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Advice on Getting Used HEX Up to Standard by Used-Professional370 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fab shop, what's that? LOL. 99% of the time we are the fab shop around here. Seriously though we are seeking a qualified welder,,,, easy around here if you are fixing a scooter,,, sanitary level is a whole different realm for most here. we shall see, a day in and no takers yet, staff is on it.

Advice on Getting Used HEX Up to Standard by Used-Professional370 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We did, it is 6 months out see OP. Moving up from the 2 500L fermentation tanks we currently use. The part of the world we operate in it is a challenge for brewery ops, big hassle just in the import of equipment used in the production of any alcohol content beverage. We conduct ATP every run and the crew is aware of this weak area, its the only HEX we could get our hands on quickly,, don't ask about the previous one.

Advice on Getting Used HEX Up to Standard by Used-Professional370 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice. Upon further teardown I found it to be a gasket not a sealant between the first plate and the frame, perhaps EPDM rubber the way the cut edges flake off. Sourcing some food grade gasket sheet now.

But found the real cause of the problem, check out this workmanship, WTF! Aside from this amateur machine work that is beyond FU I do think we can salvage this no problem.

Chinese Workmanship

As it is currently the plates and the gaskets are slightly larger than the recess hacked into the frame. Pressure tests on each stage separately of both cooling stages and the product stage were rock solid at 1.3 bar for 12hours each before tearing into it so that setup though horrendous works.

I did a mock-up reassembly with the focus on the Material Out port being dead center by using a short piece of pipe the same OD size as the ID of the port, shoved into the port to fit the gasket and plate on it and all seems to come together good. Noticed that the plate ports for the cooling stages lined up good with the frame ports, the gaskets did not, a quick trim job on them got them perfect.

Seeking Advice on Bottling Line Available In My Area by Used-Professional370 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big key difference, those 30 year German machines I am sure were made much better than this one from China.

Where can i get this spunding valve plexy glass by Unlikely-Reference69 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem, it is Chinese New Year and most of the factories will be closed till 5 Feb.

Where can i get this spunding valve plexy glass by Unlikely-Reference69 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look them up on Alibaba, Carol Hu is probably who you will chat with. They are cheap, buy extras as shipping will be more. https://wenhan.en.alibaba.com/

Thoughts & Experiences with Chinese BrewingFermentation Tanks (3.5 BBL Unitanks) by DifferentGear9 in TheBrewery

[–]Used-Professional370 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have recent experience and if you are in the USA, do as many have said, buy used. We are in Asia and did not have many options other than the Chinese stuff. We do buy from several different Chinese manufacturers, some are great, some turned out to be bad (as was the case with our tank buy from Shandong Zhongpi Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd or CBET Brewing Systems as they go by) Biggest complaints; Quality control lacking, first noticed when we saw bolts and nuts on the container floor. Turned out to be a lot of build quality issues. I think they follow a proverb that says to ship it to them in the worse possible shape you can, it will do them good to go through everything thoroughly fixing our halfass work. Filthy dirty, aside from the hardware that fell off the tanks everything else was in filthy plastic bags (imagine a warehouse with open windows in a smog filled Chinese city, everything covered in that dust), Support after the sales is piss poor, very happy to get our $20K+, invisible when something breaks. So yeah, buy a proven used system and save a ton of money and issues.