New MT finally used

[lord groan]

I posted about my new smaller MT build here; viewtopic.php?f=6&t=77721

After the initial build I found I was getting a few degrees of heat loss over an hour (using only hot water for an initial test) so I modified it to use a plastic tank connector, pipe and valve in order to reduce heat loss through conduction along the brassware. I've now used it for real 3 times. The first time was a real faff. All went well until I tried to recirculate the first few jugfuls of wort to separate the grain husk that had got through to the outlet. The HEP20 tank connector was great but the appliance valve blocked immediately, it turns out it has a basic grill inside it next to the ball. I presume it keeps the mechanism in place, unfortunately it catches all the bits that come through and jams up instantly. So I tipped out the mash into a clean fermenting bin and quickly replaced the tap with the previous metal ball valve I'd used originally.
Mash went back in, recirculated and drained, sparging went well and I finally got the wort into the boiler. Then the boiler tap leaked.....
Anyway the next two brews went smoothly. I've checked the before and after mash temperature each time using a glass Brannan thermometer marked in single degrees. With a 60 minute mash and a preheated tun I couldn't detect any temperature loss at all. Although the valve is brass I'm still using the plastic tank connector and 15mm pipe, the valve definitely feels warmish to the touch but I'm chuffed to bits with the heat retention of the tun.
Too soon to say how any of the brews will turn out, 2 are bottled and the most recent has finished fermenting and is dry hopping for a couple more days.

Morals: Don't use those plastic appliance valves & check the boiler tap doesn't leak before you begin.
Cheers

[Fil]

Good to read your sorting out the teething issues,

you may be suffering from the large holes in the colander FB employed letting too much grain through initially, a grain bag liner to the tun could sort that out

if worried about heat loss through a large metal bodied valve buy some oversized closed cell pipe insulation 28mm should wrap round the body of most 1 piece ball valves
fwiw i had a brass tank connector and a short length of copper tube before a 15mm compression ball valve on my ol cold box tun and while i would insulate the valve and tube, i never suffered any significant temp drop in my tun over 90 mins..