My setup before the big purchase...

[Hoppy Brewah]

The other issue is that gravity systems often involve lifting, and lifting more than 10 gallons gets to be a chore.

The beauty of the B3 1000 is that you don't need to lift the kettles. You can let gravity do all the work!

[Hoppy Brewah]

What's the height from the ground to your kettle ball-valve? Is it high enough off the ground to poor directly into a fermentor? I've been using a Corny as a fermentor, and I need to lift my kettle onto a table so its higher than the approx. 25" corny height.

The height from the ground to the ball valve is 25".

[foomench]

The other issue is that gravity systems often involve lifting, and lifting more than 10 gallons gets to be a chore.

The beauty of the B3 1000 is that you don't need to lift the kettles. You can let gravity do all the work!

The liquid and grain have to get into the top tiers somehow. I understand getting liquid into the HLT can be aided by water pressure and long hoses.

[Sent From My iPhone]

What's the height from the ground to your kettle ball-valve? Is it high enough off the ground to poor directly into a fermentor? I've been using a Corny as a fermentor, and I need to lift my kettle onto a table so its higher than the approx. 25" corny height.

The height from the ground to the ball valve is 25".

Hey HB, how easy would it be to add a pump, so you could recirculate while chilling ala Jamil?

[Hoppy Brewah]

Yea - that's a great idea. You could also heat the mash through the wort chiller in the HLT. I just refinanced my house, so maybe I can afford a pump soon. I think it would be pretty easy to mount the pump to the frame below the brew kettle.

[aleguy]

I've seen a lot of systems in this area. Everyone seems to have abandoned gravity flow systems for one reason or another. I think it's mostly because everyone needed a pump anyway for recirculating the mash. The local systems seem to have evolved into three-burner/dual pump flat stands running either RIMS or HERMS.
The advantages of the flat stands is that it doesn't matter whether you're using a commercial kettle or a converted keg from the scrapyard. It's even possible to do double mashes and pump them in to a 25-gallon kettle for group brews.