Cooling lines organization ideas

[humbledore]

All, I am looking for ideas on somehow managing my cooling lines. I am using push to fit connectors and nylon tubing. This tubing has some memory to it and it kind of goes all over the place. I have a feed line going to a splitter, then to the reflux and PC. My valves are inline on the output side of each. Then I have to wrangle the output hoses into the sink, where I am trying to watch flow and coolant temp. It's like a damn Rube Goldberg setup, hoses everywhere and thermos sticking out balanced on the edge of the sink. What kind of solutions did you come up with for this? Big ideas or small are welcomed.

[bearriver]

For my Boka, I have a Y at my clothes washer. One goes to the washer, and the other to a push to connect valve. From the valve it goes to blue pex and through the product cooler and then into the reflux condenser. From the RC it goes to red pex and into the washer drain. One blue line in and one red line out keeps it all very neat and tidy.

I like to keep a meat thermometer in the red pex, so I know the exit water temps.

[heartcut]

Slip on wire labels and nylon spiral wrap so it stays like a wiring harness. I can set up before a cup of coffee and still get it right.

[Hound Dog]

Kind of on this same line, I switch back and forth from stripping to a boka. I use Sharkbite fittings and you can switch the cooling lines but it is not convenient. Does anyone use the quick connect hose fittings? Will they hold up when things get hot?

[humbledore]

Heartcut can you give us some info on that rig at the end of your cooling lines...flow meters? Thermos? Do you run water in throw the flowmeters and water out through the thermometer?

I will look into spiral wrap, hadn't heard of it.

[humbledore]

This was yesterday.

I know, it's a mess. In my claustrophobic still area I can't handle this nest of lines. Now the good side of my space is that there are two water sources/drains. There is a washer hookup right over that orange cooler. There's a sink off to the left of the picture which is where the drain lines are headed, so I can track temp and flow visually.

[heartcut]

Like you said, humbledore, I flow water through 2 flowmeters (liebeg and dephlegmater) and run both streams through thermometers on the way out. Fittings are swaged type because I had some, have to feed them new ferrules every few years but they're easy to set up and take off. Clear poly tubing because it's cheap and works.

[humbledore]

I like the way it's all grouped together like that. Like a control console. I was looking at some cheaper inline flow meters, the kind with little balls in the window just to show activity. I don't know that I need to measure flow accurately.

Do you find the poly tubing softens when you run the dephleg hot?

[heartcut]

I don't think the absolute accuracy of the flowmeters makes much difference but it makes it easier to stay consistent when you can repeat your settings.
The poly softens, but not enough to leak.

[humbledore]

Hound dog I am not familiar with shark bite fittings. Well I am, but those were for copper line. Are they push-to-fit? This stuff is really pretty convenient to set up and tear down. It's made for air flow but works fine for water.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/11116998973" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I got the rest of the simple fittings and tube from McMaster.

[S-Cackalacky]

Someone posted a while back about running copper pipe down to a common point where they hooked up flexible hoses. There were pictures too, but I couldn't begin to tell you how to search for it. I imagine it could also be done with PVC pipe to make it a bit lighter. I don't know - seems like it could create even more of a mess.

Mine is pretty much a mess - especially since I added a bypass ball valve to help control flow to the liebig. I'm thinking of adding a second ball valve on the inline above the tee used for the bypass. With the bypass valve full open I still get too much flow to my liebig. I figure with a second ball valve above the tee, I should be able to fine tune the flow a little better. Nothing like adding something else to the mess.

[ranger_ric]

Humbledore,
Is that a Sherwood amp on the shelf up there? Looks like mine.... some great tunes while the ethonal goes from vapor to liquid again !!

[humbledore]

Hah, no it's an old Onkyo. It was my first amp for a "surround sound" setup years ago, I just have it driving a couple crappy shelf speakers. Yep, tunes jamming all day long while I brew or still.

[Hound Dog]

Yes, Sharkbite fittings work on copper, CPVC or Pex tubing. They are push to fit and can disconnect but not really all that convenient. That link had expired but if it is an air fitting I didn't really think adopt that. Guess if it's air tight it will be water tight.

[humbledore]

Not sure why, I'll try again.

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