SS braided wire

[Munchkin]

Im going to try my first all grain recipe in the upcoming months. Ive been building my own stainless steel pot with a ball valve at the bottom. On the inside I have a threaded nipple which attaches to a barbed fitting. I bought what i thought was stainless steel braided wire but after cutting it, it seems as if its some kind of plastic material? Anyone ever run across this and know what kind of material this is or whether it is food safe? Pissed me off because i specifically asked for stainless and it sure fooled me until i cut it. Heres a picture of what it sort of looks like.

 

[liquid134]

so ur saying, that its like a tube inside of the stainless mesh tube right?

if so, you can simply pull the tube from it. think of the stainless braid as a Chinese finger trap. compress the stainless and slide the tube out.

 

[Munchkin]

no actually, the stainless braided 'wire' is actually plastic. Ive already pulled out the tube inside. Ive seen a couple posts on the net describing it as nylon thats a stainless look alike. Ill probably end up exchanging it with a stainless braided wire but im curious if anyone uses this type or knows if it is in fact a food grade plastic.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

Given that it's not used in a Food Grade environment, I doubt that it's Food Grade. That being said, you may just be curious if it's something that will poison you or not... You might be able to look up the MSDS or get some product info to find out, but I highly doubt you'll find it to be Food Safe.

 

[theck]

I am super cheap... Have a few toilet and faucet lines from a addition we did. I got into all grain this year, ripped one apart, got it all connected to the tun, went to the shop to buy grain and ended up buying a proper one. The difference between the 2 is night and day, spending the $8+ didn't trouble me too much either. Not sure if the supply would have worked but been very happy with my bazooka.

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Munchkin]

according to what ive read its nylon of some kind and drains painfully slow. I guess ill pick up some of the real stuff next time im out. It was nice working with the plastic though, it didnt once try to prick my fingers :cross:
Thanks!

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Wow!.....Sure looks like stainless where it frayed at the cut, (at least in the pic!).

 

[Munchkin]

sorry the pic isnt the actual braid i have, just an example. It looks pretty damn close though.

 

[IslandLizard]

You can put a torch to the end of it and see if it melts.

Just in case you're thinking of using a stainless braid inside your boil kettle to keep the hops and break matter in the kettle and out of the draining wort, it won't work well. The hop fibers clog the braid in no time, and not much wort goes through, even worse when using a pump. A slow trickle of wort is the result.

Braids work OK for mash tuns, but there are better and more durable alternatives.

 

[erichsmith]

I use a braid in my mash tun and it works great. But IslandLizard is right about it being a PITA on a brew kettle. First time I used it ended up clogging the tube and had to pick up my 15 gal kettle with 6 gal of wort and pour it into the carboy. I took the tube out and use hop bags now.