breyton wrote:I have a pile of dirty Corny kegs that needs a good washing and was looking at the keg washer Doc has built using a pump and some custom plumbing. there is is picture of it in the BN Gallery.
Has anyone built anything similar to this? I think its pretty straightforward in its design, but I didn't see how the Keg sits on the copper spray wand that is connected to the pump. In the pictures Doc posted on the BN gallery, it looks like there is no support for the keg other than it resting on the tip of the of the copper sprayer.
Has anyone built something similar? If so, could you share your design/pics so that I could (sorry...I was going to say get some ideas, but I really am planning on copying the best design..) get some input on the one I am designing.
I have a utility pump sitting around and want to find a home for it. A new keg washer sounds like just the right gadget.
I don't have a pic of mine. I took an old pool cover pump, sweat up the copper riser with a tee that feeds a gate valve to control flow to the in/out fittings on the corney's. The unit sits in an oversized, plastic milk crate which sits in a plastic grout tray. The milk crate us the structural part that supports a cedar frame for kegs to rest while the plastic tray holds the heated PBW or Star San depending on process. The lids and o-rings are tossed in along the sides (scrubbed if necessary). I've made various adapters for carboys too.
We heat up the wash water in the kettle and pump it over when it hits 180f. Through thermal mass and ambient, it quickly drops to about 170f. PBW is added during the transfer for mixing. The corney is plugged into the gas and beverage lines, flipped onto the copper riser, and the pump is activated with a foot-operated switch. We hose out all the kegs prior to washing to reduce the material going through the pump. The tub is dumped, hosed out, filled with a Stat San solution, and the process is started again for sanitizing. Ten minutes on the cleaning and 30 seconds to sanitize and you have kegs ready to fill.
Sanke's fit too and depending on how dirty will run for about 15 minutes on the wash cycle.
We've built this system right after Doc revealed his and have never had a contaminated batch.