Food Grade Hosing? Where To Get It?

[winkle]

There is some re-enforced clearish food grade hose you can also get from Bunnings. You can see the re-enforcing braid running around the hose. I found that this didn't work for hot wort. The inner core delaminated from the outer casing and collapsed. Took me a while to figure out what was going on. The hose looked fine on the outside but the pump was being starved. What made it even worse was that it was difficult to see the delamination when the hose cooled down.

I was using this stuff (maybe a year?) and had the same thing happen. Wasn't using it on a pump though, just gravity feeds. Now using the silicon and loving it.
2 cents

 

[Sammus]

ive got a bit of it too. It's good because it cant kink or collapse either, even less prone to it than silicone. The wire does mean it keeps its shape a bit if you bend it, and I went through a stage of using barbs and worm clamps for all my hoses. i find it can be pretty difficult to get the hose off some barbs.. That said though, its damn cool looking hose, and still a good choice.

 

[JasonY]

I used the blue drinking water stuff and had no worries but it was a pain to work with as it was quite rigid except when hot. Never had it collapse on me with a march pump. Since moving to th US I have gone silicon and it is brilliant stuff, a good investment. I would buy the good stuff now.

 

[justsomeguy]

Interesting to hear you say that gary because I've used both the blue and the clear reinforced hoses regularly on both sides of the (march) pump with near boiling liquids with no issues? I guess where the pump is situated in the brewery could have quite an effect on this...

I had a short length of the blue stuff going from the output of the kettle to the pump. As the hose gets hot it becomes really soft. I found that the suction created by the pump was enough to suck the hose flat to the point where no wort was being pumped. The re-enforced stuff was better for a short while until it delaminated.


Just a tip for those having problems with very stuff rolled up hose. Chuck the lot in the sun for a while and it will start to soften up a bit. Then stretch it out across your backyard with a brick holding each end down. Let it heat up for a while in the sun and it should be a lot softer and easier to work with. Works wonders when laying out soaker hose before putting it in the garden as well.

gary

 

[pokolbinguy]

Just a tip for those having problems with very stuff rolled up hose. Chuck the lot in the sun for a while and it will start to soften up a bit. Then stretch it out across your backyard with a brick holding each end down. Let it heat up for a while in the sun and it should be a lot softer and easier to work with.

Yep this is the key to getting your hose straight if it tends to coil all the time. Great if your garden hose starts to make a mess. A day in the sun quickly fixed it and makes it easy to coil back up nice and neat.





Back to the main topic, thanks for the input so far guys, I like the look of the hosing from beerbelly (Helical Wire wound PVC hosing ). But seeing the long distance I want to plumb could be pricey. But then again you only do this once...well thats the thought

Pok

 

[enoch]

The stuff I use is a pale blue reinforcedNylex hose that is rated for 80ish Bunnings used to sell it but stopped.
Works fine on the suction side but if it knks when it really hot it a buger to get the kink out.

 

[goatherder]

Sorry, but I haven't read most of the thread (it's kind of late) but I'm going to put my 2c worth in anyway.

Pok, I use the reinforced PVC stuff (food and petrol safe) from Clark Rubber. It's in the $3-$5 per metre range from memory. It's not rated to boiling but I put up to those temps on brewdays and haven't had any problems thus far (approx 20 brews). The reinforcing stops kinking. I've used the blue drinking water hose before and this is way better. I got it from the Singo store - they usually have it in stock.

 

[simpletotoro]

dunno if it helps...i got my hosing from "clark rubber"
cheers ST

 

[winkle]

dunno if it helps...i got my hosing from "clark rubber"
cheers ST

Ooops thought that you'd said ""DARK RUBBER"" for a moment, sorry its late.

 

[Ross]

Just be careful with so called "food grade" hosing guys. A lot of it is only rated to certain temperatures, above this level all sorts of nasties can be leached out. Hosing that can handle high temps safely is generally expensive for a reason.
I'm equally careless in my set up, for transfer tubes etc... it's something I intend to address.

Cheers Ross

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Occassionally when the subject of 'food grade' comes up, I spend a bit of time doing *cough* basic research *cough* into what that actually means.

I'd love to be able to find an official definition of the term and then a product whose manufacturer openly claims to comply.

Thinking that I knew better, for a couple of brews I syphoned hot wort through Bunnings PVC hose. It didn't take long for it to lose a lot of its flexibility - which I guess went into my beer - and its colour, which I couldn't boil out. Nowadays, everything hot goes through a length of silicon hose on the basis that (I think) it is heat stable to quite high temperatures. But I am assuming it is the same material they make oven trays out of.

What do real breweries use?

 

[sathid]

I would think it means that it doesn't impart any flavour or chemicals to the food.

There would be an Australian Standard (or possibly CE) floating around somewhere I'm sure.