Well, I FINALLY got my system somewhat repaired and ready to go. Here are some of the things I learned at the teach a friend to homebrew day:
1. I should have gone with 5/8" OD stainless tubing instead of 1/2" due to the cavitation of the pump.
2. The immersion chiller did not work in the 26 gallon kettle. It was like peeing in the ocean to change the salinity.
3. You have to mount your temperature probe low on the HLT because on 5 gallon batches, once you transfer the strike water to the MT, the probe may be (in my case it was) above the water line of the sparge water and you can't use your controller to get the sparge water at the right temp.
4. When using the setup as I have mine configured, you need to drill out the orifice's to around 7/64" to increase the flow to the burners. I may have to reduce that by one or two sizes to decrease the yellow flames on the tips of my kettle burner.
5. You have to make time to run PBW or some other cleaner through your lines and then a sanitizer before you call your brew-day a wrap.
I ended up re-plumbing my lines that ran to the immersion chiller to work on a Blichmann Therminator. I used the SS cam-lok fittings on the therminator and made the wort-in hose long enough so that I can switch it to the wort-out connection to run PBW and sanitizer in a reverse-flow through the Therminator to clean out any stuck grain and such. I'll use the 5' hose that drains the wort into the fermenter on the wort-in line to discharge the PBW water on the ground.
Since I don't have the whirlpool on the IC any longer, I had to make anohter one and connected it to the top inlet on my kettle. Now, both the wort in from the MT during sparge and the whirlpool flow to the bottom of the kettle against the wall which creates the whirlpool effect. Plus, since I won't be gravity feeding my cooled wort into the fermenter any longer, I plugged the hole on that valve and re-plumbed the Blichmann Hop Blocker to work on the main suction of my kettle.
Here are some pics of my final iteration: (I hope it's final)
Blichmann Therminator plumbed with 1/2" silicone hose
Close up showing the cam-lok fittings
How I replumbed the IC lines to work on the Therminator.
The whirlpool and wort line now goes to the bottom of the kettle.
Blichmann Hop Blocker.
Overall view of the silver beast.
I can't brew anything yet because I will most likely go offshore early next week, but when I get back I'll brew something. I think I'm going to do the first one without help, so I don't have a repeat of the brew day at Marcello's. I want to get the kinks worked out before I invite anyone over.
Cheers!!