New to the forum but not to brewing...21 years and counting. Bought a 60 qt stainless brewpot yesterday. I'm looking for recommendations for ball valve. Anyone?
My first choice is to check with my local pipe fitters or a pipe supply shop. I can usually get most any fitting or valve I need for a homebrew or to. If you have any food/oil/beverage plants in your area 316 Stainless fittings are abundant. My local scrap yard is full of the stuff, these factory just throw the stuff away rather than reuse perfectly good pipe and fittings. It costs more to tear it apart than it does to throw it away and buy new.
Just today I picked up a 3/4 FP ball valve, 1/2 FP Ball valve, 2-90's 6 nipples, 2 bushings, 8 compression fittings, 1 tee, and 1 coupling. All made of 316 90% of the stuff was new. Earlier this week I got a 32' coil of 1/2 stainless tubing to make a immersion chiller. All for homebrew or free.
I even got a rebuilt vacuum pump for my wine making from the local med supply shop in exchange for a couple bottles of wine.