The 10 gal. pot with no rubber on the valve handle apparently has a bad valve now. Was gonna use it today, valve is seized up, tried hot water and scrubbing it out to no avail.
Sat, Apr 26, 2014 - 10:10pm
#1
Bad Valve on 10 gal pot
While we were working on the new pots, Jamie and I disassembled that valve. It was an unholy mess of burnt awfulness inside. I was able to get the bulkhead cleaned out, but the valve is still a disaster. I left the valve soaking in PBW to see if that will soften the gunk inside the valve, but we may need to just get a new valve. Fortunately, I had some leftover shim washers and o-rings from the new pots, so we'll be able to put that pot back together pretty easily once the valve is cleaned out or we get a new valve.
You'll have to show me how the valves come apart so next time I encounter such an issue I can take action my self. Thanks for working on it.
Perhaps we should start having quarterly maintenance parties or something. Especially to keep the new pots in tip top shape.
Absolutely a great idea, Joe. I hadn't even considered cleaning inside of the valves until Ken brought it up in a message a couple weeks ago. If we give the inside of the valves a good scrubbing once a quarter, I bet we can avoid situations like this one.
Another idea, perhaps we could keep a binder somewhere with step by step pictorials on how to clean stuff or perform basic maintenance on stuff. I do 90 min boils, It would be real easy to grab a pot or mash tun and disassemble it and clean it. A binder would allow those so inclined to perform a wide variety of maintenance tasks during their mashes or boils and sign and date it, this would have two benefits, we could have a clear record of when stuff was cleaned and serviced so we would know when it needs to be done again, and we would have a record of who is doing it which would feed in to the various incentive programs other folks have proposed.
I love that idea.
Thanks, I'll see if I can make it happen
When I was at the brewhouse tonight Chuck happened to be there and investigated the valve a bit more...it seems as though the rubber gasket on the inside just completely melted.
Chuck had a good idea of ordering 4 more of the valve we just purchased and retrofit both of Fresh's 15 Gallon Pots and our 2 ten gallon pots so we are completely standardized.
I can create a new brewhouse project for replacing the valves on the existing pots. Should be a bit less than $100 if we are replacing only the valves. If we're replacing the valves and the bulkheads (the part inside the pot plus the washer/o-rings), it'll be around $160. Based on Mark's comments in the Blichmann burner thread, this project will probably have to wait until after Cinco.