Best deals on brew stand parts

[aleguy]

We have learned a lot about building RIMS in the DYS over many years and multiple generations of systems. so I thought I would include a few general "rules of thumb" for those who are just getting started designing their own:
1) Keep it low! generally the burner top height should be between 16" and 22" from the ground. A lot of the first generation RIMS used commercial two-burner cooktops as the starting point and they have proven to be too high for comfortable brewing.
2) Put all of your controls together in one place! putting your burner gas valves next to your electronics and switches makes it much easier to brew. Pilot burner controls may be place near the individual burners since they generally only need to be adjusted during lighting.
3) Always keep the intake side of your March pumps pointing straight down! This makes cavitation less of a problem.
Other tips: Put a bleed valve on your kettle fitting to make priming your pumps a snap. (I like the stainless ones from Swagelock)
The 1/4" 8262 Asco valves are dirt cheap on ebay and work very well.
Try to minimize the number of loose or exposed wiring on your system. Ideally, only the main power cord and the temperature probe wiring would be visible during brewing.
See as many other working systems in operation as possible before building your own. Steal the best ideas for yourself and avoid things that work poorly or not at all.

Parts:
Okay, I was posting the various links individually and they have sort of gotten lost, so I'm putting them in one place. When I have bought one over another, it is the first link listed.
Burners:

rose burner:
http://www.agrisupply.com/product.asp?pn=30295

10-inch Banjo:
http://www.agrisupply.com/bg-high-press ... n/5400000/

Pilots:
Pex supply keeps moving the address of these pilots. Just enter pilot burner in the search if the right page doesn't come up.
http://www.pexsupply.com/Honeywell-Q314 ... -4113000-p

Automatic pilot relighters:
http://www.amazon.com/Robertshaw-785-00 ... +relighter

Controllers:
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page ... ucts_id=14

http://www.virtualvillage.com/PID%20Dig ... 001480-138

http://www.dwyer-inst.com/Products/Prod ... e=Ordering

Temperature Probes:
(I decided to go with Auber Instruments because the temperature probes are stainless and screw in.)
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_ ... b97c29979b

Timer: Unfortunately, this needs a 12VDC power supply which would also require a rectifier.
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_ ... 215c55f82f

Needle valves: It turns out that Guidry's hardware on Jefferson has the best deals of all on these. 20/20 hindsight.

http://www.bigway.com/CARTgallery6.htm

3-way ball valves:
Maybe not the best deals around, but if you need them you need them.
These turned out to be in the wrong configuration for me. They are L not T.
http://www.globalindustrial.com/gcs/pro ... paignId=WI

I bought these and they are perfect. The only snag is the shipping department left the handles out of the box, but a quick call to customer service cleared it up.
http://www.valvestore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=536602

http://www.sk-automation.com/ballvalve/ ... valve.html

Bleeder valves: ???

http://oem.cadregister.com/asp/PPoW_Ent ... er=SS-4PM8

This is the only source I have found so far. They don't appear to be sold online.

http://www.swagelok.com/distributors/cu ... &LangCD=EN

Chugger pumps are virtually identical to the same pumps from morebeer, but cheaper. Your best value is for the ones with stainless heads.
http://www.chuggerpumps.com/product.php?prodid=196

Sanitary quick disconnects in 1/2" size.

http://store.proflowdynamics.com/module ... el_C68.cfm

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/advanced_ ... s=cam+lock

Recessed male outlet:

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-4937-Weat ... B00074USHY

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpS ... site=10026

This is called a propane plug adapter. All I know is it makes switching propane tanks a breeze with no wrench required.

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-59203-Propa ... 67&sr=8-52

Fittings and parts: I have not used this company but have seen it suggested by other home brewers. Fair warning. Please let me know your experiences if you do buy from them.

http://www.buyfittingsonline.com/

[aleguy]

The farther along I get in building this thing, the more I find I need that I didn't anticipate. While this is a budget build, I think it will represent the state of the art when it's finished. slow and steady brews the beer.

[aleguy]

Ouch! The temperature probes just took a spike in price. They do have a new timer at Auber that looks like it might be useful.

[aleguy]

If anyone else has any useful inks to add to this thread, please don't hesitate to do so.

[david79thomas]

Some of these links are expired and are no more good.
Burners
http://www.kitchensupplydirect.com/THU-IRBR002CL.html
Pilots
http://www.pexsupply.com/product_dtl.as ... ll&cID=286
Controllers
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page ... ucts_id=14

Do you remember what they were for? And maybe post a new link?

[redtail28]

As far as burners go, i tryed all of them.
Multi jet (good eye candy), rose bud (cheapest and work good)
and my favorite the 10 inch banjo burner for my boil pot. All of these
can be found locally. Yeasteister is the only brewer thats has
had good luck with the muti jets burners.
There's a hardware store in Church Point that have
all of the burners in stock. I can look up the store if your
intersted.
Prices
multi jet $38 to 50 and on up
Rose bud $ 7 to 20 (these burners are your common
crawfish burners)
Banjo burner $ 38 to58 and on up
hope this makes since

[aleguy]

Okay, I checked the links David and the Auber link seems to still be good. The Pex supply link is changed and should take you right there now. I don't know what happened to kitchen supply. They may no longer be in business or their website may just be down. I got my burners from Agri supply, but with kettles as large as yours I would definitely recommend the big banjo burners. Redtail can point you to the best price on them. He spent a lot of time shopping around for them.

[david79thomas]

I already have those banjo burners. All I need is pilot lights and a way to enclose the controllers. Also find some Asco valves. I believe they are 8210. I ordered 3 temp controllers and 3 probes so it's nice and neat. The third will be just to have a temp reading for the boil.

[aleguy]

Most of us have used a modified irrigation control box. I haven't decided what I'm going to use yet, but I'll have a few more gizmos in mine than the other guys. Again the Ascos are to be found on Ebay. They don't have to be 8210s. mine are something else. I got 4 of them and a lot of junk and a few other valves in a job lot for $30 shipped.
Redtail has been using one of them, and it's been working just fine for him. (He has a HERMS so he only needs one temp control.
The pilots I revised the link to, so you should have no trouble finding them. Those pilots will screw directly to 1/4" Swagelok fittings with a 1/4" compression x 1/4" FPT fitting. Just make sure you break off the compression ring that comes with the pilot because the standard rings are too long and they turn sideways when you screw the fitting in.

[aleguy]

Finally! I ordered my 3-way ball valves from Industrial Automation. (The first ones i ordered were not the right configuration. Oops.) My online order wouldn't go through and I had to do it through customer service, but They should be on the way. Yippee!

[GuitarLord5000]

Temperature Probes: (I decided to go with Auber Instruments for obvious reasons)

For the uninitiated, what's the obvious reasons?

And for the ASCO valves, would this work?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... SI:US:1123
From what I gather these are Air/Water valves with these specs:
110/120:VOLT COIL, 50/60:HERTZ, 1/4" X 1/4"FPT CONNECTION, 5-125 PSI RANGE, 6.5W 2-TERM
But it's all greek to me.

BTW, thanks for the post. It's very very helpful!

[aleguy]

Those valves might work, but we all have red hat valves. Those don't look very water resistant. I got four 1/4" red hat 8262 valves in a big "box o' junk" on ebay for $30. I was led to believe there were a whole lot more working valves than there were. mostly it was just junk parts. Any way, the gist of this is, keep looking. with enough patience, you will find the right valves at the right price.
As fart as the obvious reasons for going with the Auber stuff, the temperature probes are stainless and liquid tight, meaning they screw into a tee or cross fitting (with a bushing because of the size difference, 1/4"-1/2".) they also have quick-disconnect plugs on the wires. Love controllers probes require a thermowell, and are notorious for giving false readings if they get bumped and come partly out of the thermowell.

[GuitarLord5000]

Thanks for the info! From what I gather, the RTD probes are supposed to be more accurate too. Definitely sounds like the way to go.
Any chance you'll be posting pics of your in-progress build?

Cheers,
Dave

[yeastmeister]

Just to clarify a few things. While I do believe Aleguys probes will work fine, we haven't tried them in the real world yet.

The Love controllers use thermistor probes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermistor)

The Auber probes are RTD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_thermometer)

While they both work similar, thermistor probes should have a faster response time, and be better at detecting small temperature changes. However, for what we are using them for, I doubt that level speed and sensitivity is needed.

I should mention, that the probes are not interchangeable between the 2 different types of controllers.

Love does sell a controller that is compatible with the Auber probes however. Its the series 40-T (http://www.dwyer-inst.com/Products/Product.cfm?Group_ID=20143). However, as with the probes themselves, at this time, we haven't tried that controller either. It should work however.

[GuitarLord5000]

Just want to say thanks again for all the information. I picked up two of these Red Hats:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0306915261
I probably should have asked if they would work well for this application first, but I figured they'd do. Only now I'm wondering if 1/8" is too small of a valve size.
If they will work, and if anyone is looking for a couple ASCO's on the cheap, this buyer accepted my offer of $4 per valve for two of them. Got 'em for $12 each shipped.