I am new to all grain but excited to start and had a question. I recently purchased the SSbrewtech 5 gallon all grain system along with a couple of pumps. The system comes with a sparge arm and I purchased the vorlauf attachment in the hopes of increasing the efficiency of the system. However, my question is the mash out step. Could I utilize the sparge arm and vorlauf to skip the mash out and begin sparging/recirculation?
Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
I don’t do a mash out and my beers are passable. It’s not required
If its going to be easy to heat your wort to perform a mashout step with this new system, I do recommend it. But if its a PITA, then there is no problem with skipping it.
There is no need for a sprinkler in your system, as long as there is some wort depth over the grain bed. A lot of brewers place a hose on top of the bed and just let it flow. Others include a floating cap over the wort with some sort of port that allows the return flow to get under the cap. The cap reduces oxygen contact and reduces heat loss.
Yup. I vorlauf with a pump onto a sheet of foil with holes poked in it. I toss it when I’m done. I have heat, so I can and have done a mash out.
In my opinion, the best reason for a mash out would be in a low gravity beer if I was mashing high and wanting to lock it in, especially if it might sit a while before the boil.
Not to mention foam positive proteins that are created in this step. 
This ^^^^
I do a rest @ mashout temps. The gains on the foam can’t be understated.
I’ve read about positive impact on the final beer so yesterday, I lautered then added ~170*F batch sparge liquor and let it sit ~ 20/30 min before lauter again. We’ll see how it turns out.
Did you get the grainbed to 170+?
Oops. Yes, that’s what I meant. I should have said I added ~185F liquor to get the grain bed to ~170F instead of adding 170*F liquor.
A good 10 minute rest there would be fine.