I have broken two plastic racking tubes over the past couple months. Because of this I am looking into getting a stainless racking tube or an auto-siphon. I am wondering which one is better.
I’ve never used an auto-siphon, but I’ve had the same SS cane for over 10 years. I put it in the oven at 250 for 15 mins. and the vinyl tube in Star-San. The tube full of Star-San starts the siphon. If you had a long vessel you could use Star-San for both.
I use a stainless cane and start the siphon with CO2.
do not get an auto-siphon. they will eventually crack. even before they crack, they are adding air to your beer every time you rack.
2 canes and 4’ of tubing. start the siphon with star-san in the tubing.
Auto-siphons work just fine, in my experience.
[quote=“rbclay”] even before they crack, they are adding air to your beer every time you rack.[/quote]Might be more accurate to say “if improperly used, they can oxygenate the beer at the start of the siphon.”
so far my auto-siphon has worked great. It’s still fairly new so will have to see how well it ages.
I’ve had my autosiphon for many years and haven’t had one problem with it. I always keep the pieces separate after cleaning. Maybe this helps? Not sure why people have problems with them.
Same here, ferment in carboys and use one of the orange caps. I keep it on my racking cane at all times because it’s too damn hard to shove the racking cane in there every time.
Autosiphon is crap. I have a SS racking can but I dont even use it. After my last siphon broke mid batch, I just pulled off the tube, swished some vodka and started the old school way. Been doing that ever since, have yet to have an infection and it goes faster than the autosiphon ever did. Autosiphons can also get stuck when working with dryhopped secondary but the tube never does.
Not sure what you auto siphon haters are doing, but I love mine. I did buy a 2nd one, but I think the first one I got was used.
They are money!!!
I upgraded from the 3/8" to the 1/2" autosiphon after the 3/8" broke. I’m racking a 5gal batch in no time. I’m also trying to avoid a lot of hot to cold extremes to keep the plastic from cracking.
i have replaced two inner tubes with my autosiphon…it seems to me that we could remove the gasket from the plastic inner tube and glue it onto a steel racking cane.
you have all just reminded me to contact Gabe or someone from NB, to find the vendor for the autosiphons and ask for a few gaskets.
+1. Me too! The ONLY way to rack! 
oh and…
mine have always broke trying to remove the tubing after use for cleaning and drying.
I love the auto siphon. Upgraded to the bigger one after the smaller one developed stress fractures on the outer tube after years of use. I’ve been using the bigger one for years also, and many batches of beer.
One issue that might be happening here is a tendency I’ve observed when using an auto-siphon with a glass carboy. The plastic of the auto-siphon is much softer than glass, but the opening in the glass carboy is very small, especially compared to a plastic bucket or better bottle. I think they tend to stress and break more with glass carboys, because people try to put too much pressure on the siphon to get it into the tight corners of a glass carboy.
I personally use it exclusively on plastic fermenters, and have had no stress/cracking issues.
Another auto siphon lover here. Just run warm oxyclean and water to rinse through it as I am cleaning my carboys and such after racking. I do replace it every 12-18 months just because I am a little bit paranoid about it being plastic. I do keep the old one around in case something happens to the new one so I have a spare, probably another case of slight paranoia.
I find it disheartening that people who bash a product (like it is fact) never stop to think that maybe they are doing something wrong. You can make almost anything fail if you abuse it enough.
I had a 3/8" Auto-siphon for three years before the inner tube gasket started wearing out and sucking air.It starting letting a small amount of liquid past the gasket. I rinse right after use and don’t use on hot liquids.Went out and bought a 1/2" model. Can you get replacement gaskets for these?
