4 head bottle filler for $275

[Mtnmann]

Hey Littlewolf. The gas leaking is a common problem with those 3-way valves. Tightening sometimes works. I've had some luck with turning the whole valve around 180 deg (the old gas input side is now the beer input). Worse case you'll have to source another valve. As for the bottle kicking out under pressure, that's a fine balance with the height of the filler. Mine does this occasionally but it's not been a big enough issue for me to fix it yet. I've considered attaching a thin piece of friction material where the bottle rests... Good luck.

mtn

[littlewolf]

Cool, thanks for the reply.

I am based in Cape Town, South Africa and it seems that those valves are hard to come by. What I may do is swap it out for two valves and a T piece if I cannot fix it by tightening the hex nut.

I will also hopefully get some time this week to take a look at tweaking the design to get the bottles sitting better.

[Mtnmann]

Replacement 3-way ball valve

As many of us have found out, the 3-way ball valves that morebeer uses for their CP fillers leave a bit to be desired. Has anyone found a solid replacement?

mtn

[soia1138]

What Mtnmann said is the best solution for these valves. Reverse the gas and beer sides and you'll never have gas bleed through the hex again.

[littlewolf]

AH! I didn't realise it was leaking through the hex side, just thought the hex helped tighten the whole thing. I'll try that today when I go back to the brewery.

Thanks for all the help! I think the next plan would be to build my own from scratch. Possibly more expensive, but easier to repair.

[WitsEnd]

First Run of Bombers

I've been using a two-head setup for a year and a half now and now have just added bombers to my wholesale offerings.

A few things I've learned.

First, we bottle from kegs. Keeping head pressure on the keg is critical. Invest in some decent regulators that can put out the flow you need. A cheap regulator often sacrifices flow. Don't skimp on this.

Tighten the hex! Nearly all of my foaming issues have been from leaky valves. When everything is tight, there is only slight foam that creeps up to the top of the bottle by the time it gets to the capper. Get in there and tighten the hex screw inside the valve. I have a few in rotation that I can swap out as needed.

This setup should run very smoothly when you've got it fine-tuned. I was running the filler and could adjust the back pressure to speed up the process. Right now I'm filling with one other person sanitizing and capping bottles in a 3-compartment sink.

[littlewolf]

Cool, thanks for the tips! Do you have any pics of your two head filler?

[JeffGCBC]

Hinges

Does anyone have a link to these hinges he uses in the Vines & Rushes Build? Ive looked through home depot and lowes and these have a much better range of motion.

Cheers,
Jeff

[vinesrushes]

Here's a page with all the information - images and product source links, etc:

http://vinesandrushes.com/carbonation-equipment/

Specifically, the hinges came from here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Does anyone have a link to these hinges he uses in the Vines & Rushes Build? Ive looked through home depot and lowes and these have a much better range of motion.

Cheers,
Jeff

[AndrewF]

Fillers

Anyone know of other options for the Counter Pressure Bottle Fillers?

Morebeer is back ordered and I can only find other places selling variations with brass fittings (using for cider so brass is out).

[Smlsound]

Andrew, I know FOXX equipment makes one that looks better in every way and is actually cheaper. The one problem: looks can be deceiving and I have no idea how it performs. It looks like it has separate valves for every function.

http://www.foxxequipment.com/parts.php?id=7649

There aren't many details, but their catalog lists it for just 62.95 in all stainless. it is also adjustable (read leaky) for different bottle sizes.

I do have a question for those of you (Rev Nat, Vines and rushes, I'm hoping you'll answer) that have used this for a while commercially. I've used the Morebeer filler a few times with just individual bottles for competitions and a couple times just to have beer not in a growler when I go to places. Every time I've used it I've noticed that the carbonation lessens (even without foaming) and I'm not sure I'm capping on enough foam so I'm worried about shelf life.

Can you guys comment on this? Best case scenario. How long do your bottles last on the shelf? Does the carbonation change? Have you had any other issues with using this on a commercial scale? Unfortunately you both make cider and wine so I have no idea how volatile those products are for storage. Beer does horrible things when exposed to oxygen so it's obvious when something is not good enough. My main concern is the in between filling and capping, but that's a little different for everyone. If you look at a "real" bottling line, the capping is so incredibly fast that there's never an issue. with these systems, you've got to cap as soon as possible because even little bits of oxygen can diminish shelf life.

[morrillt]

lots of air in beer lines...

So I was following the design of the DIY 4 head deluxe counter filler found here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9062711&type=3 and getting air in my beerlines....

I am wondering if this might be due to using tubing thats too big, or some other issue? i am using 1/2inch line from keg to root of manifold and 1/4 inch lines to each of the beer lines.....

My work around right now is that I turned one of the 5 manifold lines into a burping air line which I just burp every 5 minutes, I am not sure if this is something though that I should have to do?

is 3/16 tubing the answer? Are the issues I am having within acceptable expectations?

Here is a video of my setup https://youtu.be/Y7F_rYHutYg

[Smlsound]

So I was following the design of the DIY 4 head deluxe counter filler found here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9062711&type=3 and getting air in my beerlines....

I am wondering if this might be due to using tubing thats too big, or some other issue? i am using 1/2inch line from keg to root of manifold and 1/4 inch lines to each of the beer lines.....

My work around right now is that I turned one of the 5 manifold lines into a burping air line which I just burp every 5 minutes, I am not sure if this is something though that I should have to do?

is 3/16 tubing the answer? Are the issues I am having within acceptable expectations?

Here is a video of my setup https://youtu.be/Y7F_rYHutYg

From the video it looks like A) the valve on the pressure filler is malfunctioning or being operated incorrectly, or B) you might not have enough pressure on the keg. Those lines shouldn't swing back like that. I would definitely try smaller tubing as well, but pressure is pressure. The barb itself is 1/4" isn't it?

And, probably more to your question, I have not experienced that while using a counter pressure filler. But, I have experienced it while filling still beer into kegs. That's why I thought maybe the valve is the problem. When filling kegs sometimes the beer leaks out if you forget to close the filler valve on the coupler. What goes in is air and it resembles what happened in your video with the line back-filling with air after you filled a bottle. So, if your counterpressure filler is not sealing right when you close the valve, that's the only conceivable way that much air could be getting in right? If it was full of beer, then you close a valve, and air still comes in my thinking would be a problem with sealing. Otherwise, air couldn't get in there I would think.

[Smlsound]

After watching the video again and again. I would say there's not enough flow from your keg. If the pressure is right, does it stay right? Meaning, does your regulator keep up with the flow demand? In the very beginning the gal filling it switches over to the beer side of the valve and it immediately fills back up with gas. That would indicate either A) your putting too much pressure in the bottle or B) you're not getting enough pressure from the liquid flow from your keg. Either way it seems there's an imbalance. You need greater pressure from the flowing beer whenever using counter pressure.

[morrillt]

what do you mean beer lines should not swing back?

I am going to reorient the manifold to have the barbs facing down, kick hte pressure up and cool the beer a bit more and see what that does....

From the video it looks like A) the valve on the pressure filler is malfunctioning or being operated incorrectly, or B) you might not have enough pressure on the keg. Those lines shouldn't swing back like that. I would definitely try smaller tubing as well, but pressure is pressure. The barb itself is 1/4" isn't it?

And, probably more to your question, I have not experienced that while using a counter pressure filler. But, I have experienced it while filling still beer into kegs. That's why I thought maybe the valve is the problem. When filling kegs sometimes the beer leaks out if you forget to close the filler valve on the coupler. What goes in is air and it resembles what happened in your video with the line back-filling with air after you filled a bottle. So, if your counterpressure filler is not sealing right when you close the valve, that's the only conceivable way that much air could be getting in right? If it was full of beer, then you close a valve, and air still comes in my thinking would be a problem with sealing. Otherwise, air couldn't get in there I would think.