How long's your hose?

I have a Coleman cooler mash tun and after 15 batches the braided steel hose looks like heck. It’s got kinks and dents and other damage. It is the length of the cooler and obviously I stir too hard. Does it have to be that long?  How do you keep it on the bottom and not kink it?  I’m going to replace it and just want to get it right this time.
Thanks

I don’t think you need it that long. I use the Coleman Xtreme 70 qt cooler, and started with a braid that was about 2/3 the length of the cooler. Like yours, it got beat up with all the stirring, etc. So I cut it down so it’s just longer than the drainage channel at the bottom of the cooler. I haven’t noticed any difference in speed of runoff, stuck sparges, etc.

Does it still work?

If so,why change it?

I’ve got a bazooka screen in mine that’s a little less than half the length of the cooler.  Works fine and is completely undamaged after 34 batches.

Tom’s exactly correct.  I just did the 401st batch with the same braid.  It looks terrible, but works great.  As to length, a few inches is plenty.  And just to be clear, I’m talking about braid…:wink:

Cut it in half.

Pragmatism in action!

Aw Shucks. I learned it from you, Denny ;D

Recently I cut a section off my original beat-up braid to make another for my 2 gal mini-mash tun. It hasn’t affected anything performance wise on my 70qt tun. I actually think you could have some sort of nubbin-braid and it would still work for batch sparging.

Because when I vorlauf and things are running perfectly clear and I hit the 10 quart mark, I start to get grain chunks again.  It’s happened 3 times in a row now.  It seems that once it hits a certain point it must release the suction on the husks covering the hole or something and then I start to get problems.  I “re-vorlauf” and eventually I’m good but it’s a pain.

Uh huh…  It’s always the guys with short hoses that say, “It’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean!”  :wink:

i thought you said nose.  maybe i should still cut it i half ;D