Recent content by Duda_Energy

Depends on the concentration of the acid. A really weak acid might take overnight, would be easy to handle, but then you are also exposing the entire unit to acid overnight. My personal prefernce is a relatively strong acid, applied directly to the rust, and then wiped right back off. Like...

Vinegar if you want to go the safe route, phosphoric acid (coca cola) if you want to go faster but also more risk to the unit. Both of them will eat the scale deposits, both of them will then move on to eating copper (just far slower). So you get to play the guessing game of using enough to...

36a-20 plate. You should be able to pitch 25 gallons down to 65f in 10.4 minutes. If you have to pitch lower though, let me know. And this is based on you having 40f water, and it never dropping below 3.3 gpm. The slightest fluctuation in that speed will change your time by a good bit; your...

It's cheaper to make a female valve and a male nipple fitting than it is to make just a male ball valve. There is far higher demand for female valves, so most factories will make those exclusively, which drops the price. Have you looked into 'close' nipples? Still not the perfect solution of a...

The problem with lye is it removes the top coating of chromium oxide from the stainless plates, which is one of the major factors in making stainless stainless. As long as it doesn't remove much, and is then let sit and exposed to air for a day or so, the oxide layer reforms and you're fine...

Lol, we've had problems getting our stickers correct for *years.* Definitely not our strong suit. Glad to see it working so well, beautiful rig!

Going to convert everything to imperial instead of metric, since you asked in BTUs instead of kW. I'm also going to use water for my heat capacity numbers, instead of beer. Partially because different brews will be *slightly* different, but mainly because the math is far easier, and its a...

There is such a thing as too large :) http://www.dudadiesel.com/img/items/HX115280_3013_L.jpg (those are 2" ports; that monstrosity comes in a 290 lbs) But it actually all comes down to your water flowrate. Audiedoggy's advice that you should always go longer and thinner for more efficiency is...

Not sure if Bobby over at Brew Hardware has ever considered making these, but I know here at Duda we've talked about it. About 4-5 years ago we looked into it; we would've been able to knock that $750 down to about $520. But most of that cost is in it being able to be disassembled - the actual...

So for my calculations, I am assuming your water temp to be 52f, as that is what google tells me it should be for Seattle. This will certainly change depending on the season (though you being on the coast it shouldn't fluctuate too much). You mentioned low to mid 60's as your pitching, so I...

Deckers, What is your water temperature, water flowrate, and what pitching temp are you trying to get down to? Chances are, depending on your batch size, you only need to spend $90-$145 on the chiller, save the rest for a good hops spider

Hahahaha, that's not even a fifth of the size of the biggest one we offer. But in seriousness, hopping on here to agree with everyone else. Use a hops bag, or the strainer over at Brewer's Hardware makes that FoxPaw linked

Most manufacturers rate it for 2 years. After about 2 years it starts to slowly break down in several different acids. This is why it is important to use inhibited glycol - this version comes with anti-corrosion inhibitors that form a film on your metals to prevent issues with the acids. Of...

I'd add that glycol bubbles more when its going bad. Fresh glycol might help the issue.

It's somewhere between 28,166 and 28,724 BTU/hr (I can't calculate it exactly without knowing the density and heat transfer coefficient of your wort (varies batch to batch), but its in that neighborhood). Of course, in now way is the number I just gave the maximum heat transfer your set up...