My homebuilt keg washer

[beerguy1]

Well this is what happens when you have a hour drive to work and time to think of a design:



It has 2 kegs one has hot caustic and the other is a sani rinse. It runs on 220 single phase, has its own electric heater, flushes with air and purges with CO2. The original took quite a while but had it out for the first run today and it did a good job a few mods over the next few days and its off to cleaning some kegs.



Not real good at posting pic but you can click on the link to see the electrical work. Its all fused and has contactors to take the draw of the timers that run the pumps

Cheers
Mike

[Junkyard]

great way to save 10 grand on not buying a keg washer! awesome idea! is there a rinse cycle at all between the caustic and sani?

[beerguy1]

Yes, Its fully manual so you can pretty much do what you want. So, we rinse between caustic and sani.

[beerguy1]

I use a liquid caustic with an additive that removes
Beerstone so it removes protein and stone kinda the
Best of both worlds. I am on my way to CBC
So I won't be back for a week. If you send me your
E mail addy I would be happy to get you a video

[Beer-me]

here is the one we built. found an old 3 compartment for $75 and had a 1.5hp ss centerfugal lying around. put a 1.5" bulkhead fitting in the wash and sani compartment for a recirculation lines and a 220v water heater element for the wash side. plumbed the reservoirs with a ball valve under each drain. middle compartment flows to drain, 2 sides dump to drain when we open the valves. we havnt plumbed it to the trench drain behind it yet so thats why my buddy is peeing the waste wash to a bucket.

all TC fitting and a hot water connection clears the lines before the next solution comes through, also have co2 and air hooked up also a pressure gauge (gets up to 30 psi with motor running). prob have 700$ into it but much shiny-er and ergonomic than the bare bones one I built for the last brewery i worked at.

worked great with a ton of pressure, the motor kicks the washer like a mule when you first turn it on but then its smooth washing. prob only a 1hp needed but i had the 1.5.

when i first turned it on with water i forgot i had a tc on one of the ports with a 1/2 mpt which was supposed to be replaced with a cap. i noticed it the day before and said, "ill remeber tomorrow before startup." blasted water onto me and about 20ft back soaking the door of the walk in...