What type of hose do you use in your HERMS?

[Jared311]

I have searched around for awhile and haven't found what I was looking for. I would really like to find a high temp food grade transparent hose. I have only found solid color hoses, but I would really like to be able to see what's happening during transfers and cleaning.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I use silicone hose from AHS. It's translucent, so you can see what's going on, but it's not completely transparent.

 

[MadDwarf]

Yuri, how well does that hose resist kinking or collapsing under pump pressure? I made the mistake of ordering some tubing from McMaster that turned out to be way too soft, and is essentially useless. Need to replace before next brew day, and I'd rather not make the same mistake twice

 

[DaleJ]

If you want more than a couple of feet.

You can get that same hose here for half the cost.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Yuri, how well does that hose resist kinking or collapsing under pump pressure?

I've never had it collapse when using a pump. It can kink, but it's far better than any other hose I've used.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I use silicone hose from AHS. It's translucent, so you can see what's going on, but it's not completely transparent.

+1 for this hose. It's excellent stuff. I don't have a HERMS but I do fire directly and recirculate. Never had an issue with this hose.

 

[2ndstorey]

I used the 1/2" silicone hose from B3. I don't know about the hose from AHS, but the hose from B3 is 1/8" thick walled. If you look at the same hose from US Plastic it is more both AHS and B3. (They are the same price from both homebrew shops.)

 

[Yuri_Rage]

2ndstorey, nice catch. Here's the US Plastics 1/8" wall tubing. Looks like the homebrew suppliers have a bulk supplier beat!

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

To bring up an old post.

Anyone using 3/4 ID hoses? Found foodgrade pvc to collapse. Wonder if 3/4 silicone will collapse or not.

Only [local] option I have found that is rated for boil temps is solid color hose used for pumping hot cooking oil and it ain't cheap!

 

[HomebrewJeff]

I used the braided vinyl tubing from Lowes. It's doesn't collapse, kinks a little, but it's cheap and available locally.

 

[TommyBoy]

If you want more than a couple of feet.

You can get that same hose here for half the cost.

That looks like the wall is a little thin...

+1 on B3 silicon tubing. 1/2" I.D., 3/4" O.D., translucent, good for 500 degrees, kink resistant.

 

[Bobby_M]

PVC/Vinyl tubing available locally may hold up for a while but it is likely leaching into hot liquids. What I'd suggest is dropping a 2" section of it in some boiling water and letting it sit for 10 minutes. Cool the water in the fridge and drink it. If you don't like the taste, I'd skip that.

If money were no object or you were a savvy ebayer, the best stuff would be reinforced silicone. There are some 5/8, 7/8, and 1" ID rolls of it on Ebay right now for about $2 a foot.

I use 1/8" wall silicone and it's fine. 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD and I got it from USplastics when they had a free shipping promotion. B3 and AHS have the same stuff.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I might have to drop back down to 1/2" then. Most of the 3/4" stuff looks like it would collapse. I'll take a look at that reinforced silicone. Hard to tell without being to actually see it though.

Anyone using 3/4"?