dang it!
I invest in a kettle valve (no weld) to make my life easier. Has it? Hell no!

What I have: A converted sanke keg. Stainless ball lock weldless, from bargain fittings. My pickup tube is 1/2" soft copper soldered to a copper male npt fitting which is screwed into the stainless coupling. The pickup is bent down to the center of the kettle bottom. I usually stuff a stainless scrubby under it to do some coarse filtering.
What happens:
Sometimes it drains okay, sometimes not. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason. It can not flow when there is only a 5 gallon batch or a ten gallon. It might flow fine with a lot of hops and not at all with a malty low hopped beer. Generally I end up scooping or using my auto siphon.
What I have done to fix it so far:
I have tried a longer piece of hose attached to the hose barb on the outside of the kettle to lower the outlet of the liquid. I have tried it with and without the venturi device on the end of the vinyl hose outlet. I have resoldered the pickup connection, it seems solid. I have used teflon tape on the threads. I attempted to bend the tube even closer to the bottom. I have used a large hop bag (5 gallon paint strainer suspended in the kettle.
I just bought a new piece of soft copper tubing and am going to try to redo it in hopes of a better outcome. I was thinking perhaps I should position the diptube to the side instead of the bottom. Any idea here folks or did I waste my money and time on a drain and just g back to the old autosiphon. Which by the way could be hit or miss also!
If I left out any crucial info let me know. I can try and take pictures at some point to if that would help. I just want to be able to drain my beer int the fermenter without cursing the whole time. Is that so much to ask!!!