Hose Barb and Tri-clamps

[CurtHagenlocher]

I'm in the process of building a new rig and there's an operational thing I'm not clear on. Let's say I've got hose barbs tri-clamped to the kettle. When I want to switch from circulating in the mash tun to filling the brew kettle, would I transfer the hose from barb to barb? Or the barb from port to port?

 

[headwall]

Are you not planning to clamp the hose to the barbs? If you don't clamp the hose to the barb then I suppose you could just switch the hose over to another barb. I don't know what size hose or barb you are using, but if it is that easy to slip the hose off the barb, personally I wouldn't feel comfortable using that setup if the hoses weren't clamped. I would recommend creating "semi-permanent" hoses by clamping the hose to tri clamp barbs on each end and then taking advantage of the tri clamp fittings to quickly and easily swap hoses around the brewery.

 

[CurtHagenlocher]

That's actually the reason I'm asking. I've seen pictures of people's setups where the hose is not clamped to the barb. For that matter, I have had no problems with the hose just sitting on the barb of my current cooler-based MT. So I'm curious what people consider to be "standard practice".

 

[headwall]

Standard practice is to leave all hoses connected to their various fittings and use the tri clamp connections to swap out hoses and hardware. If you are just slipping hoses on and off barbs then you've pretty much eliminated the benefits of using tri clamp fittings. I would again suggest clamping the hoses to the barbs though, just to be on the safe side. You will be moving hoses around and those tri clamp barbs aren't light so there is a chance one may slip off as things get shuffled around.