Sanitary ball valve sizing

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TheFlyingBeer

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So I am currently in the initial planning stages of my AG system (an electric HERMS). I have three 1/2bbl kegs laying around just begging to be used. The problem I am currently faced with is the sizing of several ball valves I think I need.

Most homebrewers seem to use 1/2" FPT full port ball valves which have an ID of 0.5" (easy huh?).

I have been planning on using tri-clamp sanitary valves which are sized on the outside diameter of the tubing not the port diameter. A 1/2" sanitary valve actually has an inner diameter of 0.375". A 3/4" sanitary valve has an inner diameter of 0.63".

The current plan is to use 1/2" OD (0.46" ID) tubing for the HERMS coil, so that would limit the flow with the 3/4" sanitary valve.

Is .375" (3/8) too small for 10 gallon batches, or is 0.63" too big for 5 gal batches? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
I think I have officially decided to go with 3/4" Tri-clamps. I will be using 0.5"ID tubing and the 0.63" should be easily reduced for those. Just took some exploring around this great forum to determine what I really wanted.

I would really like to keep the ID of my system to around 1/2" so my current plans are to use 5/8" hose barbs for the flexible silicone tubing planned. I hope the tubing won't have any issues expanding a bit and fitting onto the 5/8" barbs (which have a 1/2" ID). Any thoughts? Concerns?
 
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