drilled it out to a smooth constant bore so that the tubing could slide all the way through. Then, once the barb end of the stone was forced into the tubing, it made a very tight leak proof seal with the compression fitting. It took some force to get the barb end of the stone to go into the tubing once the tubing was inside the compression fitting.

 

[fastricky]

Hey thanks! Are you selling yours by chance?

 

[dstar26t]

It's disassembled and in the parts bin. I've used pieces from it for other things, so, sorry no. If you make something similar, you'll need to add orings to the compression fittings for the sight glass or else they'll leak.