single tier keggle hardware questions

[bnmir]

I have a basic single tier stand in the works, I'm looking for some advice on the keg conversions, in terms of what hardware each piece needs.
HLT: This needs a valve, a pickup tube and a thermometer. How helpful is a sightglass? I was thinking on of the bobbym combo's might make sense here.
I'm thinking a sightglass would be critical in figuring out the volume of liquid moved to the mashtun for hitting strike temps when using a pump, but is there something I'm overlooking in the process?
Mashtun: False bottom, valve, pickup tube, and thermometer.
I'm planning to mount the thermometer a few inches higher than the valve, because the keg I got has a leaky dent which I plan to just turn into the thermo hole. Once again, how important is asightglass in the mashtun?
Boil Kettle: Valve and some kind of hopstraing/pickup (I use pellet, and will probably use a hop bag). I plan to use a plate chiller, so filtering out the hops and break is a big concern.
What works well for the pickup and straining in a boil kettle with all pellet hop use?
Lastly, how well do the camlock qd's work and are there any drawbacks? They seems reasonably cost effective.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AdamCanFly]

I wouldn't put a sight glass on the mashtun. I have them on my HLT and boil kettle.
My friend has cam lock quick disconnects and they are pretty nice. He put 90 degree elbows on his and stretched the silicone tubing over the male threads. BobbyM has a video about that.

 

[bnmir]

What's the general consensus on weldless fittings? Am I better off in the long run finding someone to weld in couplings?

 

[MaxOut]

I love the cam lock connectors. Make sure you replace the black rubber gaskets with the food grade silicone. Highly recommend sight glass on HLT and BK. If you fly sparge the sight glass is useful on the MLT.

 

[redrider736]

Make sure you replace the black rubber gaskets with the food grade silicone.

What size would you order ?

 

[MaxOut]

What size would you order ?

I ordered the cam locks from brewers hardware and they included the o rings. The size will vary depending on the size of the cam lock.

 

[g-love]

Bnmir - perfect timing. I have the same questions and will be watching this thread closely.

 

[JuanMoore]

HLT: This needs a valve, a pickup tube and a thermometer. How helpful is a sightglass? I was thinking on of the bobbym combo's might make sense here.
I'm thinking a sightglass would be critical in figuring out the volume of liquid moved to the mashtun for hitting strike temps when using a pump, but is there something I'm overlooking in the process?
Mashtun: False bottom, valve, pickup tube, and thermometer.
I'm planning to mount the thermometer a few inches higher than the valve, because the keg I got has a leaky dent which I plan to just turn into the thermo hole. Once again, how important is asightglass in the mashtun?
Boil Kettle: Valve and some kind of hopstraing/pickup (I use pellet, and will probably use a hop bag). I plan to use a plate chiller, so filtering out the hops and break is a big concern.
What works well for the pickup and straining in a boil kettle with all pellet hop use?
Lastly, how well do the camlock qd's work and are there any drawbacks? They seems reasonably cost effective.

Thanks in advance.

I have a thermowell/sightglass combo on my HLT, thermo only on my MLT, and sightglass only on my BK. This works best for me, but may not be the best for everyones system/process. Unless you're fly sparging, a sightglass is pretty useless on the MLT, and even then it's not really needed. I use a hop spider and whirlpooling to separate hops and break material, but a lot of people here swear by using a false bottom. The cam-locks work great for me. I use the threaded ones and stretch the tubing over the threads to maximize flow just like in the BobbyM vid posted above. The only disadvantage is that it takes a lot of practice to be able to operate them one handed. Another disadvantage used to be that you needed to replace the rubber washers with silicone o-rings, but it seems that the suppliers are now selling them with the option of silicone instead of rubber.

What's the general consensus on weldless fittings? Am I better off in the long run finding someone to weld in couplings?

Weldless fittings work great for me.