Fittings pricing

[ReeseAllen]

I recently bought some fittings and I did some research to compare the relative price of three different popular types of "quick disconnect" fittings:

• Brass sleeve-lock
• Brass cam-and-groove (aka cam-lock)
• Stainless tri-clamp

I figured I'd share what I found. Might help someone make a decision on what they want to use.

Let's consider the following situation. You've got a boil kettle with a valve, and a counter-flow chiller which you feed by gravity. You want to set up a hose between the two. Both the kettle valve and the CFC inlet have a female 1/2" NPT socket.

Option #1: Brass sleeve-lock

(3) feet of 1/2" silicone tubing - $2.10/ft, $6.30 total (morebeer.com H985)
(2) straight union fitting, 3/8" female sleeve-lock to 1/2" hose barb - $6.47/ea, $12.94 total (mcmaster.com 6739K64)
(2) straight union fitting, 3/8" male sleeve-lock to 1/2" male NPT - $1.98/ea, $3.96 total (mcmaster.com 6739K59)

Total cost: $23.20 plus two orders' shipping​

Option #2: Brass cam-and-groove

(3) feet of 1/2" silicone tubing - $2.10/ft, $6.30 total (morebeer.com H985)
(2) straight union fitting, 1/2" female cam-and-groove to 1/2" hose barb - $19.90/ea, $39.80 total (mcmaster.com 52155K308)
(2) straight union fitting, 1/2" male cam-and-groove to 1/2" male NPT - $8.48/ea, $16.96 total (mcmaster.com 52155K408)

Total cost: $63.06 plus two orders' shipping​

Option #3: Stainless tri-clamp

(3) feet of 1/2" silicone tubing - $2.10/ft, $6.30 total (morebeer.com H985)
(2) 1.5" tri-clamp - $6.95/ea, $13.90 total (morebeer.com H652)
(2) 1.5" gasket - $0.95/ea, $1.90 total (morebeer.com H656)
(2) 1.5" tri-clamp to 1/2" hose barb - $19.00/ea, $38.00 total (morebeer.com H672)
(2) 1.5" tri-clamp to 1/2" male NPT - $24.95/ea, $49.90 total (morebeer.com H676)

Total cost: $110.00 plus one orders' shipping​

The sleeve-lock fittings use a ball detent mechanism which I am not sure can be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized easily. Tri-clamps seem like the most professional way to go, but I couldn't justify spending $110 just to connect a kettle to a CFC. Plus, I don't want to end up committing myself to using only expensive fittings as I expand my setup. So, I ended up going with the cam-and-groove fittings. I'll report back after I've received them and had a chance to try them out.

 

[Wayne1]

You might want to take a look at these stainless Camlock fittings.

Pro Flow Dynamics Camlock

They come in quite a bit less expensive.

A few HBTers are using them

stainless camlocks review

Here is a picture of my rig with the stainless camlocks installed.

I spent under $125.00 for 17) male and 15) female fittings

 

[remilard]

It's much cheaper to weld a tri-clamp coupler into the pot. Those pipe thread to tri-clamp adapters are expensive because there is no use for them other than retrofitting in a system that was not designed for tri-clamps.

 

[ReeseAllen]

Ouch, those are a lot cheaper than the brass ones I ordered. Wish I'd seen that thread earlier. At the very least, I'll get to find out what the quality of the McMaster type is like and report back whether I can recommend them or not.

 

[Wayne1]

If you like the brass fitting and want more, I have quite a few I pulled out of my rig to replace with the Camlocks.

Drop me a PM and we can work out a deal.

 

[ReeseAllen]

Are the brass and stainless cam-and-groove fittings the same dimensions?

 

[ReeseAllen]

Ouch, looks like I could have gone with stainless tri-clamps for just $70 if I'd known about this deal:

http://www.brewershardware.com/SanitaryFittings.htm

 

[ReeseAllen]

Following up...

I picked up both the fittings and the tubing from shipping and receiving at work this morning:

First impressions: The giant rings on the socket fittings make them seem comically oversized. They aren't, but this is definitely some heavy duty hardware. I also picked up some hose clamps which are designed to not damage soft tubing, McMaster part # 6151K51, at $9.94 for a 5-pack.

Here's the coupling when it's connected. The levers are actually pretty tough to close. As everyone else has said when they buy this kind of fitting, you aren't going to be connecting it one-handed. On the plus side, it feels like a really solid connection when it's fully engaged.

Finally, here's the 4-foot length of 1/2" ID silicone tubing with fittings and clamps installed. I can tell already that this is going to be a big step up from the days of barbed fittings, vinyl tubing, hose clamps and screwdrivers.

In the end, even though these seem to be some decent fittings, it's pretty clear that I spent too much on this. The fitted hose in the above photo cost about $60 alone. (And yeah, I'm going to take those ridiculous rings off.)

 

[willynilly]

Looks nice, those CamLok things are really catching on.

 

[willynilly]

There is a guy here on HBT that will make you any TriClamp you want, MPT, FPT, or barb for $27 a SET including gaskets and clamps. I hear they are really nice.

(3) feet of tubing $6.30
(2) TriClamp full sets (4) halves with clamps and gaskets $54

Total cost $60.30

 

[WPStrassburg]

Any reason you didn't include the Colder Products polysulfone qd's in the comparison? I've got some of them ordered up and hope I went the right way. How are you keeping from loosing fluid when you do hose changes, or is everything fixed until you are done brewing?

 

[willynilly]

Any reason you didn't include the Colder Products polysulfone qd's in the comparison? I've got some of them ordered up and hope I went the right way. How are you keeping from loosing fluid when you do hose changes, or is everything fixed until you are done brewing?

When I used QDs, I used a small towel then changing connections... You wanted to anyway as the hoses and such get so hot (170+F)

 

[bakins]

I also picked up some hose clamps which are designed to not damage soft tubing, McMaster part # 6151K51, at $9.94 for a 5-pack.

FWIW, I went with oetiker clamps and like them allot. I also use the brass sleeve-lock's from mcmaster-carr (the camlocks weren't widely known a few years ago, I guess) and I soak them in hot PBW water in my BK as I'm cleaning it.

 

[willynilly]

I am picking up some of those clamps too, they are more aesthetically pleasing than a worm clamp.

 

[ReeseAllen]

Finally got to test these things out today when brewing another batch of EdWort's porter. They're excellent. Not very difficult to clamp and unclamp (even with the big dangly rings removed) and I did manage to engage them one-handed, although it's gonna take some practice to get good at that. One thing to note is that the socket fittings have a rubber o-ring/gasket that needs to be removed and cleaned when you are cleaning the hose. Not a big deal, but a little bit of extra complexity and potential for infection that needs to be attended to.

This was also my first experience using silicone tubing and I'm quite impressed. It's very springy and flexible, it holds its shape really well when transferring hot wort, and it seems to insulate better than the vinyl tubing I'd been using previously -- I was able to safely handle the tube to help work out air pockets without burning myself. I'm now planning on eliminating as much of my 1/2" and 5/8" ID vinyl tubing with 1/2" ID silicone tubing. As far as I am concerned, the only advantage to using vinyl is that it's cheap and widely available at most hardware stores. Silicone has it beat in every functional respect.