Plumbing a chiller loop for less hose swaps, is there a better way?

[bjhbrew]

Hey folks,

I guess the title more or less says it; I'm wanting to add a section of hard plumbing that allows me to flip a couple valves and run my wort post boil through my counter flow chiller to cool and then bypass the chiller at the end for whirlpool. I find that my chiller is quite restrictive otherwise I'd probably just leave it in the loop the whole time. So, using some parts I already had in my bin this is what I came up with:

And a little drawing of how it would hook in with the rest of my EBIAB kettle:

I end up with a bunch of short silicone hose runs but I'm pretty sure this will work and It would be pretty easy to mount on my brew stand as well as prime/drain etc. I had a couple questions and hoped someone who has done something similar could help me out.

The main thing I'm wondering is whether or not I still need a ball valve on the output of the pump? If I go with a short section of silicone hose to connect from the pump to this manifold I could throttle the flow on the manifold but I guess that means the silicone hose will always be pressurized. Is this going to cause the hose to eventually pop? I like to disassemble my pump after most brew days so I don't think I want to hard mount to the pump (plus I don't think I know how anyways Honestly, my main motivation for not having a ball valve on the pump outlet is that I can never seem to thread one on and get it tight enough to not leak but have the handle facing the right way; if I could just crank down a camlock that'd be great! Does anyone have tips for putting together threaded fittings and having it line up the way you want? Is it a certain number of teflon tape wraps? Maybe I unlucky but they always seem to tighen up 180 from where I want them haha.

 

[jschein]

the wort flow restriction should be on the pump output not from the kettle

 

[Dr_Jeff]

it looks like a three way ball valve might be another option

 

[bjhbrew]

Yeah, I wondered about a three way valve. I think it could replace the first two ball valves in my diagram but I’m not sure if the 3 way valves allow throttling or just on/off. Anyways I’m playing around with trying it with a small dc pump in-line and it seems to work as intended. I am surprised how much the silicone hose balloons up when shut off at the end and pressurized even with this little pump. So I’m thinking that having a silicone hose between this and the outlet of my pump may be a no go.

 

[IslandLizard]

I am surprised how much the silicone hose balloons up when shut off at the end and pressurized even with this little pump. So I’m thinking that having a silicone hose between this and the outlet of my pump may be a no go.

Thick walled silicone hose (1/8" wall thickness) should not swell/balloon under that kind of pump pressure. Mine don't using a March pump.

I’m not sure if the 3 way valves allow throttling or just on/off.

The 3-way T-valves, are more like switches, not much throttling.
The 3-way L-valves may give you some throttling control, due to the L-port in the ball. Not sure.

 

[Deric]

Watching with interest as I'm planning the same thing. I don't need to throttle - just switch two inputs to one output.

Does anyone know if the 3 way valves allow you to move the handle to point any direction you want at a given ball orientation?

 

[bjhbrew]

Here’s what I ended up deciding to go with. I’ll try to re-mount the pump and support the top of the pipe so I’m not putting strain on the pump head when turning the valves. I’ve tried it out to just pump water around and so far I like it.

 

[IslandLizard]

Does anyone know if the 3 way valves allow you to move the handle to point any direction you want at a given ball orientation?

On the 3-way T-valves I have, the handle/ball can be rotated continuously around for 360°. IOW, there are no internal stops. But you can lock in each of the four 90° positions when you drop the locking clippy on the handle into the slot.

 

[Deric]

Do you know if the handle can be removed and repositioned in relation to the "T" ? In other words, can you remove the nut that holds the handle in place and rotate it 90 degrees? 180 degrees?

Space is tight and I want to make sure I can have free movement of the handle to the desired positions.

 

[IslandLizard]

Do you know if the handle can be removed and repositioned in relation to the "T" ? In other words, can you remove the nut that holds the handle in place and rotate it 90 degrees? 180 degrees?

Space is tight and I want to make sure I can have free movement of the handle to the desired positions.

Yes, handle can be repositioned at each of the 90° positions, independently from the ball orientation.

One note, there is no closed valve position anywhere. There are four pass throughs:
L-F-R (all 3 ports open at the same time)
L-F
R-F
L-R (the middle ball opening is against the closed back)

L=Left Port, R=Right Port, F=Front (or Rear) Port

 

[Deric]

Perfect. Thanks!