Thumper Down Tube Design

[Rusty Ole Bucket]

So I have a friend who homebrews beer. I was talking to him about the thumper and how it worked. The conversation went to diffusing the steam at the end of the thump down tube and the best way to accomplish that without plugging it. He showed me something called a bazooka screen he used on the drains in his fermenters. I thought it might work good as a diffuser and may not plug even running with fruit pulp since it would just be a screen at the end of an open down tube. I could only find them in 1/2" and I didn't want to go down in size from 3/4" so I ditched the bought bazooka screen idea. I thought it might be good to bump up to 1" for the majority of the tube and add some sort of screen at the end. This is what I came up with and I'd like you guys opinion if you think it might work and be worth finishing up. My thumper has 20" from the bottom to the keg to the bottom of the Sanke fitting, a 5" thumper charge will cover the top of the slots by about 1/2". I used 5 layers of copper mesh for the screen. I know it's probably overkill and over thought, but I like tinkering.

Think it'll work or is it a dumb noobie idea?

Rusty

[OtisT]

ROB, I think it will work just fine. That said, I think it’s overkill and it will just make cleaning more work.

I use a straight 3/4” spear that ends a few inches from the bottom of the thumper and I’ve never experienced a situation where I thought a diffuser would be needed. I run that spear with up to 5500w of steam, with thumpers from 5 to 15 gallons. The only application I can think of that would warrant a diffuser would be vapor escaping from the thumper before the full charge is boiling and I’ve never seen that nor have I read about that happening to anyone. Clogging has never been an issue for me and I don’t recall ever reading about a thumper spear clogging either. A diffuser may help reduce the pinging/popping heard early in the run due to vapor collapse, but that’s not really a problem to me.

[Kareltje]

Smart, but troublesome cleaning, I guess.
I have read about and experienced clogging, even when I put down the spear while blowing through it. Especially a grain slob could be a problem.
I made two solutions:
1) I took a ss funnel with a sieve in it, cut the funnel to a smaller version and soldered it on a copper spear.

2) For a simpler solution I bore some holes in the end of the spear and sawed four triangles out of the tip. This still blocked when I used it in a grainy slop: during the time between putting the spear down while blowing and the heating up, a blob of grain took shelter in the tip. The solution was as simple as it could be: I just bended the tips of the pipe a little inward.

Edit: something went wrong while placing the pictures, but I guess my intention is clear.

[Rusty Ole Bucket]

ROB, I think it will work just fine. That said, I think it’s overkill and it will just make cleaning more work.

Thanks for the input, Otis. I made a plain 3/4" down tube too, I can switch them out with the threaded coupler I put on the thump keg head. I love to tinker and experiment with stuff, so I'll probably have several designs by the time it's all over.

Edit: something went wrong while placing the pictures, but I guess my intention is clear.

Thanks Kareltje. I did understand your intention and design, great ideas. I might try the drilled and triangled end design. I have one more male copper threaded connector after making the one above and a plain 3/4" tube with an angle cut at the end, so I might make one of those to play with.

Rusty