Stainless braid in MT? Some questions

[barneey]

Just a quick idea for you gents, by accident another member Chastuck & My bin found a solution to the braid being crushed, basically I was throwing out some used stainless conduit - which had been unwound, so look more like a spring.

Chastuck was looking for somesort of inner liner for his braid, I sent the throw away item and he has done the rest. I think he will more than likely post a few pictures / post his success later in the week

[millmaster]

I've used the same stainless steel braid in a coolbox type mash tun for about 30 AG brews now with no problems with regard to "blinding" nor with the braid stretching/collapsing. There is no internal reinforcement on mine, which is about 700mm of braid cut from a 1.5m 22mm screwfix tap connector ( although I think the 22mm refers to the fittings at the ends, the braid is about 15mm OD ). I tend to be mashing about 5 to 6 kg of grain in about 15 to 18 litres of liquor ( cant call it water ! ). I jug back the first couple of litres out of the mash tun and batch sparge, stirring up the grains after each fill, without being particularly careful of the braid. This is on a 28L thermos cool box and the braid is connected up to a copper T-piece in a circle

There must be a reason why there are issues with braids, but its not obvious to me.

Could it be mash tun size/volume with bigger volumes in the mash tun causing braid collapse ?
Braids only connected at one end give issues ?
Length of braid - longer braids give problems ?
Degree of crush in the malt ? I buy malt in ready crushed so I have no control over that

This is somewhat off the original topic, so my apologies to aamacle

[Blackaddler]

After more than 5 years and over 60 mashes, my braid has stretched a bit, and suffered a few knocks. I've also started to get some slow run-offs, so time for a replacement.

I bought the same item from Screwfix, that I bought last time. Flexible Tap Connector 15mm x 3/4" x 900mm [£3.99]

Here is the old and the new, side by side. The old one is now over a metre long. The new one is about 800mm.



This time, I attached it to a hose union with a larger, [½in] bore than the old one. Similar to this...



Installed in the mash tun...