Poor manifold drainage

[juslod]

To preface, I have only completed a single all-grain brew where I got ~60% efficiency. I have a 52 qt Igloo cooler where the bulkhead is approximately 1" off the bottom of the cooler. My first mash was using a stainless steel braid that had trouble draining the mash throughout - even when tilting the cooler.

My next move was to build a copper manifold. So I bought the pipe and laid out a design that I expected to do a much better job than the braid, but I did a test run by filling the cooler with some water.

The flow stops when the water reaches the top of the copper manifold rather than draining to the bottom where the slots are cut. Is this only a sign that I have an air leak in one of the fittings that is allowing air and killing my suction when it gets to that level? I wasn't sure how imperative it was to make it air-tight, but now I can only assume that is my issue. I soldered all the pieces together with the manifold laying upside down, so all the joints may not be air-tight from the top.

Does anyone have feedback on this? I'm planning to go back through and add solder to the joints to see if that helps.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

To form a siphon, your output has to be below the surface of the liquid on the input side... Do you have a hose attached to the valve? If not, attach a hose and give it another shot.

BTW... if the hose is too big, it won't siphon either. The hose should be the same size or smaller than the smallest opening in the siphon chain.

The other possibility is what you already mentioned, an air leak.

Ed

 

[juslod]

Thanks Ohio-Ed, it didn't even occur to me to have a hose attached. I'm going to run another test and see if this fixes my problem.

I am using 1/2" copper piping for the manifold and 1/2" hose on the other end of the ball valve, so I assume that is not the issue!

 

[juslod]

Btw, that is exactly what the problem was, I put a hose on and it drained much faster and further down. It wasn't sitting on a level table, so there was still 16 oz remaining of water that was sitting all at one side of the cooler. I'll try to find a more level spot for the mash tun for my next brew day.

Although this number probably has a large variation from person to person, but what is a typical loss of wort in a mash tun?