I see that blichmann is selling their linear flow valve ala carte. Granted, $69.99 is a lot of money for a valve, but it is a neat design.
I’ve seen them on a few sites in the past couple of months. I know a few people that have them, and all seem pleased.
Mine is on its way from Great Fermentations. I plan to retro fit onto my older gen BoilerMaker mash tun. Pretty excited to get it. I talked to John about in at NHC in San Diego. Pricey, yes, but I’d like better control, particularly out of the mash tun to boil copper during sparge. I hope this does it. Not sure it makes sense on the other pots (HLT, boil copper).
I really like mine. You may need to make marks on the knob if you’re looking to replicate a certain setting each time. The design is simple and quite brilliant, it disassembles without tools in a few seconds. Only real con is that it wouldn’t be a great emergency shutoff valve.
I just like how simple the valve is from a design point of view. It has to be amazingly simple to clean. Do you know if the bulkhead connector bottoms out in the valve?
I haven’t inspected very closely. I imagine you of all people would use a welded version, so I guess it would depend on the length of the nipple.
I definitely prefer welded to weldless, but I am thinking about building a all-in-one setup for my 3.5-gallon batches using a 120V 20A Boil Coil, and that’s a non-welded fitting electric element; therefore, I might as well save a trip to the welder. My starting volume is 4.5-gallons at most most of time, so the 120V 20A coil should do the job for that size batch. I have a larger kettle and propane stove for larger batches.
I can peak at one on Sunday, but I’m sure somebody else will chime in before I do.
The old Blichmann valve/bulkhead assembly used a washer and a kept o-ring in addition to the valve and the bulkhead. Is there a washer and kept o-ring on the G2 configuration? It appears that the o-ring on the back of the valve body has eliminated the need for this washer and o-ring.