Making a new copper manifold

It's time to upgrade my mash tun so I hafta make a new manifold. I've heard that if you fill the copper tubing with sand and cap the ends it'll bend with no kinks. My current manifold ended up with a few, nothing terrible but I'd like this one to come out better. Any advice on the subject, sand method or any other you guys have used.

You don't need to bend copper for a manifold. Most just use straight tubing with elbow or 45 degree fittings.

I use the igloo round water jugs so I need the manifold to be circular.

Cposten said:

I use the igloo round water jugs so I need the manifold to be circular.

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Sorry, forgot to mention that in the original post.

I used copper in my 10 gal igloo cooler and just made a square manifold with 4 rows of piping.

You can use a combination of 45s, 90s, and Tees to make a roundish manifold. Or you can do a square one. Mine is square. I think Palmer's book has a whole section on designing them. He has a bunch of different options.

Mine is soldeered, but many people don't even bother soldering them so they are easy to clean.

CraigT said:

I used copper in my 10 gal igloo cooler and just made a square manifold with 4 rows of piping.

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Is it one like this:
http://www.igloo-store.com/detail/IGL+5G+YELLOW

Or like this:
http://www.igloo-store.com/detail/IGL+52QT+FAMILY+BL

Like I said I use the first link. I've read on building them and everything says that a square manifold in a circular tun leads to poor efficiency. Not interested in a square tun, like the more compact base area of the round tuns.

I got a bending tool at Home Depot, basically just a heavy spring that slid over the tube. I think it cost me like $10 or so, though memory clouds. Simple to use and I got some tight curves with it.

I don't want to argue with your design, but I regularly get 85-90% efficiency with a square manifold in a round cooler. Read the Palmer how to.

Awesome. Looks like a trip to the Home Depot tomorrow.

No worries. To each his own. I started with that (Internet version, don't know if there is a paper version) and other things I read all pointed to circular. I might just dish out the extra cash and convert my old one to rectangular. 80-90% it's worth a shot.

If you're doing batch sparging, it really doesn't make that much difference. The shape is only critical if you're doing fly sparging.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/copper-manifold-6422.html

I had to buy a coil when I made this one so I made a few extra with the leftover material. PM me if you're interested in buying one. I could run my mash tun out, with the pump full open, in about a minute and never stuck a sparge.

lpdjshaw said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/copper-manifold-6422.html

I had to buy a coil when I made this one so I made a few extra with the leftover material. PM me if you're interested in buying one. I could run my mash tun out, with the pump full open, in about a minute and never stuck a sparge.

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She's a beaut. Appreciate the offer but went out and made a new tun yesterday. If anybody is interested the whole sand thing worked perfectly. Capped it, bent it around a post and sliced it. Definitely would recommend it.

You can buy copper in a round coil no bending necessary you can buy it home depot or Lowes comes in several sizes