Georgeous

We are doing a full 600 gallon batch and no, it is plumbed to the lower jacket

yes it is

So we had the idea of the other night and we tried to Pump It Out From The Bottom drain of the mash tun and it gooped up my hoses and pumps so how to pump it out from what you're saying through the manhole?

so assuming all the grain is sitting at bottom of MT hmm that might work.

you and me both. Did you see the pics i posted of the heat map around it. it is not consistent as if the jacket is clogged in some spots or purposely built this way.

in there lies the problem, how to get this heated up. i got 840lbs right now sitting in 125° water

https://xlvalve.en.made-in-china.com/product/yXwJOHGFQsVr/China-Screwed-Free-Ball-Float-Steam-Trap-CS11H-.html the link is for my steam trap that manufacturers sent with system

No it's not look at the arrow

yes all valves are open

Chinese, came with the still. But dont think it is the problem. i swapped it with the one on the still which is working fine and same results; nothing

i have the same size inlet on my 600 gallon still and it heats up fine. but now we are seeing some issues in pattern of heat. see attached photos showing heat map. the whole bottom gets hot but walking around MT Heat map is not consistent.

what is a baffling? i dont know how that works

1" inlet and outlet

Here is what i dont get, when we opened the steam trap for the still which is functioning fine and further away from the boiler than the mash tun lots of water came out. When we open the steam trap from the MT only steam came out. Also we swapped the two steam traps and still continues to function just fine. MT still not heating up

Okay so we swapped the Trap with the still tried heating up didn't do shit so now we removed the plug from the steam trap behind the mash tun and you can stay a steady flow of steam coming out of it been 30 minutes but no real noticeable rise yet

All traps have been opened and cleaned one was very dirty yes the plug is towards the back see photo attached

yes return line is hot, however it wont get hotter than i need it to get only 126°F. We are trying now to run without the trap to see if that heats it up

does your MT have two jackets cooling and heating?

Adam we are not running a condensate return pump. that pump next to the steam trap under the MT is a spare pump i have on the ground. So yes all valves are open, we have option of bypassing solenoid valve in case it fails. So we cleaned out steam trap under MT and left the plug off the bottom of it. Steam went in the inlet and came out of the steam trap at what appeared to be a steady flow of clean steam. the trap was not that dirty, i took a pic. Really sux cause our recipe we bring the water to 130°F then add corn then raise to 185°F and add enzyme, well 840lbs of corn sitting in 126°F water and not rising. Yes we ran the agitator while heating it doesnt seem to help.

so we filled the still with 600 gallons of water today just to test. We were at 180°F in about an hour from 60°F. the still sits 40 ft from the boiler. The mash tun is right next to it. Now the still only has one jacket for steam so much for heating area from top to bottom. The mash tun has an upper jacket for chilling and a lower jacket for steam. I thought about plumbing both with steam but how would i cool it down after gelatanizing the corn? But still even with just the lower jacket the temperature should have risen slowly. We left the boiler on over night for about 12 plus hours and temperature did not even rise a single degree.

You are correct it is 503000 BTUs output

just updated to show photos of my setup if that helps, condensate is gravity run to the boiler.

not sure how i would do that. the recommended boiler for my system was a 10-12 hp. i went with the 15 as it was not much more but alternately because ibc 509 asks is it greater than 15hp / 15psi mine is 15hp and 15psi not greater therefore was not required to build a boiler room

we dont heat them in tandem and one at a time. it is rated at 800K btu

pressure gauge on boiler goes up to 13.5psi and stops when it drops 2 psi kicks back on. mash tun pressure gauge shows exactly the same. we do not have condensate return pump, during heating mash tun jacket holds 13.5psi