14 replies to this topic

[dagomike]

Doing some cleaning, and finally got my Blichmann "three" piece ball valve full disassembled. The missing tool was a 9/16 deep socket to get the I guess I'd call it the center piece out. This is my only one of these. I kind of bought it as I keep clamping down on my cleaning process. I'm locking down on all parts touching chilled wort/beer, and this goes on the kettle. What's spiffy about it is it easily disassembles for internal cleaning. As an added bonus, you can fully disassemble it to really clean it. That's always a good thing.Anyway... all apart, this sucker has 25 freaken pieces! I probably will only pull the "three" pieces apart after brewing and fulling do it only every once in a while. Otherwise, I'd be certain to lose something. The construction though, unless there's a leak in the valve, nothing is likely to get dirty here anyway.

[BFB]

They are some sweet ball valves though

[onthekeg]

I have those ball valves as well. I have never even took them apart in 3 years of brewing... You want to know a little trick?? Switch the one from the HLT to the boil kettle every now and then. That way anything that is in it is boiled away by the HLT for awhile then I switch back, maybe once a year. I don't worry about infection, I pitch Large!

[dagomike]

I have those ball valves as well. I have never even took them apart in 3 years of brewing... You want to know a little trick?? Switch the one from the HLT to the boil kettle every now and then. That way anything that is in it is boiled away by the HLT for awhile then I switch back, maybe once a year. I don't worry about infection, I pitch Large!

Well, being that close to all those BTUs likely kills anything in there. I'm a clean freak though. Boiling a turd doesn't really work for me.

[onthekeg]

I hear ya. I will RDWHAHB

[Steve Gruver]

I try to disassemble the valves every other brew session and soak in Iodophor.

[japh]

So, are these really that much more sanitary then a ball valve you can't disassemble?

[dagomike]

Well, they're sanitary, meaning it's a fitting designed to be fully cleaned.

[realbeerguy]

This type of ball valve is really a generic three piece. I used to sell these in 1/2 npt for around $20-25. No ball valve is a true "sanitary" due to the fact of the cavities behind the seats and the stem. The only true sanitary valve is a welded end or sanitary fitting (tri-clamp)diaphragm valve. With that said, you can disassemble the Blichman valve for moderate cleaning by removing just 3 of the outer bolts, allowing the center section to swing out and remove the ball & seats for cleaning.The definition of sanitary is that there are no areas where media can collect and stay in the valve.

Edited by realbeerguy, 28 March 2009 - 07:54 PM.

[japh]

This type of ball valve is really a generic three piece. I used to sell these in 1/2 npt for around $20-25. No ball valve is a true "sanitary" due to the fact of the cavities behind the seats and the stem. The only true sanitary valve is a welded end or sanitary fitting (tri-clamp)diaphragm valve. With that said, you can disassemble the Blichman valve for moderate cleaning by removing just 3 of the outer bolts, allowing the center section to swing out and remove the ball & seats for cleaning.The definition of sanitary is that there are no areas where media can collect and stay in the valve.

Are you saying that all of our ball valves on all of our systems aren't sanitary, or do you mean sterile?

[dagomike]

This type of ball valve is really a generic three piece. I used to sell these in 1/2 npt for around $20-25. No ball valve is a true "sanitary" due to the fact of the cavities behind the seats and the stem. The only true sanitary valve is a welded end or sanitary fitting (tri-clamp)diaphragm valve. With that said, you can disassemble the Blichman valve for moderate cleaning by removing just 3 of the outer bolts, allowing the center section to swing out and remove the ball & seats for cleaning.The definition of sanitary is that there are no areas where media can collect and stay in the valve.

Right, a true sanitary fitting would be welded with no where to hide using a tri-clamp. I didn't mean to imply these were the same thing, just that if you disassemble it, it effectively is a sanitary fitting.

Are you saying that all of our ball valves on all of our systems aren't sanitary, or do you mean sterile?

Not sanitary. Lots of places to hide. You can actually take these apart. They're not made to, so they're a bit of a pain, and who knows how many times you can do that before it leaks or something. Soaking in hot PBW I'd think is reasonable, but again, unless it's pulled apart you'll never know.IMO, I think it largely comes down to mileage and luck. If you brew every day, you're much more likely to get a persistent contamination than if you brew every few months, for example. I forget the timeline, but it's not atypical that a new brewery gets a contamination after a few months. Everything is going good until something creeps in. Not a critical deal for homebrewers, but for those who like to geek out and furiously polish their precious.

[realbeerguy]

That's correct. No ball valve can be considered sanitary. You can make it sterile by disasembling & cleaning like Dagomike. But in industrial applications the valve is Cleaned In Place (CIP) and cannot be disasembled. Diaphragm valves and, to a degree, sanitary butterfly valves areused instead. You can get a cavity filled TFE seat for the three piece that will take up some of the void, but you still can have trapped media behind the seat & in the stem area. That's why in local brewpub they will be using 2" Sanitary Butterly valves on their systems. 2" BFV is much cheaper than a 2" Tri-clamp sanitary diaphragm and the smallest BFV is 1.5".The generic three piece & the 2 piece we use on our kettles need to be flushed when cleaning after brewing. I just cycle the valve a few times with PBW & flush and store in the open position. The heat from the boil & running some hot wort thru the valve has not caused me a problem in over 8 yrs of brewing. I do hit the end of the valve with some Iodiphor when transfering out of the kettle.

[dagomike]

Major part geekage.

[realbeerguy]

Major part geekage.

Sorry, didn't see your prior post. Just my background in Chemical & Pharmeceutical valve sales.

[dagomike]

Just impressed by your valve detail...