The instructions on my new Blichmann G2 Boilermaker are pretty explicit when it comes to tightening the valve. Think I can get away with hand tightening this?
“When hand tight, use a wrench on the flats of the valve and a socket and torque wrench on the bulkhead fitting to tighten to 40 ft-lb” :o
Give it a test run with water, both cold and hot. The bulkhead on my newer cooler was fine with cold water, but leaked when hot water was added. I had to drain the water and tighten it before mashing in.
Did you tighten w a torque wrench?
To aproximae 40 ftlbs. Just tighten until there’s blood in your stool and you’ll be close.
My old boss used to say, “tighten it until it breaks and then back off a half a turn.”
40 ft# is fairly tight, but not quite as tight as Jim suggests. A car’s lug nuts are usually about 85 ft# and spark plugs are about 15 if that helps.
Oh are they finally including torque specs? If you don’t have the torque wrench, wrap the threads with teflon tape, tighten to “really snug” and fill with water to ensure it doesn’t leak. Keep your wrench handy, you can always tighten while brewing.
That’s pretty damn funny.
I thought you didn’t want to use Teflon in conjunction with O-rings.
You may be right, without looking at it I’m not sure what piece you are tightening. If it is actually the valve body with the o-ring seal that goes into the kettle, stay away from the tape. If it is the adapter piece that threads to the valve (usually a barb or quick disconnect), use tape.
Bottom of page 3…
http://www.blichmannengineering.com/sites/default/files/BoilerMakerG2%20Owners%20Manual-%20V3.pdf
Definitely no teflon there. You’ll want to make that connection tight. Hold that valve to ensure proper orientation and use a socket on the inside. You’ll like this kettle. I have a couple of the older Boilermakers and they are quite nice. Good choice.
OK, well it’s put together when it ships. I want to clean it first, so I’ll be putting it back together and test w. water (hot and cold) like others have said. As my HLT, I’m not AS concerned as I would be if it were my boil kettle.
Know how to tell you’re gettin’ old?
When it hurts just to read this.
Does anyone know the size of the nut inside this kettle? I don’t have anything close to that size in a standard socket/wrench set.
Also, the only torque wrench available at Lowe’s today was the size of a baseball bat.
Check with your local Harbor Freight store; they’ll have some for a good price. May not be the highest quality, but fine for occasional use.
Did a project on a locomotive, the torque spec for the bolts the held the generator to the frame was 1200 ft-lbs. :o
Tried to get that valve off and wow, it was damn near cemented down. Didn’t bother, but did re-read the manual which mentions just to take the valve apart and clean. After thinking about it, I think they just mean to pull it off (screws off) and wash that part.
I’m going to treat it the same as the MT and soak, rinse through some PBW and Starsan and call it a day.
Time to friggin’ brew already!
This makes me smile. Thanks Jim!
Not enough mention of blood in stool these days, is there?
That sounds like a GM Electro-Motive Division project.
Yes, that was 30 years ago. Time flies.