Ball valve on an FV? What hose to use?

[donchiquon]

Hi All

Had a v entertaining AG#1 last week. 9 hours - no laughing please - well, okay maybe you can chuckle a little

The icing on the cake was a leaking FV tap that I discovered at midnight. Luckily I had only lost a half litre, and had a spare FV to hand that I could easily decant to.

Has anyone fitted a ball valve tap to an FV to avoid these sort of issues? (I really like having a tap to make checking gravity etc). The hole for the cheapo plastic tap is an inch diameter. Any recommendations where I could source a few reasonably priced ones?

I also found that the PVC tubing a bought went (predictably) very pliable when I was running the wort out of the mash tun. Is PVC ok to use for this job? Should I be using sillicone? (The hose barb is 14/15mm external diameter)

Thanks in advance!

[Kev888]

Ball valves can harbour wort and infection, so if you want to go that way for a fermenter then I'd suggest a 3-piece stainless type that can be disassembled and the parts boiled or autoclaved (the two piece ones can be opened in some cases, but are often very hard to do). I used these with my 130L conical so it was worth the faff, but for standard fermenting buckets I much prefer simple plastic taps that can easily/quickly be pulled apart to clean.

PVC tubing is okay but a bit naff with heat as you found, there is a reinforced version of it with braid in the thicker wall which copes a bit better but it can still kink, and the braid is porous so for post boil applications you have to worry about infection in the ends. IMO reasonably thick walled silicone is much more suitable and worth the extra cost where heat is involved; it doesn't change much with even boiling wort, resists kinking (and if it does kink that tends not to be permanent), and is stretchier so you can push it over hosetails etc easily. I'd suggest a food grade type such as platinum cured or dairy use, not the automotive stuff thats quite common.

[gobuchul]

I use these cheap plastic taps on my FV's.

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=589

Absolutely no problems.

I wouldn't bother over speccing a tap on a standard plastic FV.

[Fil]

fwiw i use waddinton and duvall black plastic waterbut taps, which afaik are made from a foodsafe plastic as are the gardinia and hozelock brand hozelock hose fittings so I drain using 1/2" pvc tube with a snap on female hozelock fitting.. makes for a nice quick clean drain

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Plastic ... 1480513295

again to the best of my knowledge the pvc tube is deemed good for the cold side of brewing, but will as you have discovered soften and risk collapse or kinking at the higher temps of the hot side. And my limited understanding is that when hot the pvc does run the risk of some leaching. A lot of brewers use platinum cured Silicone tube/hose on the hot side, its rated safe and remains rigid at boiling temps.

All threaded fittings run the risk of harbouring unwanted microlife when used in a FV, or on the cold side, hence the popularity of Stainless steel threadless sanitary clamp fittings on the high end conical kit..

So to minimise the risk i simply clean and remove the tap to clean sanitise post use and dry before assembling again for storage, then on use again it gets a 2nd belt and braces clean and sanitation with the tap left in place.

[donchiquon]

Ball valves can harbour wort and infection, so if you want to go that way for a fermenter then I'd suggest a 3-piece stainless type that can be disassembled and the parts boiled or autoclaved (the two piece ones can be opened in some cases, but are often very hard to do). I used these with my 130L conical so it was worth the faff, but for standard fermenting buckets I much prefer simple plastic taps that can easily/quickly be pulled apart to clean.

Hmmm...does sound like a hassle...maybe I won't go this route!

I use these cheap plastic taps on my FV's.

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=589

Absolutely no problems.

I wouldn't bother over speccing a tap on a standard plastic FV.

That's the sort that I got a leak on....maybe I should just put it down to a one-off failure. Never had an issue with my other four.

fwiw i use waddinton and duvall black plastic waterbut taps, which afaik are made from a foodsafe plastic as are the gardinia and hozelock brand hozelock hose fittings so I drain using 1/2" pvc tube with a snap on female hozelock fitting.. makes for a nice quick clean drain

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Plastic ... 1480513295

Ahah....these look interesting. My tap started leaking from the joint that allows the tap to spin freely once fitted. The version you use looks to be fixed - ie there is only one joint that it can leak from which is the one which seals it onto the barrel. I might splash out on the £2 and try one!

Thanks all - advice much appreciated!

[donchiquon]

again to the best of my knowledge the pvc tube is deemed good for the cold side of brewing, but will as you have discovered soften and risk collapse or kinking at the higher temps of the hot side. And my limited understanding is that when hot the pvc does run the risk of some leaching. A lot of brewers use platinum cured Silicone tube/hose on the hot side, its rated safe and remains rigid at boiling temps.

PVC tubing is okay but a bit naff with heat as you found, there is a reinforced version of it with braid in the thicker wall which copes a bit better but it can still kink, and the braid is porous so for post boil applications you have to worry about infection in the ends. IMO reasonably thick walled silicone is much more suitable and worth the extra cost where heat is involved; it doesn't change much with even boiling wort, resists kinking (and if it does kink that tends not to be permanent), and is stretchier so you can push it over hosetails etc easily. I'd suggest a food grade type such as platinum cured or dairy use, not the automotive stuff thats quite common.

Great - thanks again Fil & Kev. I'll see if I can find reasonably priced supplier for a few metres...I guess of the 12.7mm 1/2" internal diameter variety.

Thanks again
Ian