hartford loop arrangement

[martinworswick]

i posted this in another thread but it maybe better in its own thread-

there have been a few references to the hartford loop arrangement in various threads about autosparging ,i've never heard of them before so hopefully someone can explain this to me.
maybe i'm missing something but once the water level reaches the tee and it starts to overflow are you not then just increasing the speed of the sparge?
unless you returned the overflow to the hlt i suppose,i like my wort in the kettle though.
maybe it could be arranged to return hot water of the top of the grain bed?hmmmm

 

[kladue]

The "Hartford Loop" method is just an open top tee that prevents siphon action. The idea behind this method is to connect bottom of tee to mash tun outlet, drain off hose to the side, and run hose from top connection back into top of mash tun above liquid level to let air in. When the tee is clamped or held to the level that lets liquid flow off from mash tun, any water you add to mash tun just increases flow, if liquid level falls below tee outlet then the flow stops until sparge water raises level again. After all the sparge water is added the tee needs to be lowered to drain off balance of liquid from mash tun. Not complicated to build and no moving parts is a plus, drawback is gravity drain only, and moving tee to set desired starting level each batch.