Spadoni 5 sq m filter help

[davosalter88]

I'm running a Spadoni 5sq m filter and the last 4 - 5 times i have filtered, I end up with cloudy beer after about 30 bbls. I have to start choking back the flow 10 minutes into filtration, and eventually stop, clean out the filters, and start over. I'm using Celite Hyflo, and have tried precoating with a mixture of that, and Celite 557. I've noticed the beer starts getting cloudy when the psi reaches about 30 on the bell, but haven't been able to do anything about that other than choking the flow way back. This had only been happening occasionally before, which I wrote off as learning new equipment, but I had plenty of great runs without having to slow the flow down. Now it is a problem every time I filter. Before, the filter would go through the 60 bbl tank in about 55 minutes, and now it has taken as much as 4 hours of struggling to get that. Does anyone have advice?

[PFL]

Is this a horizontal filter? If so, and the screens are in good shape, you may be getting dirty beer leaking around the gaskets between the screens. Are the gaskets in good shape? Is the nut on the shaft that holds the screens/gaskets tight?

[davosalter88]

Yes it's the horizontal one. all of the screens are in good shape, and I made sure the top nut was tight right before my last filter. The only thing I can think of would be to install a VFD to control the flow rate, but I feel like that's not addressing the actual problem

[davosalter88]

The other idea my boss threw around was to put a neoprene gasket between the top nut and the first filter plate. I'm not sure if there is originally supposed to be a gasket there or if that would even make a difference.

[germanbrewerjk]

Seems like your precoat isn't even.
In how many steps do you precoat?
Do you have a T ontop of your bell? if yes try to crack it open a bit while precoating and have it flow back into your DE tank. Precoat in 3 steps for a more even coat.
Don't mix Celite Hyflo and Celite 577 for precoating.
Use only Celite Hyflo 800-1000g/m2 for the precoat. For dosing use 80-100g/hl mix of 2/3 Hyflo 1/3 577.

Do you have any pressure surge? switching tanks? getting co2 out of solution? problem with the dosing pump?

Next time it happends just try to recycle your product in the filter and see if it clears up again.

Whats your pressure in the bell and outlet while a regular filtration and a fucked up one?

[davosalter88]

Yeah I forgot to mention that when I'm cleaning out the filter, it's coated pretty unevenly, heavy on the bottom, light on top. On my last run I tried just using Hyflo, but ended up with the same problem. I do have a T, I'll try all of that on my next filter here in a couple of days.

There's no tank switch while filtering, just 1 fermenter to 1 bright. The pressure on the bell normally starts at about 21 psi and eventually climbs up to 32 on a good clean run, up to 40 on a fucked up run. There hasn't been any quick spikes, but the psi has been climbing faster than before overall. The outlet pressure has stayed at 20 psi whether it's a good or bad run. The dosing pump works fine, but should that be open full bore? if has an adjuster from 1-10 on it.

Like I said, next filter will be in a few days. I'll give all of that a shot and report back on it, thanks for the input

[germanbrewerjk]

If its climbing up very fast then there is also something wrong with your dosing - not enough or you just get alot of yeast.

It depends on your flowrate how much you have to open the dosing pump.

How much dosing DE do you use?
You have a flowrate of about 60bbl/h ~ 70hl/h
70hl * 0.1kg DE/hl = 7kg DE total Dosing

Do you know how long does it take to empty the dosing tank with the pump? About 30 min?
Get a flow meter and dial your filter in so that the dosing pump is set to 3/4 (1-10 a 7) so you still have some room if you have a cloudy/yeasty beer.
Dial it in so that you have a DE rate of 80-100g/hl

With my experience you will have to slow down your filter a bit to get a repeatable consistency.

It will take you quite a while to do it but in the end its worth it cause your quality will improve through the consistency.