Author: Marshall Schott
When I published the article about my buddy’s contamination issue that ended up being a result of a dirty ball valve, I assumed his experience was relatively rare and a result of his particular setup. I was wrong. In the months since, I’ve heard from many homebrewers, probably over 100, who have experienced similar issues and, after some investigation, discovered nasty gunk caking the insides of their valves.
One of the more common recommendations I noticed in discussions about this issue was to upgrade to 3-piece ball valves since apparently they’re easier to keep clean. This created a healthy debate about the merits of 3-piece valves over the usually less expensive 2-piece versions, as they’re basically constructed the same way and can actually take more time to disassemble. Plus, they get just as nasty.
As tedious as it is, the only seemingly adequate solution to this annoying problem involves regularly disassembling and cleaning the valve by soaking it in boiling water or a powerful cleaner (OxiClean, PBW). At least when using these common types of ball valves.
I recently received an email from Curtis over at Brewer’s Hardware, supplier of all sorts of great brewery gear. He said he read about Wes’ dilemma and mentioned his company was designing a new type of valve that combined the familiarity of the ones we’re all used to with the easy-to-clean aspects of a tri-clover fitting. Interest piqued! Naturally, when he asked if I might be interested in reviewing a working model of this product, I jumped at the opportunity.
Full disclosure: Brewer’s Hardware provided the item in exchange for an honest review. Brülosophy is in no other way affiliated with Brewer’s Hardware and will receive no compensation for purchases made through links in this article.
The Quick Clean Take-Apart Ball Valve arrived a week later and I was stoked to get it out of the box– would it really be all that different?
It had the standard 1/2″ NPT threads I was familiar with on one end, but the other side looked more foreign to me. I took it apart, interested to see what the innards consisted of and how simple it would be to piece back together (I’m terrible at puzzles).
I don’t mean to exaggerate, but it was beyond easy. I even messed around with timing how long it took me to completely dissemble and reassemble the unit– 45 seconds or less without trying to rush. Rad.
I attached the valve to my kettle, which I found easier to do when it was apart, then attached a leftover camlock fitting to the business end. I then filled my kettle with 4 gallons of hot water, something I do any time I replace valves as I’ve a fiery hatred for leaks. In this case, I was very pleased.
Not a single drip and it looked pretty badass to boot. But looks aren’t nearly as important as performance. It was time to put this thing to use! I’ve brewed four 10 gallon batches with this valve and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it functioned almost exactly the same as any other valve I’ve used.
It was during post-brew day clean-up that the awesomeness of this valve really shined. Admittedly, I’ve developed the lazy habit of, err, forgetting to adequately clean my valves, usually only disassembling them every 4 to ?? brews. The quick clean take-apart ball valve made proper cleaning a no-brainer, adding less than a minute to my typical kettle cleaning routine. I can now unashamedly proclaim:
My valve has never been cleaner!
| THE VERDICT |
I’m not much of a gear-head, preferring simplicity and ease over shiny and neat. I’m also cheap and hate cleaning shit up. Ultimately though, high quality and efficient is what I’m after, and the quick clean take-apart ball valve is just that. While the $35 price tag may initially seem a little steep, never having to disassemble a 2- or 3-piece valve again adds immense value. I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with some negatives about this product, it was tough, all I could think of is the fact it connects to the kettle and camlock/barb fitting via standard NPT threads, which could potentially harbor nastiness. Honestly though, I’ve never observed either of these areas to be dirty when cleaning my old valves, all the grossness resides on the inside.
Will I be replacing the valve on my other kettle? You better believe it!
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29 thoughts on “Product Review | Brewer’s Hardware Quick Clean Take-Apart Ball Valve”
Just this weekend due to a delay i decided to take my ball valve apart only to discover the horror that lay within….purchased!
You opened Pandora’s bo… valve.
Clean balls, clean beer–as I always say!
I’ve been using one for years on the out side of my plate chiller. It’s cheaper than infected batches of beer.
I got two of those for my fermenters and finally replaced them with buttefly ones. My problem was they leaked if I did dot tight the middle clamp extremely tight. I see you did not have leaks, but did youi hand tight the clamp? I usually had to do it with a screw driver or wrench or they would leak, very slightly, but leak.
Cheers!
Oh, mine were TC, not threaded on the ends, but I guess the issue would be similar in this ones.
Cheers!
I have this problem with my TC version also. It depends which way the hard white plastic part in the center is facing.
Yep, hand-tightened, and not even all that hard!
Cool! I was thinking about getting the new Blichmann G2 valves just for the ease of cleaning, but at $70 each those are a pain. For half the money I get these ones and they’re easy enough to clean!
Cheers!
As a note, those hard white plastic tri-clamp gaskets should be replaced with FDA-grade silicone or FKM gaskets. The hard white is teflon/PTFE, it cold flows under pressure, we don’t use them anymore with tri-clamp.
Interesting, I’ll have to ask the Brewer’s Hardware guys about this. Who is this “we” you’re referring to?
When products are released like this in the states, I can truly see why us folk in the UK often get jealous of brewers living over there. This valve looks AMAZING. I just upgraded to tri-clamp fittings on my brew kit, and this made clean up so much easier. With this valve, I can only imagine how easy cleaning it would be (with lots of great imagery from your post!).
I have a ball valve on my cooler – do I need to be concerned about what is lurking in there too?
If you’re a clean freak, it might be good, but many will contend since it’s pre-boil, cleanliness isn’t nearly as important.
All things shiny are good. Just ask any raven!
I also noticed a while back that there always seemed to be wort in the tap, even after CIPing the kettle. A mate mentioned opening the 2 piece valves and it was pretty grungy. Now I open them up every brew and soak in PBW. I might add that another, even scarier discovery was the inside of my pump, again even after CIP. Old hops and a brown/black stain had set up in the crevices of the plastic housing. All those parts and their fittings get opened and soaked with the ball valves now too. It all comes out beautifully shiny and I rest easier.
That’s exactly why I moved away from pumps, some nasty stuff in there.
That price tag is pretty steep, but easy assembly/disassmebly is great. No likes that level of tedium.
Disassembly*, Nobody*. Take a lap, self.
I take the ball valve on my urn apart every few brews and give it a good clean out. It’s one of the “traditional” 3 piece ones. Usually after cleaning all the muck out of the urn I’ll put a few litres of water in, boil this, then run it through the valve. I figure because I no-chill my wort, it is running through there at quite a high temperature during the transfer as opposed to near on pitching temps, so it’s not at as much of a risk. Have had no infections from it so far but I do like to keep on top of it.
So, I guess though based on the original article if your valves get hot during the boil process this really isn’t a big concern? Your valve was clean when you checked it.
My system is a single vessel BIAB w/ RIMs for maintaining mash temps. I use the RIMs to assist with getting to the boil, so I’d imagine I’m killing everything in it. I stop letting it heat at 200 degrees because one time I boiled water in the RIMs tube. The crazy sound of the steam blasting out into the kettle through the return tube was enough to convince me to never do that again.. So my system the valves and the tube get too hot even to touch the metal parts on the way to the boil.
Might take them apart for a look see, but I do disassemble and clean out my pump every few batches (beyond the normal flushing) because it gets hop gunk stuck in the impeller, but I’ve never seen anything but that in there.
I was just setting up my system when I notice what seemed to be some discoloration inside the valve. I disassembled it normally, and noticed more discoloration in the stem area of the ball. this led to a COMPLETE disassembly of the unit, only to discover some serious nastiness in the stem. I also noticed that one of the small stem gaskets was pretty worn. Luckily, I had a spare. I’ve sent a note to Derrin about the gaskets required for a complete rebuild of the unit.
I just bought a set of these valves (6 in total), and I’ve noticed a few issues in the ones I received. I took mine apart, and the orange silicone o-ring on 4 of them were showing shear damage, most likely due to assembly without any lube. Also, a few of mine also showed some form of corrosion, which I can only assume was galvanic corrosion of some sort. I even found metal filings in one of mine. I’ve sent them an email, and I hope to have these issues resolved shortly. For any of you that bought them though, take them apart and check them over to ensure yours are in completely good condition!
Bought mine in March only too find orange o-ring on mine was also damaged as it was shredded and flaking. I have emailed Derrin twice with no response. I also seem to be having a hard time finding the same size o-ring anywhere else. Have you received a reply from him Gnef? Marshall, any tip as to where to find a replacement o-ring?
They just replaced my valves. The new ones look like the o-rings were examined and installed more carefully. I’m not sure on the size of the o-rings, but I can take some measurements on one that I haven’t installed yet. Once you know the size and cross sectional diameter, you can figure out pretty quickly what the dash number is, and then get that particular one from a supplier.
I took some quick measurements with my digital calipers, and these o-rings appear to be -120 size orings, a 1″ ID, 1-3/16″ OD, 3/32 CS. I will be buying a set of 5 off amazon to check and keep on hand for the future. Once they come in, I’ll put in another reply on the fit.
Thanks for measuring it! Just ordered off Amazon myself.
I received the o-rings the other day, and I did a check with them. They seem to be a bit tighter than the stock ones, but I think that could be due to the stock ones being squished for so long and conforming to the pressure. With a little keg lube, the new ones were able to be installed easily enough with no tearing. I would definitely make sure to use keg lube when installing these though, as the fit is very tight.
Thanks Gnef! I bought them too but had not tried them yet. Will definitely use keg lube. Thanks for the help!