I’ve seen PVC free hose material sold online. What’s the point? Has anyone here upgraded original tubing they received in a kit for any reason?
I’ve never dealt with a kit, but I swear by silicone tubing. It is far superior to other materials. The biggest characteristic for me is ease of handling. I could never get the other tubing stay where I want it.
I like the silicon but it is expensive. I got some once but the next time I needed hose I didn’t. it was like 2 or 3 times more than the vinyl stuff.
+1. I have one piece of silicone tubing on my mash tun valve. Pretty pricey.
Will PVC cause problems in lab rats or something?
Well, if one is going to be recirculating hot/boiling wort then silicone is a wise investment. It will handle the temps better and won’t be leaching anything into the wort.
It is certainly more expensive but IMO not prohibitively so. I got mine from: BrewHardware.com - High end, practical homebrewing hardware, accessories and ingredients for making beer, wine, mead, and cider.
At $2.39/foot, I ordered (as I recall) 12’ (so about $30) which gives me three lengths: 2 with stainless fittings on both ends for attaching to the kettle’s cam locks and pump, and another with just one gravity fed applications. One of the less esxpensive items I use to brew with.
I hope not. A great deal of houshold plumbing and potable water systems are constructed with PVC these days.
One problem I have with silicone tubing is its flexibility. When hot, it may be too flexible for use as a pump suction line. Since I RIMS, that is a deal killer for me. I use the reinforced vinyl tubing since it is more rigid. I do pre-boil my tubing to ‘help’ volatilize the plasticizers and methyl ethyl death from the tubing before initial use.
I am using thermoplastic hoses on the hot side. Got it from Northern Brewer, cheaper than silicone.
This is my biggest complaint - it can kink / contract near the barb when its on the suction side of the pump. PITA, but since I bought $40 worth of tubing, I’ll use it until it needs replaced…
a peristaltic pump is one use I have been thinking about with the silicon. I saw something about it on homebrewtalk at one point but I couldn’t find it the last time I looked.
They guy built one out of a cake pan, some skateboard wheels and other assorted gear. Silicon would be ideal for that because of it’s softness and durability when it comes to repeated bending and squeezing.
Looking into this further, I came across this today. Anyone interested in this type of tubing over PVC?
OR maybe I’ll just go silicon tubing, which I see on some of the homebrew sites online.
I have never had this problem. I use a pump from the boil to the plate chiller too. It is described as heavy wall tubing on the seller’s website. Maybe that is the difference?
I’ve purchased 2 types of silicone hose both with 1/2" ID but one is heavy duty with a thicker wall that doesn’t pinch when used as a pump pick-up.
love
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Bumping this up as I’m considering upgrading from vinyl tubing. Anyone care or concerned with using vinyl? I’m probably overreacting, but you sometimes read potential issues with the stuff. Of course, it’s not like the beer is sitting in the tubing for months on end.
I buy Silicone Hosing by the spool. its MUCH cheaper. I dislike the PVC stuff because it discolors if it gets hot, which means its not universally usable on my system.
I use silicone tubing for all my tubing. Be it hot side with my pumps or chiller or cold side for racking tubing on an auto siphon. I’ve never needed to replace them either… If I ever suspect questionable sanitation on one I just coil it up and run it through the pressure cooker.
I love my silicone tubing. I even use the 3/8" tubing on my mash tun. I use the stuff from B3, non-reinforced. To clean my 1/2" ID tubing, I attach a small brush to a 48" long 1/4" maple dowel and run the brush all the way through the tubing after a 1hr soak in Oyclean.
I’ve never had a problem with the tubing collapsing on the intake side of my March pump. B3 says magnetic pumps aren’t a problem with the standard silicone tubing. For a true impeller pump however the recommend reinforced silicone tubing which they also sell.
Never had a problem pumping hot wort thru silicon tubing. How High is the pump? I mounted mine below the BK and my cavitation problems went away. 1/2" ID silicon tubing fits tight around the 1/2" NPT cam-lock fittings (www.bargainfittings.com)for max flow. And an Oetiker clamp insures it wont come off.
I’m looking for 3/16"ID hose that’s more flexible then the crap vinyl tubing from Home Depot. Anyone know what I’m talking about?