Anyone use one of these keg/carboy washers?

Northern Brewer General
1

I’m considering building one of these keg/carboy washers, but before I do, does anyone have any direct experience using one? Do they actually remove the clinging gradoo on the insides of carboys without scrubbing? Do they removed the residual yeast sticking to the bottom of kicked kegs?

It’s one made from a sump pump and fitting that sits in a 5-gallon bucket. Examples shown in these links:

http://www.aleiens.com/profiles/blogs/c ... keg-washer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q-DHkeM1Xk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSU7V1h0 ... re=related

Any direct experience with how well these work is much appreciated.

2

I built one.

For kegs. I would spray as much of the gunk off as you can with a hose. Just to avoid contaminating your PBW/Oxy solution to much. Then let it run for 3-5 minutes.

For carboys, I haven’t used it much. The jury is still out on them.

3

That is just a piece of beauty.

I wantz. The ball locks were throwing me off until he pulled the unit out of the bucket.

I can’t wait to build this.

4

Would be cool in be able to attach a ball lock post some how and you could use it as a beer line cleaner as well. Just have the tap drain back into the bucket.

Sure it would take that many more parts.

5

Right now kicked kegs get rinsed in the kitchen and then stored until I need to clean a bunch. To clean the kegs,they get filled with hot water and oxyclean and let soak for a few hours, rinse, and sanitize (idophor), all done in the basement shower. Carboys get carried up to the kitchen sink, rinsed, scrubbed with a carboy brush, rinsed and put away. Before next use, the carboys get filled with a bleach water solution and soaked for a few hourse before being rinsed and sanitized.

I brew 20 gallon batches so kegs get cleaned in groups of 4 to 8, and carboys get cleaned in groups of 5-7. It takes a lot of time and it would be nice to shorten/automate the cleaning tasks.

I’d also really like to have a double utility sink like I had in my last house. Something like this:

http://fp.vendaria.com/vpop/VpopViewer. ... &pf=t&fr=t

Sure would make cleaning kegs and carboys much, much easier than lugging everything to the kitchen.

Maybe I should build both. Hmmmmm…