Hooking Up Ball Valve To Techni-ice Esky

[WarmBeer]

seriously i think the easiest with these esky's is to bypass the bung hole and get your drill on, especially if you plan to use a BB Bulkhead. I've seen it done both ways and imo the drill is the go.

The reason I like the bung-hole (tee-hee-hee :lol: ) idea is that it leaves the esky pretty much intact for use as an... esky.

For another 5-er, I can pick up another bung, and use this baby to keep my homebrew cold at picnics/fishing-trips/concert-recitals/wakes/etc...

 

[glaab]

I thought of doing that but this way did less damage to the esky and was cheaper than a BB doodad. [which I had anyway, it came with the FB kit but I've used on a small esky for partials etc] Plus I wanted the tap on that end of the esky [relative to the way the lid opens] so it would've been off-centre.

edit, slow typer, was replying to fents post#20 of course

 

[Fents]

it will still work as an esky either way.

 

[Fourstar]

For another 5-er, I can pick up another bung, and use this baby to keep my homebrew cold at picnics/fishing-trips/concert-recitals/wakes/etc...

You forgot to add case swaps!

 

[glaab]

you won't need another bung

 

[WarmBeer]

You forgot to add case swaps!

I don't need to bring my own beer to case swaps. I drink yours instead :icon_cheers:

 

[beerDingo]

I've got the 70Litre version. This is not square, it is much wider, and not as deep front-to-back. I just went to Bunnings, and got a bunch of thingy-mabobs. I've then got a little bit of copper in the end of the beerBelly tubing, which then slides into one of the bits of plastic that is sorta screwed into the bung hole. If I'm careful not to pull the falsie out while stiring, it is all fine. It has come out probably 3 times in 1.5 years. One time at a case-swap, and everyone saw me put on my pink washing up gloves, and then get someone to use glad-wrap up my arm to stop hot wort seeping in while re-connecting.

I've been meening to fix it properly, but it has been fine since then.

One of my mates, on the forum, but don't know his handle (and he's away for the next month), just took his esky into a Reece or something, and told them what he wanted to do, and they then found all the bits for him to get a nice seal out of the bung. I've seens Fents, which is pretty good, but I'd go the way that my other mate did, and just take it somewhere and get them to give you all the bits. It is easliy taken apart and used as an esky again without having things sticcking out that can be knocked off by drunk friends.

I was gonna get his receipt and just buy the same parts, to make my one 100% reliable. When he gets back, I'll try and post the details.

 

[WarmBeer]

...I just went to Bunnings, and got a bunch of thingy-mabobs. I've then got a little bit of copper in the end of the beerBelly tubing, which then slides into one of the bits of plastic that is sorta screwed into the bung hole...

Thanks BD; concise, to the point, unambiguous, and totally non-rambling.

 

[glaab]

Thanks BD; concise, to the point, unambiguous, and totally non-rambling.

you gotta expect some drunken ramblings at a HB website :icon_drunk:

 

[Darkman]

I have the 60l version and just bought the following.
1x 25mm-20mm Male -female reducer
1x 20mm-15mm Male-male reducer. (round off the hex part with a grinder)

Screw both reducers together(20mm Male and Female end) cut the plastic mesh out of the esky then screw the reducers into the esky. I use a braided hose so my setup is slightly different but I'm sure it's not that hard to make your setup work from here. You can now screw any 20mm tap into the esky.

 

[beerDingo]

HAHA, no probs!

Was just highlighting that you can pretty much throw anything together.

Thanks BD; concise, to the point, unambiguous, and totally non-rambling.

 

[beerDingo]

I was at work , and not even drunk... Just my normal rambling crap!

you gotta expect some drunken ramblings at a HB website :icon_drunk:

 

[balconybrewer]

so how are people finding these technice's with the BB false bottoms??? any one experimented between a BB FB or a braided / copper manifold. i just purchased the 40l version and tossing up between the 2 solutions............

any advice appreciated, especially from the BB FB users are i ave used slotted copper with braid for a couple of years now with good results.

cheers

(also any pics of the 40lt with a BB FB would be appreciated)

 

[WarmBeer]

Sorry mate, been meaning to update this thread for a while.

I ended up buying the 40 lt Techni-Ice, and the BeerBelly false bottom. I didn't want to damage the esky, so found the appropriate parts for the plumbing at the Big Green Shed (tm). It basically involves a brass threaded reducing bush (1 inch OD, 0.5 inch ID if I remember correctly) to fit the inner diameter of the bung-hole, and a brass barb-tail screwed into the back end of that bush. The pieces aren't designed to fit together that way, but with brass being a little soft it didn't take much to convince them A piece of 1/2 inch all-thread then comes out the front of the reducing bush, and ball valve goes onto that.

I will try to remember to take a photo, plus an exploded view of all the parts, this weekend.

As a mash tun, it is fantastic! I got about a half to one degree temperature loss over a 90 minute period with my last mash. And it was a pretty cold night that night, too.

 

[balconybrewer]

how about effeciency using the BB FB, much better than the braid / manifold option??

 

[WarmBeer]

how about effeciency using the BB FB, much better than the braid / manifold option??

Much better than BIASIAE (Brew In A Sheet In An Esky), which is what I was doing prior to getting the plumbing bits together.

I got ~65% eff into the fermenter on my last brew. Still trying to work some of the kinks out. Didn't hit my mash-out temp, and only did a single batch sparge. If I can get it up to a consistent 70% I'll be happy.

Don't know how some of these guys are getting their claimed 85%+ efficiency, unless they're either measuring eff into the boil, or they're really bad at maths!

 

[balconybrewer]

mmmmmmmm, currently get 78-79% into the fermentor consitently with my dodgy manifold system, might just reuse it unless anyone else can comment on the BB FB results in these setups????

cheers

 

[WarmBeer]

mmmmmmmm, currently get 78-79% into the fermentor consitently with my dodgy manifold system, might just reuse it unless anyone else can comment on the BB FB results in these setups????

cheers

What formula are you using to calculate % eff?

I'm a little lazy, so rather than pull out the calculator, I let BeerSmith work out my actual efficiency once I get my cube full of wort into the fermenter, then base my next brew's efficiency on that figure.

 

[WarmBeer]

:icon_offtopic: One thing I just thought of, I get losses out of the mash tun of about 1 - 1.5 lt due to the way the BB false bottom sits in the base of the tun. With the way the drainage tube works on the BB false, you're always going to lose a bit, as it has to work against gravity a little bit.

I also lose a litre and a bit to the kettle, as I don't want to suck up too much hop and break after I whirlpool.

Adding these 2 volumes together (~2.5 lt total) and divide it by my current batch size (16 lt cube from a FWK), explains why I'm not getting to my 70% eff. If I were targetting a 23lt batch, these 2 "constant" volumes would consistute a smaller relative loss, hence a higher % efficiency into the fermenter.

Amazing what you can figure out on a Friday afternoon when you're bored and looking for excuses not to work. :icon_cheers:

[Edit: Clarification]

 

[seemax]

The small batches are working against us.

How did we not realise the efficiency anomaly before - I blame your collection of funky belgians and toucans!!!