Anyone using 3 way ball valves?

[philistine]

Hey dudes,
After a long hiatus, im back onto my herms building project.
Ive only gotten as far as building an external HEX so far, but its pretty rad. All stainless steel housing etc.....
Anyway, onto the next "stage" which is working out the actual set up and layout etc. and without going into too much boring detail, im considering running the whole rig with one pump and hard-plumbing (as opposed to swapping lines with every stage - i just want to use valves)
My question is - does anyone use 3 way ball valves?
When googling pics of herms rigs, i dont see them much.
To me it seems like a logically better option than having multiple standard valves to re-route liquid transfer.
Am i missing something? Is there a reason im not seeing many people use em?

 

[Moad]

I use electronic 3 way valves, I am not sure why people don't use them I suppose it requires some extra thought when brewing that may be an issue in a panic situation. Or something to do with cleanliness.

 

[philistine]

this might explain better - http://aussiehomebrewer.com/gallery/image/2659-ball-valve-setupjpg/
This pic is of Tidal Pete's Sharkbite Brewery rig and Ive nabbed it from his gallery (hope you dont mind dude!) and in some ways Im loosely modelling my build on his design (hope you dont mind dude!... its ******* awesome by the way)
Anyway, this pic shows the plumbing underneath and if I've worked things out correctly, I could for example replace all of the valves in this pic with just 2 x 3 way valves (L-type) and achieve the exact same result (I think?)
Like i asked above - am I missing something? Is there a reason why this wouldnt work?

 

[philistine]

Moad - are you able to post a link to the valves you use?

 

[Glomp]

Yes i do. At the moment i use 4 panel mounted ones. They are colour coded so that for using say the rims all handles point to blue. To underlet they point to yellow etc.

I am adding a counterflow chiller shortly so have just ordered another one. It certainly beats moving hoses around which i really hated doing.

 

[droid]

I use one as it was given to me when I was begging, borrowing and stealing stuff for plumbing. It works a treat on the inlet end of one of the pumps, very handy.

 

[Benn]

I utilised a 3 way ball valve on a recirculating esky mash tun thing I made a while ago. It worked a treat.
I'll be using them again on the next build.

 

[philistine]

sweet, cheers!
yeah it makes sense to use them, but I just thought Id check to see if there was one of those annoying caveats that made them a bad choice

 

[Moad]

http://www.electric-valve.com/

Ive actually got a few 2 and 3 way valves in 1/2" if you are interested. Left over from my build

 

[MHB]

Just be careful with your planning, there are a couple of things to watch for.
Don't create dead legs that can be hard to clean and that wont drain dry, it's easy to end up with a bit of residual wort or cleaning chemical sitting in a pipe.
Make sure you have some way to remove valves/pumps/sensors... It is easy to paint yourself into a corner when your putting a hard plumbed system together.
You can end up with a situation where to remove the first fitting requires you disassembling the whole system. Unions and tri-clover junctions are well worth looking at.
Mark

 

[TidalPete]

MHB's advice is good philistine.
That old pic of my brewery was a long time ago.
Pretty much my final upgrade (maybe? B)) was finally going all stainless a couple of years ago.
TBPH I modelled my original hard plumbing on Screwtop's system. No idea whether he's improved or upgraded on that?
Onya Screwy! :beer:

PS --- That brew frame is sized to fit into a retirement village lawn locker which has not happened as yet & hopefully never will. :lol: :lol:

 

[philistine]

Thanks for the input guys!
MHB - yeah, "dead legs" were one of the things i was hoping to eliminate by using the 3ways. I also design and install irrigation systems for work so im all too familiar with building stuff and then finding out later (the hard way) that there's no f***ing way to easily service any of it without basically rebuilding the whole f***ing thing [emoji51]
So yeah.... good point......
Heres my heaps science diagram of a possible layout:


Tidal Pete - i was also planning to do it all in stainless. Looking at your hex upgrade - mine looks quite similar (although nowhere near as schmick mind you)
I made it out of two pressed SS tea canisters.
One thing i was curious about with your rig tho, how do you transfer from MLT to BK? Do you just take the BK off the stand and let it drain in/gravity fill?

 

[TidalPete]

That's a negitive philistine.
I pump (March 815 as opposed to the 809 --- More litres\minute)
TidalPete is the one word mate with no gap in-between if you don't mind.?
Everybody seems to have problems with that :lol:

An all-stainless setup is better if you want to avoid problems with a caustic clean.
Think about why commercial rigs go all-stainless & TTBOMK even Braumeister have a little brass (pump) in its setup?
Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong here?

 

[malt junkie]

I have used a 3 way valve in my 1v, basically copied Laels valve setup, which has similarities to you picture, in that it attaches to the base of the pot. Yeah in some ways it's been really good but after 3 years looks like I'll be replacing the ball seats and I'm not sure if the seats I find online will suit.

I suppose the most telling thing would; be would I do it again? Well not convinced I'd be bothered doing a full re-plumb if I can't fix the valve, I'll probably take the easy way out and get another. If I was building from scratch hate to say it but I'd go separate valves, simply down to cleaning.

MJ