How is everyone doing? I’ve been brainstorming lately on how to hook up the chilling coil my Spike fermenter more effectively. Right now I have the standard Spike 90 degree quick disconnects from the chill coil and then just vinyl tubing to my homemade glycol chiller. After the first few times using this system I recognized the need for an easy way to disconnect the chiller from he rest of the chilling system for cleaning. I’ve been trying to find some type of quick disconnects with a shutoff that I could put inline between the chill coil and chiller line that when disconnected wouldn’t leak glycol. This would allow me to disconnect the chiller coil and give it a good scrub without having to awkwardly position the chiller with the lines connected to be able to clean it.
Has anyone come up with something? I’ve thought about hard lines attached to the wall with some plastic shutoff valves you can find at a hardware store but would like to keep it more mobile. I came across the disconnects on SS Brewtech but don’t really want to have to by the whole kit.
Those Grainfather QD(s) remind me of Hansen fittings commonly used in hydraulic applications. Ball lock and self sealing. I have them on my tractor front end loader.
Denny, Do they close when disconnected on both fittings or just one? I would only need one side if I could hook those up to reservoir on the chiller side and then the chilling coil/hose have would be sealed and able to get dragged around to the appropriate place for cleaning.
Denny, Do they close when disconnected on both fittings or just one? I would only need one side if I could hook those up to reservoir on the chiller side and then the chilling coil/hose have would be sealed and able to get dragged around to the appropriate place for cleaning.
I bought some brass self sealing couplers at Lowe’s several years ago. They might still have them. I have one on my slop sink in the brewery so that I can change between a faucet connector and/or my brewery cleaning spray hose. They have a female garden hose thread on one end that you can adapt to a hose barb with a few extra parts. You might look there if you are in a hurry to get this project completed.
McMaster Carr has some options (Try P/N 5012K116 at mcmaster.com) Grainger has a bunch too. Colder is a company that makes some, you can look for ones with a shutoff to prevent leaking.