Mines not glued either but I made slits in my manifold I had holes but kept getting plugged
I don't have my manifold glued. I take it apart after every mash and its real easy to clean that way.
You guys ever use a braided tube(outside mesh of a washing machine hose)? Any difference in efficiency, draining time etc?
DONT glue it, makes cleaning much easier. Also, turn the holes downwards, so they don't get clogged as easy and if still having drainage issue, wrap the thing in a "boil in a bag" bag and then have fun
If your efficiency is low you might want to go back and add a couple cross pieces on the middle so you aren't pulling all the wort from just the outside edges..
My only suggestion for your setup would be to flip that manifold over, so the homes are on the bottom. It'll give you less "dead space"
I don't glue but mine ended up getting loose after a few uses so I wrap plumbers tape around the ends so they fit tight
Or you can just run your grain amounts higher to hit your gravity numbers...
Maybe consider a fabric filter - works without fail, never a stuck sparge, rinses clean, 50 + uses, no ball valve needed.
I cut slits in my manifold with a hack saw half way threw the pipe. I also put the slits facing down. That little amount of holes might cause some issues. I would drill some more holes at minimum.
Use braided
Mine works great, but it was a pain cutting all those slots.
Just one more length wise would work
I would also recommend a single cross piece through middle along with the previous suggestion to bring in the outer perimeter a bit more toward center. You can always measure lengths of slotted pipe and get the sum to determine the possible surface area. That way you know whether adding cross sections or other configurations is increasing or decreasing lautering surface area.
haven't glued mine yet and have had to really look out to not lose any pieces, definitely easier to clean when you can take it apart.
You could also glue a few of the straight pieces together so that you can easily take it apart into a few large straight pieces to clean while being more ridged than if none of the pieces were glued together.
I totally agree. The glue will end up in your beer. Any joint gaps will just be additional outlet paths for your sparge.