What do you Use as a Pick Up in Your Boil Kettle?

[RLinNH]

I am talking about the item in the bottom of your Boil Kettle that works as a siphon to get the beer out of your Boiling Kettle into your Carboy. I have a converted 15 Gallon Sabco Keg. I have a Weld Less Ball valve Fitting attatched. As a Pick Up, I have a Male fitting Soldered to 1/2 inch Copper fittings and pipe so that it angles down into the bottom of the Kettle. This has worked for me for about 4 or 5 Batches, but for the last 4 batches, the siphon isn't working. I have had to resort to dumping what's left in the bottom of the kettle into the Carboy with the help of a funnel. Yuh. Messy and not sanitary at all. I thought maybe the Pick up wasn't tight in the Female adapter, but that's not the problem as last night I amde sure to tighten the fitting on properly. So, i need to figure something else out. What do you use and how is it working for you?


If I don't get this problem solved soon, I'll have to resort to buying a 20 Gallon Belchman Boil Kettle I'd have to use the money I have set aside for my Kegerator, and that's not cool.

 

[Fingers]

You might have a leak in your solder that's letting air in. Try sweating your joints again. The only thing that would break your siphon is air getting in and equalizing the pressure.

 

[CodeRage]

I would pressure check the thing using an air compressor and plugging the pick up tube with your finger. What you have should work and it isnt going to be any different than anything you can buy.

 

[RLinNH]

You might have a leak in your solder that's letting air in. Try sweating your joints again. The only thing that would break your siphon is air getting in and equalizing the pressure.

Going to resolder my fittings tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion. I am willing to bet that fixes my problem.

 

[joejaz]

I just wet crazy trying to figure out why my pickup tube wouldn't siphon, did you happen to change your output hose? The diamater of my output hose was wider then the pickup tube and it wouldn't siphon

 

[RLinNH]

I just wet crazy trying to figure out why my pickup tube wouldn't siphon, did you happen to change your output hose? The diamater of my output hose was wider then the pickup tube and it wouldn't siphon

Yes I did change my output hose to a larger diameter. The diameter is larger then the Pick Up tube. Hmmm... I'm going to try a new hose before I go rebuiding my pickup tube.

 

[RLinNH]

Smaller diameter tube did the trick. Just got back from Lowe's with some 3/8 ID Tubing and did a test run with some water. Worked like a charm. Thank You

 

[surfbrewer]

I just saw this thread and I have been having the same problem. The siphon starts off o.k. and then almost completely dies. I've been racking my brain as to what had changed and after reading this I realized that I had also changed my hose size to a bigger one. I'll try going back to a smaller hose and see if that fixes it. Thanks. You gotta love this site.

Cheers