Ball valve for SS pots and cleaning regimes?

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shhmanning

Ball valve for SS pots and cleaning regimes?

Post by shhmanning » Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:34 pm

I'm awaiting delivery of my nice shiny pots from catering-services-fr and am looking for a bit of guidance regarding the other bits'n'bobs I'll need to convert them into my new boiler/MT/HLT.

I've noticed in various photos on the forum that lots of people are using some nice chunky looking 3-piece ball valves on their kit. Couple of questions-

1- Where can these be bought and roughly how much would they set me back? They look expensive.......
2- Is the 3-piece design seen as a requirement for brewing kit (i.e. for ease of cleaning and sanitising, etc.) or would it be sufficient to use these from Screwfix? http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/Plu ... Valve-15mm
3- How often do people strip down the pipework on their SS equipment for a thorough clean? Is it necessary to do this after every brew or is it OK to just flush the system through with cleaning solution after use?

Any experiences (good or bad) regarding the above would be most appreciated.

Cheers!!!

S

Scooby

Re: Ball valve for SS pots and cleaning regimes?

Post by Scooby » Thu Jan 07, 2010 7:01 pm

1. BES sell them for about £16

2. No, the screwfix one @ £4, and a SS 2 piece @ £10 will both do the same job, but as you mentioned the 3 piece has the looks :wink:

3. It's important that SS vessels are clean and dry before storage. Complete strip down and reassembly is only required every 4 or 5 brews imo.

shhmanning

Re: Ball valve for SS pots and cleaning regimes?

Post by shhmanning » Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:45 am

Great, thanks for that info Scooby.

Not sure if I'll be able to stretch to the BES valves. Maybe get the ones from Screwfix for now and do some "staged" upgrading whenever I've got a few quid spare.

That's a really good point about making sure the pots are dry before putting them away between brews. I hadn't thought about that :oops:

It'll be interesting to see if anyone else has an opinion on the strip down and reassembly but everyone seems to be pretty quiet at the moment. Oh well................

Thanks again Scooby

S

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Horatio
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Re: Ball valve for SS pots and cleaning regimes?

Post by Horatio » Fri Jan 08, 2010 2:43 am

I take the one out of my boiler after every brew; it makes storage easier for me. As it's out I clean it straight away and then sterilise it before using it again. The ones fitted to my HLT and MT get cleaned in place by running very hot water through followed by a sterilising solution and finally rinsed thouroughly. As these are pre-boil bits of kit I don't suppose they really need the steriliser but I do it anyway. :D
If I had all the money I'd spent on brewing... I'd spend it on brewing!

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