What size to drill holes in manifold for mash tun

[Jimbodaman]

I'm converting a 60 Qt. square Igloo cooler to a mash tun with 1/2 inch CPVC. I'd much prefer to drill the holes. What's a good estimate for hole diameter and spacing between holes. Thanks ! Happy Brewing.

 

[CA_Mouse]

I did 3/16" holes about .75" apart. I may add another hole every other one to see if it helps mine. I have a 70-quart rectangular cooler that I use.

 

[bschot]

I did slots in my CPVC manifold and I think it worked pretty well. I just used a hacksaw to cut narrow slots.

 

[JLeuck64]

Ya know I had a similar question when building a sparge arm for my MT cooler. I wanted to be sure the holes I was planning on drilling in the CPVC would be enough to not restrict the flow. In my case I had 2 pieces of 1/2" pipe... so 1 inch diameter total. So in my simplistic way of thinking... just for your example... if I wanted to drill 3/16 inch holes that would equal the same 1 inch diameter I would divide 3 by 16 = .1875

How many holes would I need to drill to equal the same 1 inch diameter? Just divide 1 by .1875 = 5.33 holes.

You could drop down to a 1/8 inch hole or even a 1/16 inch hole and drill away! The more holes the better because you won't even come close to creating a restriction ( ;
HTH

 

[thekraken]

Ya know I had a similar question when building a sparge arm for my MT cooler. I wanted to be sure the holes I was planning on drilling in the CPVC would be enough to not restrict the flow. In my case I had 2 pieces of 1/2" pipe... so 1 inch diameter total. So in my simplistic way of thinking... just for your example... if I wanted to drill 3/16 inch holes that would equal the same 1 inch diameter I would divide 3 by 16 = .1875

How many holes would I need to drill to equal the same 1 inch diameter? Just divide 1 by .1875 = 5.33 holes.

You could drop down to a 1/8 inch hole or even a 1/16 inch hole and drill away! The more holes the better because you won't even come close to creating a restriction ( ;
HTH

You might want to work with area instead of the diameter, divide the 1" area by the drill bit area. area of a circle being pi*radius^2, pi's cancel. In your example a 1" hole = 28.4 3/16" holes. (Or the answer you found squared)

Also I seem to remember that you don't want to have to many holes, if there are to many then wort being collected won't be evenly distributed, it'll tend to pull more toward where ever the drain is. So not to many and not to few, don't ask me where the sweet spot is. I want to say Palmer discussed this in a podcast with Jamil.

 

[JLeuck64]

I don't want to work with area cuz THAT involves math! LOL

I suppose you might be correct on some level but consider this...
The output is the restriction, and the head pressure of the liquid in the MT will distribute that pressure equally throughout the bottom of the MT.

As long as the total area or the diameter of the inlet is larger than the outlet it will drain evenly, which is why Palmer recommended slots every 1/2 inch along the length of each drain pipe. To many holes should not be a problem I would think.

Tryin' to keep it simple ( :

 

[thekraken]

Hmm, all ya gotta do is square the answer you found

 

[sillbeer]

Just use a hacksaw and space the cuts about .5" apart. I've done this with a copper manifolds and had good success.

 

[thekraken]

Just use a hacksaw and space the cuts about .5" apart. I've done this with a copper manifolds and had good success.

That's what I did too, it'll work. But if I did it again I think I'd use the smallest drill bit I could find, I have a suspicion that holes would allow less grain through.