{"id":68,"date":"2012-02-14T08:38:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T08:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2012-02-14T08:38:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T08:38:55","slug":"blichmann-quickconnector-stainless-steel-fittings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/equipment\/blichmann-quickconnector-stainless-steel-fittings\/","title":{"rendered":"Blichmann QuickConnector Stainless Steel Fittings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years I’ve had a fleeting love affair with the idea of switching my homebrew setup to use all tri-clover fittings. \u00a0The theory is that doing so would ensure that there was not place for beer spoiling organisms to take hold on the cold side and ruin my beer. \u00a0Each time I dove in to plan out the changes I ran into two major problems. \u00a0The first was the obvious problem that switching over all my fittings would cost a princely sum. \u00a0Each hose would require two barbed tri-clover ends and each vessel or pump would need some as well. \u00a0My rough cost always penciled out to $250.<\/p>\n

The less obvious issue was that since many of my components were threaded already (e.g. the March pump and ball valves on the Blichmann Boilermaker) then switching to a tri-clover fitting had minimal benefit. \u00a0The threads themselves potentially harbor the wort spoilers. \u00a0Threading a tri-clover fitting onto the existing components didn’t really improve the situation other than just looking cool.<\/p>\n

So for a long time I simply used brass hydraulic hose quick disconnects (email me<\/a> if you want more details.) \u00a0Well I ultimately decided to get rid of the brass but still stick with fittings that took minimal effort to connect and disconnect. \u00a0My first attempt was the original Blichmann quick disconnect fittings. \u00a0They did just fine but got too hot to touch when recirculating the mash or boiling wort. \u00a0Well John Blichmann<\/a>\u00a0once again read my mind when he improved his quick disconnect fittings.<\/p>\n

Recently\u00a0Blichmann Engineering<\/a> started offering the Blichmann QuickConnector Stainless Steel Fittings. \u00a0Basically they are silicone coated nut over various tail pieces to meet your needs:<\/p>\n

\"Blichmann<\/a><\/p>\n

I swapped out all my brass quick disconnects to these because I have more confidence that heat will sanitize the tailpiece and silicone O-ring assembly compared to the brass quick disconnect. \u00a0Additionally the silicone ensures that I’m able to quickly switch my hoses without burning my fingers.<\/p>\n

Compared to the previous quick disconnectors the obvious benefit is the silicone that makes it more comfortable to use with bare hands. \u00a0The less obvious change is that the silicone O-ring stays with the nut and tailpiece fitting much more solidly. \u00a0Previously I had to watch out for the O-ring falling out and had to store them separately. \u00a0Overall the new QuickConnector fittings are winners.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the tri-clover fittings, given that I have to have threaded connectors on the cold side of my brew setup anyway the tri-clovers simply aren’t worth it. \u00a0If I were building a nano-brewery I’d weld in threadless fittings on each vessel and on the pumps but that’s not an option. \u00a0As a result the Blichmann connectors are the right balance of features for homebrewing. \u00a0My only reservation is that when you include the tailpieces they retail for around $15 a piece, which seems too steep to me. \u00a0I went ahead and plonked down the cash but honestly think that the right price point is closer to $10 for a pair. \u00a0Hopefully John will get to this point as he increases the scale of manufacturing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years I’ve had a fleeting love affair with the idea of switching my homebrew setup to use all tri-clover fittings. \u00a0The theory is that doing so would ensure that there was not place for beer spoiling organisms to take hold on the cold side and ruin my beer. \u00a0Each time I dove in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,16,18],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equipment","tag-blichmann-engineering","tag-connectors","tag-homebrewing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/p065b_11.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slobrewer.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}