All water that goes into the system passes through a whole house water filter. Since I am using St Louis County water, the chlorine and any other sediment needs to be removed to prevent any off flavors.

The blue valve on the right is the main shutoff for the whole system. It is connected to the inlet manifold that is attached to all three vessels and ends up at the main pump. This is mainly used for filling any of the vessels for cleaning and sanitizing as well as priming the main pump. Once the brewing session is under way the valve is closed until it is time to flush the lines. When the main valve is closed, valves on any of the vessels can be opened to allow flow through the main pump and ether back to another vessel, the heat exchanger in the HERMS, the Mash Bypass Loop or to the Counter Flow Chiller.

The red handled valve goes to the line which fills the HLT from the top. To the far left just prior to the filter is a "T" fitting with shutoffs which goes to supply the counter flow chiller, mounted at the other end of the frame.

Another handy part of this design is that the filter can be taken from the housing and by using the pump from the Carboy and Keg Washer, the whole system can be cleaned in place. This also works for the sanitizing session prior to each brew. The filter is reinstalled just prior to the finishing of the sanitizing process to kill anything that be hiding inside and a fresh water rinse clears all lines of sanitizer.

At the end of the brewing session all lines are cleaned with hot water from the HLT and the filter is removed. After draining the filter, I put it into a plastic ziplock bag and store in the freezer to prevent any bacteria from using it for their home. This also prevents any mold that would surely build up if it were left in the system.

At any rate, it works for me.