New system, new problems, about sums it up. But, that said, I think I'll have them solved by the second brew. Last Sunday, I started at 7 pm and went until 3 a.m. by the time all was cleaned up and stored. Ultimately, I was successful, but I spent the first half of the brew session solving problems.
1. I had several leaky jets on the new burners. This was not solved during the brew session. I went to Home Depot on Monday and bought some gas tape to reseal about 8 jets. One wouldn't even screw in properly without the tape.
2. Speaking of burners, these new burners are hot. Next issue was my having my HLT positioned too far back over the burner. I melted my quick disconnect on the HLT and those things are rated for 250 degrees. Had a spare on a piece of hose that I rigged up so I could keep going. New camlock disconnects were on order, but hadn't arrived by the inaugural brew.
3. My hoses were too long and my pump was cavitating a fair amount. Shortened the hoses and that helped a little, but it took forever to drain the HLT into the MLT. That hose with the disconnect was probably letting in air. I think another disconnect wasn't sealing properly. As a result, I lost a lot of heat in the transfer and mashed in about 11 degrees low. I also didn't account for water under the false bottom, which attributed to this heat loss. Added nearly 2 gallons of boiling water and was still 2 degrees low, but that was close enough. Added a half hour to my mash time to be sure I got conversion.
Recirculation on the mash went well and I saved time not having to vauralauf (sp).
Bought a high flow impeller for the pump for about $20, which should work better and hopefully prevent a lot of the cavitation should I continue to get a little air ahead of the pump. Will also preheat the tun next time and account for the water under the false bottom.
Got the gloss stove paint from Amazon and got it sprayed yesterday. I can't tell you how much better this stuff is over the flat black stove paint. The flat paint was rubbing off two weeks after application (and I did a good prep). The gloss/satin stove paint looks much better and doesn't rub off.
Also got my camlock fittings in and put the high flow impeller on the March Pump.