I have been on pro brewer asking questions, but one thing I would like to share with other DE operators is the one really dangerous story I have....
About 5 years ago I was scavenging the rest of a 40 bbl run, applying about 50 psi on top of bell. When the beer was almost out, the bottom clamp's threads gave way, causing the bell clamp to open up rapidly. This caused the 50 pound bell to launch off the filter, miss my head by about a foot (I was looking down at the sight glass for bubbles), traveled up to the 24 ft ceiling (missing electrical, water, and sprinkler lines), puncture the roof, keep going through the roof of the building, and landed in the parking lot on the other side of the building. Luckily it was 6 am, so no one was hurt. The lower 5 disks of my filter looked like pringles potatoe chips (they still do work mind you...).
I couldn't hear for about 5 hours due to the sonic shock. People have said, "well you shouldn't have been using that amount of pressure". It wasn't the pressure: as the bell rode up the support rod and hit the top "catch" of it, the bearing wheel allowed the bell to "rotate" about 5 degrees. With all that rotation force now behind it, the bell was then "flung" off the filter's main support frame, much like a baseball gets "flung" off pitchers fingers. It broke 12 guage stainless that was welded to the bell cleanly.
Once I retrieved the bell, I literally bounced around on top of it to make it round again (it became a tad eliptical...), bought a new clamp, new pressure relief valve (the old one still works and triggers at 80 psi, new one I got for 50 PSI), new pressure guage, and new bottom gasket. And to be honest, the filter has never worked better....
Filter parts, shipping, and phone calls to Italy: $450
Repair to roof: $4500 (yes, it was that much)
Able to still hear, talk, and write things on probrewer b/c I didn't die: priceless
DE FILTER OPERATORS BEWARE!!!
About 5 years ago I was scavenging the rest of a 40 bbl run, applying about 50 psi on top of bell. When the beer was almost out, the bottom clamp's threads gave way, causing the bell clamp to open up rapidly. This caused the 50 pound bell to launch off the filter, miss my head by about a foot (I was looking down at the sight glass for bubbles), traveled up to the 24 ft ceiling (missing electrical, water, and sprinkler lines), puncture the roof, keep going through the roof of the building, and landed in the parking lot on the other side of the building. Luckily it was 6 am, so no one was hurt. The lower 5 disks of my filter looked like pringles potatoe chips (they still do work mind you...).
I couldn't hear for about 5 hours due to the sonic shock. People have said, "well you shouldn't have been using that amount of pressure". It wasn't the pressure: as the bell rode up the support rod and hit the top "catch" of it, the bearing wheel allowed the bell to "rotate" about 5 degrees. With all that rotation force now behind it, the bell was then "flung" off the filter's main support frame, much like a baseball gets "flung" off pitchers fingers. It broke 12 guage stainless that was welded to the bell cleanly.
Once I retrieved the bell, I literally bounced around on top of it to make it round again (it became a tad eliptical...), bought a new clamp, new pressure relief valve (the old one still works and triggers at 80 psi, new one I got for 50 PSI), new pressure guage, and new bottom gasket. And to be honest, the filter has never worked better....
Filter parts, shipping, and phone calls to Italy: $450
Repair to roof: $4500 (yes, it was that much)
Able to still hear, talk, and write things on probrewer b/c I didn't die: priceless
DE FILTER OPERATORS BEWARE!!!
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