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100% PEX glycol system

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  • 100% PEX glycol system

    Looking to see if anyone has used 100% per from chiller to fermenters and back.

    I've seen some ghetto stuff out there but usually its just insulated per dropping down from ABS or Copper…

  • #2
    Pex is highly sensitive to UV light and is designed to be placed inside of walls. Most inspectors(at least is our neck of the wood) will comment on them in scenarios where they are exposed. Also, using compression fittings in extreme low temps is probably not a great idea as pe will rapidly shrink. Just my $.02. It's why they say to use good ol copper or cpvc.

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    • #3
      We have a little PEX incorporated into our system; jumping from ports on our tank jackets but for our drops we went with braided vinyl. Seems to be working fine, though we are young. If you have access to an expander tool as well as contractor grade PEX that is the way to go. The PEX from Home Cheapo did not do the trick. That said, we were installing our tanks with permanence in mind but the budget said no Cool Fit drops for now. In retrospect I would go all Cool Fit for headers as well as drops or Cool Fit for hearers and Braided Vinyl for drops and tank plumbing. Braided vinyl expands with heat and contracts with cold and needs no special tools. Check out Nebar Hose & Fittings in Ballard WA for almost any size of any hose type imaginable.
      First time, Long time.
      Matchless Brewing
      Three Magnets Brewing
      Olympia WA

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      • #4
        Eventually we will look to permanence… But to be honest we're moving in 3 yrs, don't ask why… My thought is to use pre insulated 02 Barrier per as the trunk. It looks a lot like your standard micromatic insulated draft line except for the fact that it's 1" ID pex. The stuff is used in my neck of the woods for outdoor wood boilers. You bury it a few feet underground and run it from the boiler to an indoor furnace/radiators. So the trunk line would never see the light of day but for where we would "T" off to each tank. My thought is using this with brass fittings and Copper crimps / Worm rings should cut down the chances of much expansion/contraction at the joints. Joints/drop downs would then be insulated then wrapped to form a vapor barrier.

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        • #5
          We used 100% ProPEX from just inside the building (our system is on the roof) as the trunk line and all the drops to the tanks. Large diameter PEX is expansion and small diameter is compression. I have not seen any issues so far but we have only been running for about 1 1/2 years.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by kappyk66 View Post
            Looking to see if anyone has used 100% per from chiller to fermenters and back.

            I've seen some ghetto stuff out there but usually its just insulated per dropping down from ABS or Copper…
            I just installed a chiller and two 10BBL unitanks myself and used 3/4" pex, pre-insulated with a 1 inch wrap of insulation. I used about 100 feet total of PEX. The lines plus fitting ran me about $600.

            Ill use the remaining $14,400 I saved and buy a couple more fermenters new year!

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