Here's my gas manifold. Other than it looking like a weird club, it works great. If I ever feel motivated and looking for a project, I may add a gas line from the propane regulator to the manifold, and fix the manifold to the brew cart. It would be a little more elegant, but this works just fine.
Admittedly, this is a little weird since I'm going back and forth from 1/2 and 1/4. If it's not obvious, I kind of felt my way through this. Hopefully this will benefit someone with a little more foresight. ;) If I had to do it again, I might try to go all 1/4 and then just use a 30 psi regulator to compensate, if it even really matters. Anyway, it works, so here's the part list:
- 20 psi propane regulator w/ Type 1 connector/valve
- 1/4" NPT black pipe nipple (Mcmaster-Carr #7727K132)
- 1/2" X 1/2" X 1/4" NPT female pipe, reducing tee (Mcmaster-Carr #44605K512)
- 1/2" NPT black pipe nipple (Mcmaster-Carr #7727K192)
- 1/2" X 1/4" Pipe Size, Hex Bushing (Mcmaster-Carr 4513K344)
- 1/4" NPT Knurled Needle Valve
- 6 Foot Propane Hose (to the pilot)
- 1/2" NPT black pipe nipple (Mcmaster-Carr #7727K192)
- 1/2" ASCO Solenoid Valve (8210G002)
- 1/2" NPT black pipe nipple (Mcmaster-Carr #7727K19
- 1/2" NPT female Gas valve (Mcmaster-Carr #48915K61)
- 1/2" X 1/4" Pipe Size, Hex Bushing (Mcmaster-Carr 4513K344)
- 6 Foot Propane Hose (to the burner
And lots of gas leak tape!
So, how this works is the T fitting feeds both the main burner and pilot at equal pressure. A needed valve is key to control the pilot flame to a fine degree. So, one end of the T goes to 1/4 needle valve for the pilot light, and the other goes to the solenoid for the main burner. I open both the tank and propane regular wide open, then set the needle valve to where I want it. This makes it easy for the next brew session since I can just kill the tank valve and everything is stored preset.
The gas valve on the end is optional, but I find it pretty useful. Since the whole works is fired from a temperature probe on my wort flow, if the flow stops, the temp will drop causing the burner to fire. I might not want it to fire, so I can just close that valve and disable the heat. It's also a nice safety feature if you need to work on the pilot or temperature controllers if something goes haywire.
And the disclaimer... I'm just a dude on the Interweb, so if you don't know what you're doing, find someone who does. I so far have managed to not kill or seriously injure myself with this information, but that doesn't guarantee you will find similar mileage.
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I starting purchasing the pieces and when my controller arrived, the 8210 (ASCO MODEL 8210G002 1/2 2W SOLENOID VALVE NC 120/60 NEW) like you show in your blog the installation instructions state that it is for inert gas. Those same instructions state the 8211 is explosion proof.
Have you had any issues or ongoing concerns with your 8210?
Thanks!
For some reason, I thought 8210 models could be used for fuel gas, but that may or may not be correct. I know when I was looking somewhere, I thought it was OK. I know a number of other systems use it, and they were available cheap on ebay, so I went with this model. It's very confusing because ASCO has so many models and their site isn't really clear.
That may or may not answer you question, but I'm still here, so apparently it works just fine. :)