Anyone have a good sanitary check valve for our carb stones? Currently we are just using ball valves because I didnt want to worry about cleaning them. We are using our FVs as true unitanks and autoclave the stones and ball valves each use. Want either an autoclavable check valve or something cleanable. Any thoughts on these from Glacier?
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sanitary carbstone check valve
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The check valves you have supplied a link to are more designed for liquid applications such as lauter to kettle or water infeed. These will not work well for carb stones in general. I am assuming you do not have 1.5" TC fittings on the end of your carb stones. Most would have an NPT fittings. We use some check valves from Parker that read as 6F-C6L-1-SS that are stainless steel and can be broken apart to clean as needed. Autoclaving seems like quite a bit of over kill to me, but you never can be too clean! We just soak our stones in caustic and blow them out, and then in PAA afterwards. Never had an issue. Most any check valve is going to have some sort of rubber seal, usually an EPDM rubber, that will eventually crack and need replaced over time. Autoclaving will most assuredly reduce the working life. You might find some really nice all stainless ones from Swagelok, but they will be pricey.
I still prefer the ball valves myself as the check valves have a tendency to leak. Particulates can get stuck in the seal area, or the spring tension can wear down. They you have to open them up to clean the seal or stretch the spring. The ball valves are positively closed, but require a person to actually pay attention to them. Ball valves can leak too, however they usually just require a tightening of the packing nut.
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